Unlike the party it succeeded in power in 2015, the APC may not have boasted in a fit of power drunken pride that it will rule Nigeria for sixty years, but there can be ever little doubt that the party holds Nigeria and Nigerians in just about as much contempt as the PDP did, if not more. It was in 2015 that the ballot box, that golden box which always opens to change the course of history opened to indict the PDP.
After sixteen years of misrule marked by malignant corruption and malevolent impunity, historic elections saw Africa`s biggest party land the wooden spoon. In a typhoon of people power, structures built and reinforced over the course of sixteen years were dismantled with relative ease. A shell-shocked party which had been spoilt silly by the absence of a virile opposition was forced to hurriedly pack its belongings from the seat of power and assume the role of the opposition.
It has proved a task beyond it as internal party wrangling and a glaring lack of political fortitude left it ill-equipped to challenge the APC. Even as the 2023 elections approach, the APC must be licking its lips at the disgraceful disarray in the camp of its opponent even as it prepares itself for its national convention now scheduled for February 26,2022. Already, Nigerians are relieving the sheer confusion served them since the APC assumed power in 2015.
Even back then, many Nigerians suspected that the APC was just a collection of expired politicians who had become disgruntled in the PDP. But because there was a desperation to have a change of guard in Aso Rock in the hope that the inertia which had creeped into governance in the country would be arrested. As a result of this, whatever the APC peddled was bought hook, line and sinker. It has proven to be a real disaster.
Under the APC, Nigerians have known hardship like never before. If much of that can be put down more to global austerity than incompetence on the part of the leadership of the country, the insecurity which pounds Nigerians every hour of the day tells a different, toxic tale.
Nigerians have watched in horror as entire villages in some states have been taken over by terrorists who sack entire communities and take over or simply impose taxes and threaten unimaginable consequences if outrageous sums imposed are not paid within time.
In the early days of the presidency of Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, his and the APC`s megaphones had a preferred target each time the struggles of the administration was shoved into their faces. Their favourite riposte was to blame the deposed PDP. After years of unconsciously repeating it at each opportunity, it began to sound hollow even in the hearing of those saying it. Thus, these days, it is heard only occasionally.
Across the country, factions and divisions rip through the ranks of the APC like hot knife through butter. The fact that they cannot put themselves together is causing ripples through the country as long-suffering Nigerians are forced to live with their noise. The approach adopted is symptomatic of the signature confusion the party has often exhibited as it pilots the affairs of the country at different levels.
It is indeed the most painful of paradoxes that a country of over two hundred million people is so shorn of quality options at such a crucial juncture in its journey of nationhood. Though the 2023 General Elections is still a full year away, there is no doubt the one who would become president of Nigeria would be drawn from either the ruling APC or the opposition PDP.
If Nigeria was a saner clime, both parties are supposed to have been packed into obscurity because between them, they have the men who have subjected Nigeria to the worst depredations any country has seen its history. But they are still around, providing cover for the men who are sworn to taking Nigeria back to places long abandoned. A lot is expected to happen between now and the elections in 2023 but Nigerians can do without all the confused noise.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
