Benjamin Mokwunye
“The mark of the developed intellect is that it could accommodate two contradictory ideas at the same time.” – John Kao
As they say, integration and being accommodating to others, irrespective of political leaning, foster stronger relationships, promote inclusivity and contribute more to positive cooperation. My party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has a lot to learn from those well-known words above by John Kao on accommodating others. If, as a political party, the APC did not learn important lessons from the travails of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, many years ago, then we definitely have a long way to travel.
At a personal level, and without prejudice, I must confess that I am saddened by the way and manner our great party, the APC is handling some of our successes and significant inroads into Nigeria’s politics in recent times. Let me add that the appreciable increase in our visibility and acceptability as a party today is on account of the conduct and sagacity of some of our leaders who worked, and are still working day and night to sustain the foundation on which APC was built. But I hasten to ask: how sustainable is this sound ideological foundation of our party based on recent developments in our party’s chapters and structures across Nigeria?
The PDP that is now in opposition ruled Nigeria for 16 years. And the party even boasted at the height of its glory, that it would continue in power for 60 uninterrupted years. If I may ask, where is that party today that once described itself as the largest party in Africa? I will be charitable if I describe the PDP I know today as a mere shadow of its old self. The former ruling party is not only facing insurmountable challenges, it is also battling despair. For our information, that party did not just fall from its Olympian height overnight, it took men and their disposition to the party’s core values.
The vexed issues of narrow personal interest, political exclusion, sabotage, over-reliance on money, influence peddling, visionless politics, arrogance and inability to read or understand the political climate in Nigeria at the time, among other things, were the party’s undoing. So, if the APC did not learn valuable lessons from the downfall of PDP, too bad.
The point I am making, and this is very important, is that nothing lasts forever. So, as human beings, we must always remember and be guided by the fact that everything is temporary. There is nothing, absolutely nothing on this planet earth that is truly permanent. Therefore, if politics is essentially about who gets what, when, where and how, then the regrouping by opposition politicians and their friends should not come as a surprise. To be candid, I consider some strategies of these decampees as fruitless and unproductive, coupled with the growing name-calling.
From my understanding, the APC must note that before taking a position on some of its recalcitrant members, it should first put its house in order as quickly as possible by addressing issues of the moment. Even as a government works hard to deliver on its promises to the people, party politics still remains as important today as it was during the First Republic.
Therefore, as a starting point, our party should reflect and rethink its fundamentals especially with regard to its members and the functionality of the chapters at the state level. The unfortunate political movement and realignments taking place today across the country were also witnessed in 2014, shortly before General Muhammadu Buhari’s decisive victory in the 2015 presidential election. I still remember how many politicians across Nigeria left the PDP and other smaller parties en mass to the APC before that unforgettable election victory.
However, let me state that at the centre of my thoughts as far as this piece is concerned, is liberalism. By extension, this article also attempts to take broad-mindedness a step further by addressing integration and accommodation especially as it affects new members and existing ones in our great party. I must say, and with all sense of modesty, that some of us who understand Nigeria and its fluid self-seeking politics are not under any illusion about the motivation behind these current political developments in Nigeria.
The truth is that what is happening in the APC at the moment has everything to do with self-importance, disaffection and the resolve of some aggrieved members to upset the apple-cart. These characters within, obviously people who need another platform, believe that the only way to achieve their narrow-minded objective is to disrupt the party’s plans and programmes. I am certain that if leaders of our party remain indifferent and complacent, the surprise that will come is better imagined
As I express my thoughts, I am also sorry for those who are bent on working deliberately with outsiders to destroy APC. If, for any reason, this party implodes, they also stand to lose. Those who may contradict me on this line of argument are free to return to our history books for the true account of the making of the APC. They are also free to reach out to returnee PDP member who were part of the building blocks of our party when victory was within touching distance. I am happy that most of these PDP members have been running from pillar to post since that grand betrayal which our party leveraged.
But I am sure that what is going on currently with the APC is not irredeemable. As we say in my part of the country, the best time to bring a straying black goat back to its pen, is before dusk because of its colour. Anything after night fall, there will be dire consequences because the goat would have seamlessly blended with darkness.
Our party is progressive-minded, and that is a plus in our collective struggle to be better. Yes, we have our problems like every institution but let us not lose sight of the bigger picture. If we all agree that politics is all about numbers, then why is it so difficult to accommodate aggrieved members? Again, what are the upper echelons of our party doing individually and collectively to reconcile aggrieved members in different states? Or are we all going to watch as the best of our members leave us under situations that are reversible?
To borrow Chinua Achebe’s immortal lines from his collection of essays on African literature, colonialism, and the role of the African writer in a post- colonial world, “it is still morning on creation day”. The issues we face today are normal in politics but we must reflect. The fact that it is still early in the day is a plus. Our views politically may not be the same but the bond among all of us as party faithful can turn things around for our benefit and the good of our country.
As they say, “a stitch in time saves nine.” There could not have been a better time to begin again.
*Mokwunye, a lawyer and public affairs analyst, lives in Lagos
