APC and the crisis of success

A few weeks ago in this column, I wrote a piece dedicated to the leadership of the APC and their millions of sympathisers and supporters headlined; ‘PDP as a lesson to APC.’ In that piece my concern was on advising the party to learn from the fundamental mistakes that the PDP had committed in the last four years which no doubt were responsible among many other reasons behind the sacking of the party at all levels of government.
One of such mistakes was the issue of the election of Aminu Tambuwal versus Mulikat Akande. PDP faced the greatest rebellion in that circumstance from members elected into the house on its platform and since then, things had not been normal until the idea of G7 and later five governors of the PDP moved away and defected to the new coalition called the APC.
The House of Reps rebellion of June 2011 was a watershed of what the PDP became towards the end of 2014. The result of that is what we have in place today. The PDP was roundly defeated and APC is now in government at the centre and in 22 states of the federation and has a majority of 59 to 49 in the Senate while over 214 members of the House are from the party with just a little over 140 for the once domineering PDP.
I am thinking that the mistakes of the PDP are too recent and current to be forgotten by the new party in government and its leaders. I am sure the anger and frustrations in the minds of millions of APC supporters on what happened in the assembly is much more than what the leaders of the party as expressed by Lai Mohammed are undergoing at the moment, but one fact remains very clear, the leadership of the party must be careful in handling the situation if it desires to navigate out of the turmoil in one piece.
I followed with keen interest the several calls Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso on the party leadership to take proactive steps in addressing the lingering crisis that was brewing in the party before the inauguration of the National Assembly. Kwankwaso was a presiding officer at the national legislature in the early 1990s and a governor of the most populous state in Nigeria for eight good years. The meaning here is that the guy must have acquired tremendous experience in the two arms of government, so his views needed to be heard and respected.
The party leaders thought otherwise. They were in the dreams of doing the PDP jack-boot politics by decreeing that their members behave in any particular way. They are dead wrong and they got a raw deal. Of course, majority of the legislators from the party may desire to conform but the possibilities of recalcitrance on the part of others cannot be overruled and that is precisely what happened on Tuesday in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
I think the APC should worry more about the Senate where it is sharing powers with the PDP, a party that never allowed any other party in parliament enjoy from its booties. The failure of the APC to deploy efficient and effective brinkmanship at the point of success has denied it the latitude to enjoy maximally what ordinarily is theirs. This is sad and millions are angry with this poor handling of the issue.
One important blunder that the APC leadership seems to be closing its eyes to is the configuration that made up the party and wrestled power from the PDP. ACN came with six governments, ANPP with three, CPC with one and the enigma of GMB while Okorocha’s faction of APGA also was part of the formation. Later came a very powerful group, which can be said to have dealt the final blow, and took the PDP to its grave known as PDP, with five state governors. The battle was fought and won together. How would the sharing of the benefits of victory occur without this group? This is a blunder and it is a tragic mistake.
Let me advise Lai Mohammed and other leaders of the party that the best way to address this crisis is not by blowing hot and going to press at the slightest opportunity. In fact, what the party needed to do was not to talk to the press soon after the events had unfolded. Taking any decision at the point of anger means a lot and is negative in most cases.