In 2015 a political tsunami happened in Nigeria when a newly founded APC was roundly defeated at an incumbent governing party, the PDP, that had dug its heels in the country's political landscape for 16 years. Pundits predicted a similar trend and pattern in 2019 because the defeat of PDP sent it to be in a state of disarray and topsy-turvy.
Still, the rather poor management of APC gave PDP to reorganize and gave APC its runs for the money in the 2019 general election.
APC was torn by internecine internal political warfare and factionalization, and imposition of unpopular candidates leading to the loss of its strongholds such as Benue, Zamfara, Bauchi, Oyo, Adamawa States and loss of States such as Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, where it had prospects of winning.
A unifying factor in 2015 and 2019 was the towering figure of President Muhammadu Buhari, who is hugely popular in certain regions of the country, which had heavy voters turnouts by voters who believe in him. In 2023, the APC will go into an electoral contest without a towering figure as President Buhari.
It calls for strategizing on how to fill the political void that the absence of the President will create Buhari in the poll. The APC national convention presents a golden opportunity to elect a national chairperson. He has the character and integrity to work seamlessly with the President, a transition program that will endure that APC fills popular candidates that can hold their ground. APC needs a bridge, cohesion, and consensus builder who would be savvy enough to weld together the diverse tendencies within the Party. APC must avoid like plague a national chairman that has a reputation for dictatorship, clannishness. APC does need a pseudo democrat who doesn't respect the party constitution and regulation, or mercantilism who will sell party tickets to the highest bidders, or is generally incompetent.
In 2019 APC scandalously lost Benue, Adamawa, Bauchi, and the Zamfara States, where it had won wide majorities in the States and National assemblies and governorship elections due to the tendency of some chieftains who should have played leadership but abdicate their responsibilities on the political expediency of selfishness and not putting the interest of the Party over their interest.
Leaders that behave like military potentates or conquerors rather than democrats with large hearts to accommodate all tendencies, wings, and interest groups within the Party and afford them their own space to ventilate their emotions and aspirations Leaders who have such behavior, tendencies, and failings should never be allowed to lead the Party. Otherwise, the crisis they would generate through their incompetence will tear the Party to shred and possibly cause an electoral defeat.
I submit without fear of contradiction that Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura meets the standard I have enumerated above.
Okoi Obono-Obla
Publisher: Don Martyn L.O
Ikeduru APC Media Hub
08032950897
Ikeduruapcmediahub@gmail.com
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