APC: Adventure in power failure – Part 2

Continued from yesterday

The consequence of this was that the APC lost focus, it became a party without a goal in mind, unable to assert or proclaim any specific principle or ideology, at times even grovelling to absorb the very people that it had pilloried and lampooned as thieves and corrupt leaders. So it was that the APC died a natural death, and became a dumpsite for power mongers and avengers. The economy has paid dearly for it, the political space has become turbulent and things are falling apart, without any center at all.

In the scheme of things presently, nobody is sure of anything within the APC, which succeeded largely as an opposition party but has failed woefully as a party in power. The APC just wanted power for the sake of it, still blaming the opposition PDP even after about seven painful years in office. All friends and associates of the President are contesting for one office or the other, without first complying with the new law enacted to govern the elections.

Perhaps because it had not tasted power at the federal level, the APC has become overwhelmed with the burden of governance, always latching on to the ‘wasteful 16 years of PDP’, as if that alone should earn it a third term in office. Unable to satisfy Nigerians why there is still perennial blackout after seven years in office, the APC would deny that it ever promised an uninterrupted supply of electricity, with the Minister of Power chiding Nigerians to stop expecting power supply from the government since the power supply chain had been privatized. Meanwhile the killings assumed a new dimension, with the damning Amnesty International report showing cases of compromise by security agencies.

At the last count, terrorists have become more emboldened, now overrunning military and police barracks, shooting down aircraft, bombing trains and blocking major roads. The insecurity in the land got to its peak when even military men became targets of the insurgents and the Governor of the President’s home state of Katsina cried out that bandits had taken over the entire state. Huge sums of money have been wasted to procure sensitive military equipment that we are told cannot be used and the court has since declared the aggressors as terrorists but the APC government cannot summon the courage to term them so in any official gazette, name them publicly or even dare try them in court.

To the APC, Nigerians should see good governance as a privilege and be grateful to God that APC fielded Mohammadu Buhari for elections at all, expecting that his name alone should pay the school fees of their children, put food on their tables and transform their lives completely, whereas it has now been reported that about 80 million Nigerians live below the poverty index. The economy is so bad that even the affluent have become a victim. What of education? Better summarized with the current strike by university teachers, which has shut the gates of tertiary education in all public schools across the country. Can you hail the APC for the judicial sector? Court orders are disobeyed at random, the President himself stated that the judiciary is his headache and that he has not succeeded in office because of the ‘system’, referring to due process of law and democratic principles. Do we talk about the aviation sector, where even the government itself misled Nigerians on its so-called air carrier and foreign airlines are to charge for tickets in dollars.

In the political arena, the APC took Nigeria to the era of inconclusive elections, which in truth is symptomatic of any election in which the ruling party suspects it may not win, using INEC to buy time to manipulate the outcome in its favour. We still have vote-buying, intimidation of voters and re-run elections all over the place. And even in the coming elections, there is so much uncertainty and confusion. What about human rights and opposition politics? Better explained with the encounter of the Shiites with the military, the bitter experiences of IPOB and the hounding of Sunday Igboho into exile while terrorists hold sway.

There is so much hunger, insecurity, uncertainty and anger, all over the land, to suggest that the APC is just a misadventure in governance.

So, the questions to ask are these: Are we safer now than before? Are we richer now than before? Do we have a better electricity supply now than before? Do we now organize free, fair and credible elections than before? Are we as a people, more united in tribes and tongues or in faith? Are our rights and freedoms better protected now than before?

Let me call in aid another APC sympathiser, Pastor Tunde Bakare, to answer some of these questions:

“What many people are saying is that there was corruption under Jonathan, yes, but life was better. At least we were able to get this, but this man cornered all the money, locked it up…. The allegations by the Nigerian public are that those around the president are also stealing, and some names have been mentioned. You cannot be a clean man surrounded by rogues. If you don’t deal with those rogues, they would colour you with the same tar.”

That is APC, a complete power failure.

Concluded
Adegboruwa is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).