‘It Is An Attempt By Some Entrenched Political Interests To Stampede Buhari’

Mr. David Onuoha-Bourdex, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) senatorial candidate for Abia North in the last elections speaks on the lingering political impasse in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its effect on governance. 

WHAT is your view on the festering crisis in the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the election of national assembly principal officers? Let me say from the outset that the major problem with Nigerians is the inclination for hurry.

There is an Igbo adage which says that when in haste you break the yam during harvest, you are wont to bend down to retrieve the broken half from the ground. I do not pretend not to know the enormity of expectations from the present administration.

Having said that, it should be clear to all and sundry that President Muhammadu Buhari did not aspire to preside over the affairs of the country, just to recycle the mistakes usually made by public functionaries in their haste to please the masses and cheap popularity.

What you call the crisis in the APC affecting governance at all levels is nothing short of the attempt by entrenched political interests to stampede President Buhari into panic mode and cause him to start making the same mistakes that have caused us genuine development in the country.

The president knows that the burden of the mandate given to the APC revolves around his integrity and therefore does not want to let Nigeria down.  From 1960 up until lately, Nigerians and their leaders have been hurrying to nowhere. It is because of this that President Buhari is engaged in clear thinking and thinking over the processes to ensure that things come out fine to the satisfaction of the common masses of this county.

While some politicians stoke this idea of crisis in APC affecting governance, the consolation should be that we have a leader who understands that government exists for the masses, and not the elites who want to continue in their old ways of freewheeling that have cost the Nigerian economy the present trauma.

How has the crisis affects governance? Recently I had cause to admonish the leadership of the national assembly to resolve the politics of who gets what position in their midst and get down to business. You should recall that the legislature is the factory where the raw materials needed for good governance are minted.

The way I think the crisis in the National Assembly is affecting governance is that by now the legislators ought to have looked over the work of the previous session and be in a better shape to make resolutions that could guide the executive into responsible actions to avoid the pitfalls of the past.

However you should remember that the legislature is an independent arm of government. Whatever is happening in the legislature or within the party per se, does not hinder the executive or the judiciary from carrying on with their constitutional roles.

What people call the crisis in the APC could be described as the basic ingredients of democracy, where various options or operational methods are being weighed and subjected to debates and discussions so that in the end the best and more acceptable option is chosen. Government is moving ahead although with due caution to deliver on the change promised.

Some say the crisis is APC strategy to buy time, having realized they are not ready to provide good governance? Nigerians find it easy to weave conspiracy theories. There is no ploy to buy time anywhere rather, like I told you earlier; strategies and processes are being thought over.

The time you spend in carrying out a particular project does not matter as much as the time you spend in thinking your plan and processes over. Some patriotic Nigerians sat down and looked at the Nigerian nation and saw the need for change. The APC government succeeded in convincing Nigerians that all was not well.

The people trusted them. Now the process of delivering that change is much like a surgical procedure that is usually painstaking and time consuming. Extra care is often taken to ensure that fatalities do not occur. That is the challenge facing APC as such they have refused to be stampeded into repeating the mistakes that caused the terrible issues.