Don’t Kid Yourself. APC=PDP
Members of PDP and APC deceive themselves that they are different. That APC is different and better than PDP. And Vice versa. Each thinks it stands for something worth believing in. Each believes its the right vehicle that could birth the Nigeria of our dreams. They do manage to convince people during election cycles to trust them enough to participate in the election process and cast votes for them. But more and more, after several disappointments, the electorate is realizing the obvious. PDP=APC=PDP………..
In the beginning…
Back in the day when PDP was in power and was boasting they would rule Nigeria for 50 years, there was no pretence that it was just a vehicle for acquiring power and sharing the national wealth. And PDP shared and shared. From oil wells, to huge contracts . They corrupted the system they met and made it worse. There were a few positives along the way. They reformed telecoms. Even did some good in our financial system with the banking consolidation and strengthening of our financial system. Reformed our tax system. Had measured success in transportation,aviation, agriculture and IT.
But when they left power in 2015, you could see that there was a lot they failed in. Corruption had increased. Our infrastructure was still very poor. And though the Nigerian GDP had grown quite substantially, poverty had also grown.
It was the frustration with the system that brought APC to power in 2015. APC pretence to be different was dubious from the beginning. First, it went to PDP and recruited the same people it blamed for Nigeria's woes under 16years of PDP. From the corrupt, to the incompetent. This band of strange bedfellows crafted a message that resonated with the voting public , brought Buhari, who had built an image as an incorruptible to be their figurehead. They won.
Same Old Tricks
But after acquiring power, they woke up to the fact that they were indeed the new PDP. Same band of stained politicians . Same method of doing things like PDP. First was the fight at the national assembly that ended with the Old PDP taking over. Then they did their first budget and all hell broke loose. They had like PDP padded the budget. A term loosely used to talk about inflating the budget to take money out from the system through contracts and sometimes outright stealing. Those were early signs that nothing had changed.
When you look at newspaper headline these days, it could have been headlines from the PDP days. Sometimes more outlandish. APC is even making the PDP look better than it actually was. Because APC itself is bad . Not because PDP was good.The hope APC created in 2015 is all but gone. Only few die-hards still hold out hope that APC is the vehicle for Nigeria’s redemption. In this political season, the migration between the two platforms has started. And by the time it ends, you will not be able to distinguish one from the other. For all you know, Buhari himself may even defect to PDP.
Stand For Something
That APC has found it difficult to distinguish itself from PDP in the past four years is easy to understand. But sad. Ideology politics in Nigeria does not pay. Long ago, you could proudly say you were a progressive or conservative. Because those meant something. It defined your approach and understanding of the purpose of politics and political participation. It helped political organisations to develop their policies and programs around some core values and on the basis of that attract the kind of members that fitted their values. And sold those programs to the electorate to win elections.
There is only one ideology in Nigerian politics. Its the ideology whose sole aim is to acquire power . And use it for the advancement of narrow interest that include access to national wealth for party members, friends, cronies and tribe. This has been the basis on which parties have ruled Nigeria from independence using different vehicles.. NPC, NPN, SDP , PDP and today APC.
I expect that for the foreseeable future, the platform may change but this same ideology will retain power in Nigeria. The same band of politicians will create, recreate platforms that will allow them build the coalition that could wrestle power from each other. Sadly, they would want to have Nigeria stay the same way it is. With a lopsided structure and configuration that serves those in power and their backers and impoverishes the rest of the population.
The best you can hope for is that whoever emerges as the head of any of these parties, is competent enough to even make the current system better for the Nigerians elite and then have some trickle down effect on the rest of the population.Or better, reform the party that brought him to power for the long haul. If for example, APC had lived up to the hype of its creation, it could have been an opportunity to develop a platform that could have reformed Nigeria. And perhaps keep them in power for as long as they made Nigeria better for Nigerians. And even PDP being out of power , could have used the opportunity for introspection and come back a reformed party. But I have not seen any sign that any of them wants to be different from what we know.
Beyond APC and PDP
A totally different option would be to have those who are fed up with the system build an alternative platform different from PDP and APC. That has a clear view of what it wants Nigeria to be in the next 50years, And start from day one to mobilize Nigerians to dream of that future, beyond an election cycle. The challenge is that most Nigerian politicians and aspiring ones only think of election cycles and nothing in between.And nothing far enough.
