Nigerian Politics: Why APGA must die
APGA won the last election in Anambra state. Deservedly because they had one of the best candidates. Charles Soludo should be a Governor. He is better than most who have won the governorship in Nigeria since 1999. In fact, he should run for president. Who of our former presidents and current are better qualified than him? Our country today suffers from a severe economic problems. That’s his forte.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Let him prove his economic acumen in Anambra first. But after that what? Would he now become a Nigerian President with APGA?
Let’s look at a Soludo path to Nigerian Presidency with APGA. That path would require that he takes APGA mainstream. First in the core Igbo states in the SE. Then states with Igbos in the South South and North central. That would still leave him running an Igbo party. To go national, he must move his APGA platform into a mainstream platform. That would be a long road and most likely a tall order. History tells us so.
Since APGA was born with the backing of Ojukwu, it has hardly gone beyond Anambra state, Ojukwu’s home state. And it has mostly won the Governorship, hardly winning enough seats in the national assembly to be noticeable. For a party started as the Igbo answer to ethnic politics, APGA has therefore underperformed. Despite positive sentiments among Igbos.
My view is that APGA came late to the ethnic party politics. While other ethnic parties like the AD in the West saw the future and coalesced into APC, APGA wants to remain an ethnic party when that flavour of Nigerian politics has lost its cool. Ethnic politics is today played in the big arena of APC and PDP. By removing qualified Igbo elite who should be playing national politics in the mainstream parties to the fringes of APGA, Igbo politics is being dealt a blow that will keep Igbos out of national politics. Sad when you consider Nigerian history and remember Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was champion of national politics
APGA to all intents and purposes is not even an Igbo party. Its a vehicle for the elite of Anambra state to get the government house only. Which is unfortunate. For many reasons. The politics of Nigeria will most likely be driven by two mainstream platforms for a while. While this will be APC and PDP for the foreseeable future, there may be reconfigurations and realignments but, in the end, we will most likely have two mainstream platforms. Parties like APGA have little place in that except being vehicles for those who cannot compete in the mainstream parties to seek relevance in their localities or states.
What Soludo must Do
If Soludo wants to solve this problem, he has a few options. The most viable will be for him to settle down quickly as Anambra Governor and then start a negotiation with APC or PDP to bring APGA into their fold before the 2023 elections. As an incumbent Governor he should negotiate with strength. And his negotiation should be to become a potential presidential candidate in any of the mainstream parties. Or worse case he becomes the Vice President.
Soludo should be comfortable in any of those parties despite his newfound home in APGA. He came to prominence on the back of the PDP government of Obasanjo. His banking reforms as CBN Governor happened because the PDP Government supported him. So, he should be at home in PDP if he chooses.
As for APC, is he not a member of Buhari’s economic advisory team? So, he essentially is working for the APC government. And before this appointment, he was one of the intellectuals and technocrats who justified the Buhari presidency in 2015. He almost got me convinced to vote for Buhari when he posted his theory that it was the Vice president whose job it was to run the economy. To counter the argument that Buhari was an economic infant. Buhari won. But our economy has lost.
So, APC or PDP, he will find people that will welcome him home.
Igbo Presidency?
While Igbos are clamouring for a president, there are few viable candidates in parties that can make you president in Nigeria. As things stand today, those parties are APC and PDP. The leading Southeast Igbos in APC are pushovers or political clowns. Most have little political value except to buy and rig elections. Some of them as formers governors looted their states and ran to Abuja or APC to avoid prosecution. I am not sure anyone takes them seriously.
In PDP, Peter Obi should be a viable candidate. But his tortious route from APGA has not really made him mainstream within PDP. His party did well in Anambra coming second after Soludo’s APGA. But his dilemma clearly shows the problem APGA has become. Obi was one of the best Governors in Nigeria of his generation of Governors. Had he been in PDP as Governor of Anambra he would have built the necessary national machinery to prosecute a presidential election. But he was an APGA champion in Anambra with a good and clean record. Transferring that to a national platform is difficult despite the support he received from Jonathan when he joined the party in 2015. His day may still come. And Nigeria needs politicians like him.
Rotimi Amaechi, a mainstream APC chieftain and a strong contender in APC is viewed with suspicion in the Igbo Southeast. This is unfortunate. Because he is the strongest Igbo in my opinion in APC and unless they get a better candidate, like maybe asking Okonjo Iweala to join APC, they should have coalesced behind him as a potential candidate to lead them in APC and fight for national relevance.
Notice that the so-called Igbo Party, APGA has no mention in the Igbo quest for Presidency. That says something.
Finally, To Igbo Elite
There are smart Igbo elite in APGA across some of the Igbo states. Some are politicians who like the idea of becoming Governors on the Igbo platform despite thinking of themselves as national politicians. Some were unfairly schemed out of APC and PDP and instead of staying and fighting, escaped to APGA to try their chance. And some just think its a vehicle that can be hired to do the job of driving them to a government house. This has mostly failed except in Anambra. And will most likely continue to fail.
I beg these elite and politicians to rethink. Get into a mainstream platform and roll your sleeves and compete. What you are effectively doing by your APGA sojourn is fractionalizing the Igbo elite and voice. And making it more difficult to have a say in the mainstream platforms.
The Igbo political elite are losing national relevance because of fractionalization. They are scattered in too many platforms to create any effect. They lose election and either form their party or jump into a fringe one.
Building a national political party is hard work. And requires a ton of money. A fringe party cannot become a national party because you joined it.
Ask Oby Ezekwesili. Ask Kingsley Moughalu. Or Prof Pat Utomi. Very good candidates who are on the path to political irrelevance because of their romance with fringe parties. Oby was mainstream in APC like Utomi. Could have remained mainstream. But both have decamped to the fringes. Kingsley, a breath of fresh air will lose that freshness if he continues his romance with fringe platforms. My suggestion is that he joins a party that can help him become a Senator in his state Anambra. And continue from their. Nigerian politics needs his freshness.
