The Tasks Before the All Progressives Congress

By Eddy Odivwri

After what looked like eternity, President Muhammady Buhari , last Monday, finally approved that the convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) should hold in February next year, three months ahead. This is coming after the acting chairman, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni had served for seventeen months, having been appointed acting Chairman since June last year. By February therefore, he would have served for 20 months as acting National Chairman of the party. Many had thought that at the ouster of the former Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, Buni’s acting status would be brief and geared towards stablising the party in case the removal of Oshiomhole causes some upheaval in the party. As it happened, Oshiomhole’s initial plan to challenge his removal lost steam and he accepted the decision of Mr President.

Three months ago, some APC members had called for the resignation of the acting chairman, arguing that he could not be acting chairman and an executive governor at the same time.

Again, that call was both ignored and dismissed.

The response of President Buhari on the matter may not be unrelated to the pressure party members have been putting on him on the need to have a clear and legalised leadership structure in the party, especially as the 2023 presidential election draws nearer.

So for twenty months, by February next year, Gov Buni’s effort will be measured by the success of the convention that is expected to produce a more legitimate National Chairman of the party.

Even then, there are fears that the pockets of crises in the party, across board may impeded the successful organization of the convention.

But two issues arise from the approval: the length of time that the Caretaker chairman had served. Would the argument that he had stayed longer than necessary and had become illegal hold water? The other concern is whether or not the party, will at that convention approve the Direct or Indirect Primary for the election of flag bearers of the party at the state and federal elections.

The governors elected under the platform of the party have been at daggers drawn with the federal lawmakers over the support of the latter for the Direct Primary option. The governors argue that the Direct primary option robs them of influence and control of the levers of power within the party, which is exactly the reason the lawmakers have adopted it, as it appropriates too much pwers to the governors, sometimes to the deteriment of the political interest of the lawmakers themselves.

But more than the above, the greater concern of the party would be how to win back the pre-2015 confidence of Nigerians for the All Progressives Congress, as it would relate to the 2023 general election.

The ringing question will be whether or not the APC will be able to retain power at the centre come 2023. What is the impression of Nigerians on the administration of the Buhari administration, more than six years down the line? Are Nigerians happier or sadder than they were in 2015?

Put differently, are they willing to yet again trust the party with their affairs and concerns for another four or eight years?

Trusting a political party is like an investment. What is the dividend of the investment thus far? Was the Buhari administration simply unlucky with events and occurrences? Or was it a case of poor management of local and global ill wind?

Is there a way, for instance, that the Nigerian economy could have been better managed in a way that the harsh effects of inflation would not be so terribly felt? With the unprecedented high inflation hitting every cardinal points of the country, the crushing pang of hardship and

Hunger has been dutifully distributed across board. Even the rich are crying. So you can only imagine the groaning and wailing of the poor.and this has nothing to do with political party affiliation. Hunger knows no party boundry. The nation’s GDP is dropping, understandably.

Housewives are wondering when all the troibles in the market would end. Would it ever end? Everyday, things seem to be getting worse. Make a budget today, and by the day after tomorrow, the prices have gone up further. Everybody is groaning.

Indications are even emerging that the worst is yet to come. With the planned removal of petroleum subsidy by June or so next year, the pump price of petrol could hit N350 per litre. Already, Diesel is at about that same amount, just as cooking gas is about N10,000 for a 12.5 kg cylinder. To cushion the arising pain, government is planning to give the poorest of the poor (about forty million Nigerians) N5000 via digital transfer. Hmmmm, not only would this be a mockery of the situation, it will be like a drop in an ocean, even as it is bound to suffer abuse and miscarriage.

Even if you have so much money to cope with the spiralling inflation, what about the prolonged state of insecurity? Again, we are all casualties. Both the rich and the poor have been victims. Some people have been kidnapped or killed for the sake of even N100,000 ransom. Others have been kidnapped for ransom as high as N100 million or thereabout. Yes, we are all casualties! The attacks have continued in many parts of the country, regardless of the huge effort the federal government is making to combat terrorism and banditry. So much money has been voted and released to tackle insecurity but Nigerians are practically still under the siege of insecurity. After the attack on the Abuja-Kadua rail service few weeks ago, more people had resorted to the Abuja-kaduna highway.

And the danger thereof was manifestly demonstrated last Sunday when travellers including a former APC gubernatorial aspirant in Zamfara State, Alhaji Sagir Hamidu were killed or kidnapped. Sagir was killed on the spot. The malaise of insecurity has spread like cancer all over the country, and it seems that the authorities are overwhelmed. Less than a forthnight ago, an army General along with a few other soldiers, were killed in Borno State. All of these are coming after many of the Boko Haram fighters have either been killed or captured or even wilfully surrendered. Recent report said many of the repentant Boko Haram fighters who were quartered in correctional camps bolted away because they were little cared for by the authorities. Could it be that the upsurge in the attacks is as a result of this?

So, if all else is discounted, the APC and its awaited leadership would have a lot of convincing to do to re-assure Nigerians that the party has the capacity to redeem the country.

The alternatives before Nigerians are few. Very few. The opposition party, the peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hardly comes across like a beautiful bride. Not many Nigerians have forgotten how decrepit the nation became in the sixteen years of PDP rule.

So by 20-23, would the choice before Nigerians be between a lesser evil?

Canticles…

Lai Mohammed Versus the EndSARS Report

By Eddy Odivwri

Finally, the Information minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has responded to the damning report by the judicial panel that probed the #EndSARS protests of last year. As expected, he has faulted the report, dismissing it as Tales by Moonlight.

What did you expect? If you understand the operational pattern of the Information minister, you’d have known that he would come out smoking with refutal and rubbishing of the report.

Don’t forget, the report practically, but inadvertently described the minister as a liar on this matter.

But the minister has a point. The judicial panel claimed that nine persons were killed during the protest. Why were the names and pictures and possibly the residential addresses of the said victims not released also, just to prove beyond reasonable doubt, that indeed, there was a massacre?

Have you read the 309-page report submitted by the Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel? How can you sit here and start running commentary on what you have neither seen nor read?

Are you telling me that the report has the pictures of the killed protesters?

Go and read the report first. You cannot whimsically rubbish the report of one year sitting, prepared by a retired and courageous Judge. What reasonable point did Lai Mohammed make to prove that what the panel said is untrue, aside running his anti-people establishment lines?

Nigerians would need more than mere clerical report on what actually happened at the Lekki tollgate last year. We need clinical evidences to support the assertion that there were killings. There should be no room for merely playing to the gallery by any body. Do not forget that the panel had a virile civil society activist, whose major pre-occupation is to discredit the state (government)

Are you suggesting that the one civil society activist in the panel was so influential as to cause the entire 9-man panel to write a report that exclusively suits the whims of activists? Is that why the minister described the report as Tales by Moonlight? Is that not highly hasty and disrespectful, especially by a lawyer? What does Lai Mohammed mean by describing the report as fake News? What is the authentic news he has? Look, the Information minister has breached all forms of procedurala protocol.

His principal and Boss, Mr President had wisely and rightly told the visiting American Secretaery of State, Antony Blinken that he would rather wait for rhe release of the white paper on the submitted report before commenting on it. But our garrulous Information minister goes ahead to not only rubbish the report he said he doubts its authenticity, but also refuses to wait for the white paper that would emanate from the said report.

If Mohammed is so cynical about the source and content of the judicial panel, because it did not say what he wants to hear, the federal government should have set up its own panel, after all, it is federal government. It thus amounts to utmost bad fate to having failed to carry out your own investigation, to now pour tar on the effort of a sub-national like Lagos State. Why was Lai Mohammed in such an ungodly haste to comment on the report?

You do not understand. The foreign media, like CNN, BBC and all such neo-liberal entities do not see anything good in Nigeria. They are always excited when there is an ill report about us . and too often, they add pepper and salt to every ill story on Nigeria so we can look despicable in the eye of the world. If you understand this, you will understand why they are insisting there was a massacre. Imagine the choice of that word even!

You have failed to answer the basic questions. Was it true that on the night of October 20, last year, that soldiers were invited to disperse the protesters? Was it true that live bullets were fired at the protesters? Hey, do soldiers fire dud bullets? Was it true that the management of the LCCI, the operators of the Lekki tollgate actually brought in their cleaners at midnight to wash off and scrub the blood stains on the ground? If yes, whose blood were on the ground?

I think we should answer these basic questions before we go ahead to typecast the foreign media.

I agree these are basic questions. Did the report answer these concerns? It merely regurgitated the nuggets of offensive stories that had been pushed out by wicked and ill-trained social media merchants. You should be concerned that the report was somewhat silent on the 57 civilians, 37 policemen and six soldiers who were killed by the protesters across the country; this is not to talk about the number of police stations and other public buildings that were burnt and destroyed.

Did you say the report was silent on the other killings? Again, I ask you if you have really read the report. In any case, if you so trenchantly dismiss media reports on the protests, how come you got the figures of these killing of policemen, soldiers et al? is it not the same media you say are publishing fake news?

Look, don’t forget the so-called #EndSARS protest was not exclusively a Lagos affair. It was nationwide. So, let us not dissipate undue energy only on the report from the Lagos panel. Let us await the report from other judicial panels in other states. A collage of all the reports across the many states will give a truer picture of what really happened.

So you admit that Mr Lai Mohammed was unduly hasty in passing a subjective judgement on the report, simply because it did not say what he had always claimed: that nobody was killed at the Lekki tollgate on that night of October 20, last year. Better tactics next time, right?