Madeleine Albright, the first woman US Secretary of State, while reacting to a North Korean festival, in which about two hundred thousand spectators were clapping for the Supreme Leader in a particular same manner, said that it’s only in a dictatorship that two hundred thousand persons can be doing the same thing like that in exactly the same way. In essence, it’s nothing to write home about that in a democracy, forty-one million people are deemed to be doing the same thing in a particular manner. APC has about forty-one million members according to their register. How can it be said that in a struggle to elect seventy seven of its officers they all agreed that about seventy of them should be by consensus. This can only be possible in a situation of compulsive consensus. Democracy thrives on elections and any party that is stifling elections within its rank and file, is retarding the growth of its internal democracy to its own peril.
Consensus ad idem means agreement of minds, not just bodies. It is a legal terminology which is a condition precedent for valid contracts. A contract is an agreement between parties which is legally binding. Agreement between parties should operate horizontally and latitudinally not vertically and longitudinally. It should be among equals not between equals and a superior power. It should be conducted in an atmosphere of freedom not intimidation or manipulation. When Nelson Mandela was in prison, he refused to give in to the pressure of the apartheid regime to surrender his struggle for the freedom of his people. He often told them “only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts”.
All Progressives Congress (APC) is a party that vowed “to promote and uphold the practice of internal democracy at all levels of the Party’s organisation”. SEE ARTICLE 7(VIII) OF THE CONSTITUTION OF APC. Democracy has been upheld to be the government of the people by the people and for the people. Internal democracy in APC can, by extrapolation, be defined as the government of the members of the APC, by the members of APC and for the members of APC. The current happening in the party, especially the misapplication of the word consensus, has completely neutralised the members of APC, and rendered them irrelevant in the election of their leaders.
First, consensus simply means that everybody agreed on a particular thing. It should be among the contestants. The National Assembly in its amendment of the Electoral Act made it clear that after a person has registered and is cleared to run, only a written letter from the person can indicate that he voluntarily stepped down. What the Legislators seem to forget is that aspirants can be bullied or manipulated to write the letter. They should have insisted that once a person is cleared to run, his name must appear in the Party’s contestant list whether he withdraws or not. He can score zero in the election but not be compelled to withdraw.
Let us first of all congratulate APC for even conducting the National Convention in the first place on the 26th of March, 2022. It is a shame that a ruling party is rejoicing that it can even conduct party elections after about almost two years of being administered by unelected persons. We appreciate President Buhari for making this possible. This is because the convention was not billed to hold in the first place. The former Caretaker Committee, led by Buni, never intended to organise a National Convention. The evidence is that there was a court order stopping the convention in advance as far back as November, without any interest of the Caretaker Committee in vacating the order. It took the intervention of the President to force the Caretaker Committee to vacate the order in court. The process of vacating the order did not last more than a day.
Secondly, the Caretaker Committee had fixed Zonal Conventions to hold in the entire six Geo-Political Zones of the country to elect Zonal officers on a different day before the National Convention. This has never happened in the party. When the party had luxury of time, it did not conduct different Zonal congresses but now it had no time, the Caretaker Committee ordered for the conduct of the Zonal congresses, just to buy time and frustrate the conduct of the main national convention because the self inflicted injuries on the party after the Zonal congresses will leave the party in such a tattered state that will make it practically impossible to organise a National Convention before the primary elections of the parties. The belated action by most of the progressive Governors gingered the party into action and passed a message to the Caretaker Committee that their time was up. They gave up the basket of their African tricks and hurriedly organised a rally in the name of a convention and ran away. In any case, any executive that emanated from a convention, is certainly better than an unelected officers who have overstayed their welcome and whose only preoccupation is how to hijack APC and install themselves and their stooges in power during the forthcoming election in 2023. APC survived annihilation but is still sitting on a keg of gun powder.
We congratulate Senator Abdullahi Adamu and all the elected members of the National Working Committee. The team looks strong. However, in a democracy, the process is more important than the result. The process that brought Adamu and his executives into power should be x-rayed to set good precedent in the future. First, about 70 out of 77 offices did not come into existence by the will of the members of APC, they came into existence by the will of the leaders of the party. It is only in a dictatorship that 41 million people will think in the same manner to choose 70 officers in the same manner without contest, not in a democracy. Anytime aspirants purportedly meet with a higher power before stepping down, most times, it’s an imposition by intimidation or manipulation. The aspirants to the office of the National Chairman refused to step down many times before they were compelled by higher powers to step down. A person like Senator George Akume, a former Governor of a State, former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a present Minister of the Federal Government wouldn’t have stepped down on a mere negotiation between him and Senator Adamu. What would be Adamu’s bargaining power in such negotiation? What will Adamu offer him politically in exchange for the post of National Chairman? Practically, nothing. But he is an appointee of the President and in a negotiation between him and the President, he stands no chance. The President has his job to offer him and can take it anytime. He was not a free man in that negotiation and the result of the negotiation couldn’t have come as a result of consensus ad idem. There was only an agreement of bodies but no agreement of minds. Also in this category is the former Governor of Nasarawa State and present Senator of the Federal Republic, His Excellency, Tanko Al-Makura.
This is why no major ruling party is growing democratically. Once they lose power at the centre, without a President at the helm of affairs to command everyone in line, the party will remain permanently ungovernable. The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has not grown democratically till date. When Obasanjo was in power, he changed National Chairmen of his party from his bedroom. At the end of his 8-year tenure, he has worked with 5 different National Chairmen. When he came out of office and negotiated on equal terms with others in the party, he couldn’t even negotiate himself into the office of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees. This shows that the members of PDP were not in agreement with Obasanjo in all his actions on the party while he was President but couldn’t negotiate with him as equals. Obasanjo also misread their acquiescence, while President, as agreement, until he came out of power and couldn’t bulldoze his way through to the seat of the BOT Chairman. They agreed with their bodies but not with their minds. Such agreement, meant to secure the body from temporary hurt and irritation, is always temporary and ephemeral. Only the agreement with the minds is permanent. Same scenario is playing out in APC today. Candidates for the post of National Chairman went around the six Geo-Political Zones campaigning for the position, erecting billboards every where, getting endorsement from members and building alliances across all divides. From the blues, there was a rumour that the President has endorsed a candidate. The Presidency initially denied it. Gradually the rumour became a reality and that was it. The candidate was Senator Adamu. He didn’t campaign, there was no manifesto, no party person knew what he wanted to do for the party. The only criterion for his emergence was that he was endorsed by the President. This is strange in a democracy.
What message is this sending to candidates and their followers. No need indicating interest to run. No need writing a manifesto. No need campaigning. No need canvassing for votes. No need endorsing a candidate. The only thing you need do is get the President’s nod and endorsement to run and that’s all. The President is now a veto wielding member in the internal affairs of our political parties. If he vetoes any candidate, that’s the end of the candidate, even if the 41 million members support the candidate. Are you surprised why sycophancy is now the order of the day?
If you want to understand the danger that this scenario poses to our democracy and particularly APC, just look at the contest for who will be the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. About one month to the time, nobody is taking the issue seriously. Amongst the ones that have declared interest to run for the office, no member is taking them seriously. Everybody is waiting for the body language of the President. Some aspirants that had shown interest before, especially the appointees of the President, are reluctant to declare their interest in the post, because they don’t want to be embarrassed in the event that the President’s mind is in someone else. There are rumours that certain persons are the favourites of the President. It may not take time before the rumours become realities. In the likely event that this turns out to be true, whoever it is, may likely be the next presidential candidate of the APC. The calibre of the candidates that have declared may or may not take it kindly and your guess is as good as mine where such action will lead the party to. You will agree with us that though APC has conducted its convention, it’s still sitting on a keg of gun powder.