To Vote APC In 2023 You Must Hate Yourself First (I)

With less than a month until Nigeria’s general election, one political party should not be on the ballot at all. That is the ruling All Progressives Congress.

If dignity was a concern for APC or if it had any sense of character or shame, it would have called or written to the Election Commission sometime in the last two years when Nigerians started turning their political attention to 2023 and asked to be out participation achieved.

Because it makes no sense for APC to deem itself worthy of leadership in 2023, just as it claimed in 2015 that the People’s Democratic Party was unworthy of leadership.

“In the past, political manifestos in Nigeria hardly differed from mere platitudes and blanket statements over which parties could not be held accountable.” the party said at the time. “The APC Manifesto is different. We have clearly stated what we will deliver to Nigeria if we are elected to office. Our focus is on six spearheads: national security, good governance and human capital development.”

The Other Areas: Aid: “We believe the Nigerian people need immediate relief from the unnecessary hardship imposed by 16 years of rule by the incumbent government.”

Restoration: “We believe that our competent management and leadership will ensure that Nigeria can begin to restore its diminished institutions and the processes of democratic governance.”

Reform: “We believe the APC’s vision for the nation will restructure governance in a way that boosts our political economy so we can embark on the path of our brighter future.”

The party then offered what it called “A fair contract with Nigeria”, reaffirming that Nigeria should look ahead rather than to the PDP’s failed policies and practices.

Remember, APC promised three million new jobs a year; health care for all; and guaranteed free education.

It would “triple education spending over the next 10 years, from the current 0.5% to 24.5%.” Triple? Five years later, education spending in the current budget is a terrible 6.7%!

APC said it would: “Immediately increase the share of federal health care spending from 5.5% to 10%, with a goal of raising it to 15% by 2020.” That was a blatant lie for miles: the health sector received 4.14% in 2020, 4.7 in 2022 and 5.7 in 2023!

On corruption, APC said it would: “create a functionally independent anti-corruption agency, with adequate and predictable funding and full prosecuting powers and free from political interference.”

The party claimed it would: “end immunity from prosecution for incumbent politicians.”

Welcoming the APC rather, after its formation in February 2013, I had urged the party to understand that it would be held to a higher standard than the PDP, having clearly and indirectly proclaimed itself superior.

To be seen as programmed to serve, rather than to serve its members, I said it should set and communicate clear public standards, and demonstrate that those standards were higher than partisan politics and the APC itself.

“I challenge the APC to establish and publish such standards in a code of conduct and obligations. This will demonstrate that the party understands the quality of the challenge facing our nation, and that it intends to submit to it.

Not only has the party failed to fulfill any of these commitments, there is plenty of evidence that it has pushed Nigerians into a deeper decline than the PDP ever did.

That corruption has soared is amply illustrated in every facet of official life in Nigeria Todayculminating in the party’s 2022 primary that was an overt advertisement for transactional politics and the emergence of Bola Tinubu as a candidate.

Mr. Tinubu is now known worldwide, mainly for the opacity of his record and sometimes for issues of a personal nature. Those include his template for perpetual plunder of states by outgoing governors conviction for drug offenses in the United States, a whole library of accusations as described in this scandalous research project, or this one. 2018 in the Vanguard newspaperin an unforgettable four-part profile, the now-deceased Yinka Odumakin described the Tinubu Nigerians should avoid.

But remember: during his campaign in 2015 Buhari requested Nigerians“Allow me to prove to you that you and your country can be proud of this country in our lifetime.”

Where is that country eight years later? Isn’t it amazing that a man who is, at best, a question mark in any discussion of leadership potential of any kind is APC’s proud presidential candidate and future Buhari successor?

To almost every degree, APC has made Nigerian a source of embarrassment and embarrassment. For every mile of infrastructure built, such as the Lagos light rail that Buhari commissioned last week, there is an Abuja light rail that he commissioned just four years ago that is no longer working. For every high school teacher or public official prosecuted by the EFCC for corruption, there are 30 APC current and former governors and 20 ministers it will not touch. For every new eye-service airport terminal that’s built, like in Lagos, several older ones get rotten in real time. For every year APC has been in power since 2015, hundreds of thousands of jobs and businesses have fled, and insecurity has swept the country dozens of times. For every airline APC promised, it shamelessly flies 10 presidential jets around the world.

This explains the turmoil in which Nigeria finds itself. The presidency chases the president of the EFCC off the street, unbundles him from office, but never publishes his kangaroo court report. The APC government decides to sell the assets it supposedly got back, without disclosing what they are, only to claim they were sold, or perhaps quietly returned to their original owners.

It’s no surprise that APC wants to stay in power; it has a lot more to hide than the PDP did in 2015. At that time, and for that reason, it was easy for APC to spread CHANGE’s propaganda and for Nigerians to buy it.

For the same reason, Nigerians now have to reject APC in the center and across the country. Unless you really hate yourself or are a masochist, it’s clear that the same treatment that was applied to PDP in 2015 should now apply to APC.

By this advocacy I do not mean that PDP should replace APC. In previous columns I have argued that they are sides of the same coin, a coin I call “APDPC.” They are cynical, underhanded, cynical political parties with no honor, patriotism or value. Anyone who pursues the progress of Nigeria and the Nigerian should reject or else he will catch the diseases they have traveled with for the past 24 years.

It is clear that who you vote for is your business. But unless you want to keep yourself swimming in the sewer for at least another generation, neither APC nor PDP are your option in 2023. Use them as a bat or a curse instead. Save yourself.

[This column welcomes rebuttals from interested party/government officials.]

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@Sonala.Olumhense