How APC is hurting Buhari
B etween now and its inception as an amalgam of two opposition parties, with a motley mix of disaffected PDP members, APC appears to have gained some momentum that even surpassed its best expectations. Yet, in recent times, there is this noticeable downward spiral that is sure to adversely affect the party’s chances at the polls, most especially that of its presidential candidate, Buhari. While it is easy for many discerning minds to see why APC is losing its way and thereby hurting Buhari, the party itself seems sadly blinded by much hype and vainglory, while it continues, as it were, to be persisting on a path of self-immolation. Here are some illustrations.
First, Nigerians are evidently tired of hearing the same hackneyed singsongs and negative cliches about President Jonathan. The reason is simple. Since time, APC has been telling Nigerians that the President is clueless, without explaining exactly what it means by that. It has become so funny that each time you go to social media or venture into APC newspapers, the word ‘clueless’ is sure to be the favorite cliché. Even as the Nigerian troops are defeating Boko Haram, APC is unabashedly unhappy and projects it by sticking to this funny mantra that the President is clueless. That hurts the party and Buhari, not President Jonathan, especially because vast majorities of Nigerians now view the party as unpatriotic, and treacherous to boot.
Second, APC talks about corruption without producing a single evidence of corruption against Mr President. It also talks about sending people to jail for corruption without stating how it’s going to go over the heads of the judiciary and due process to accomplish that overnight. Is the party implying that it will suspend the Constitution in fighting corruption? Or, that Buhari will again start crating Nigerians like he did to Umaru Dikko? Will Buhari’s corruption war exclude Tinubu, Amaechi, Atiku, and all those PDP decampees that ran to APC with their loot, and are now funding Buhari’s campaign?
Third is allowing Buhari and his fundamentalist supporters to continue to posture him as a religious and sectional candidate in the hope of clinching the Northern vote. Even worse, Buhari appears to bask in such infamous glory. While this may work with some rank tribal and religious partisans, it is at the same time alienating APC’s Southwest base and moderate Northerners. And to say that this has permanently hurt APC and Buhari in Southeast and South-South is stating the obvious. Buhari fails to understand that the reason Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan had roundly defeated him in the past was because they garnered enough votes from outside their tribal and religious enclaves. Campaigning as a fundamentalist Muslim may transitorily whip up some violent sentiments but in the end it scares away even moderate Muslims.
Fourth is the Buhari certificate saga. Rather than going to great lengths to secure a credible certificate or transcript from Cambridge, APC and Buhari unleashed defamatory attacks on those who dared question the sham credentials. Buhari himself became visibly angry and utterly defensive, thus suggesting that he is still the same intolerant tyrant. If anything, these whole disgraceful conduct resulted in scaring away millions of voters that had initially considered voting for Buhari just for the heck of the ‘change’ he was touting. Yet, to this day, APC has persist in sweeping the certificate issue under the carpet.
Fifth is the many questionable characters that constitute Buhari’s kitchen cabinet; the very people who will govern with him if, perchance, he wins. They are in the legions. There’s Tinubu, with all his many troubles and scandals, there’s Atiku with a tainted past.Then, you have Amaechi, now considered a grave error, if not a loose cannon; yet, just because he has spent billions of Rivers money on propping Buhari, they have no other choice than to let him traverse the nation, damaging the party. It has become so bad that Tinubu is said to be now disaffected and interested only in Lagos governorship election. Same for Kwankwaso, who to his credit, has recoiled away from Buhari and the many viruses he parades as his rank campaigners and henchmen.
Sixth, in the many states APC initially appeared to be doing well, the popular angst generated by Buhari’s many scandals is beginning to scare away party apparatchiks. Most notable is Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, who is now so afraid that his continuing to campaign for Buhari may cost him the a second term that he has begun to tactically distance himself from Buhari. His recent poster-campaign is remarkable for excluding Buhari’s picture. It has become so bad that, in Imo State, Rochas is said to be campaigning for Jonathan by night while posturing as APC by day.