There are reports that the Congress for Progressive Change (C.P.C) may not be able to field candidates in Katsina State, owing to the claims by INEC that it did not conduct Congresses in the State. It is reported that the list of nominated candidates published by Katsina State INEC’s office does not include any CPC candidates, but other Parties candidates’ names have been published. The CPC Party’s leadership, which had submitted the names of the former speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Bello Masari and many others in his faction of the Katsina CPC claims that it had met all the conditions for the conduct of Primaries, and had, in fact, conducted its Primaries. The other faction headed by Senator Yakubu Garba Lado, Danmarke which also conducted its own Primaries, has gone to court to challenge the nomination of Masari’s name as governorship candidate. As things stand, Katsina State CPC has no gubernatorial or other candidates for the April 2011 elections.
In Kano State, the CPC has also insisted on fielding retired Brigadier Lawal Ja’afaru Isa in place of Muhammed Abacha, who INEC had earlier recognized. The Commission has yielded to the demand of the Party that its choice of Lawal Ja’afaru Isa must be upheld, and it had its way. Naturally, Mohammed Abacha’s people are also protesting very loudly. There are scattered cases all over the country and disputes over candidates forwarded by the CPC to INEC, although the problem is by no means limited to the CPC.
What makes the CPC’s case unique and unfortunate is that it started as the Party which was to uphold all the values which had been serially subverted by the other older and bigger Parties. The CPC promised to uphold equity and justice for its members, and provide genuine intra-Party democracy. It claimed to champion the cause for a new Nigeria by avoiding all the weaknesses which crippled genuine democracy in the other Parties, and which have refused to allow our democratic system to grow beyond the ambitions and abuses of a very select few leader in one or two Parties. The CPC was to provide a credible alternative to the PDP, and it welcomed all Nigerians who sought for genuine change. Its leader, General Muhammadu Buhari enjoyed an incredible amount of popularity and reverence from the ordinary Nigerian because he stood out as an honest and sincere leader who was most likely to provide the type of leadership Nigerians need.
Today, the CPC is bogged down by the same problems which it intended to fight. Perhaps it is because too many ANPP and PDP defectors have infiltrated the Party, but the CPC is looking more and more like the PDP and the ANPP. It has massive internal squabbles over candidature and bitter complaints of injustice and abuse of due process. There are serious complaints of official high-handedness in the manner Party issues, especially election of Party officers or candidates are handled. There are complaints that very few people trusted by General Buhari have hijacked his ear and his will, and are running the Party aground. There are many cases in court challenging the decisions of Party executives, and many of these will be resolved in a legal, not political manner. The Party is bleeding very badly even before the real battle begins against the PDP, the ACN or the ANPP.
The failure to achieve a strategic alliance with the ACN before both Parties fielded candidates will go down in history as a missed opportunity of historic proportions. With sufficient political will and a willingness to see beyond the profiles of leaders, both Parties could have engineered a winning electoral strategy that could have posed a real challenge to the other big Parties. With that opportunity lost, the CPC will now have to fight alone from a position of major weakness as a Party with limited spread. Indeed, it is worse-off today than the ACN which has made some impressive gains, particularly in the North, while the CPC, in spite of the selection of Pastor Bakare as running mate to General Buhari is substantially limited to the core North.
The failure of the CPC to carry through its promise to be a different Party, and create meaningful change in the lives of Nigerians is a major setback for the Nigerian political system. It miscarried a huge potential to make a major dent in the dominance of the PDP, to create a credible and effective alternative, and to restore the faith of Nigerians that there is a future for our nation. Its most valued asset today is General Muhammadu Buhari, but when the going gets tough, he is likely to look back and find that a substantial number of his supporters are angry, demoralized or disappointed beyond being active supporters. The General can still pull a few chestnuts from the fire, but he will need to do some major re-thinking on strategy, and a massive amount of fence mending. If, in spite of its bright prospects and promise, and the almost blind, monumental support of the poor and the patriotic Nigerians, the CPC does not substantially alter the political landscape of Nigeria in the April elections, the Party and the Nation would have lost a historic opportunity which will take decades to recreate.
No comments:
Post a Comment