Between 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. Below are some illustrations.
First, Nigerians are evidently tired of hearing the same hackneyed singsongs and negative cliches about the person of 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 cliche of APC partisans. Even as the Jonathan-led gallant Nigerian forces are walloping 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 is corruption. APC talks about corruption without producing a single evidence of corruption against the person of Mr President. When pressed to the wall, their fringe elements go wild and start cursing and desperately pointing to all manners of conjectures, rumors and outright lies. APC 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? Plus, will Buhari’s corruption war exclude Tinubu, Amaechi, Atiku, and all those PDP decampees that ran to APC with their loot, which they are now using to fund Buhari’s campaign?
Third is allowing Buhari and his fundamentalist supporters to continue to posture Buhari 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 what everybody, but the APC, already knows. Buhari fails to understand that the reason Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan had roundly defeated him in the past was because they garnered quantum 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. Instead of going to great lengths to secure a credible certificate or transcript from Cambridge, APC and Buhari unleashed defamatory attacks on Nigerians who dared question Buhari’s sham credentials. Buhari himself became visibly angry and utterly defensive, thus suggesting that he is still the same intolerant tyrant that traumatized Nigerians in the past; and that he might be hiding something fraudulent. If anything, these whole disgraceful conduct resulted in terrifying 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 and Buhari persist in sweeping the certificate issue under the carpet and demonizing anybody that raises it as a genuine issue for the election.
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 – corruption, drugs, money laundering, plundering of Lagos state, imposition of candidates, warts and all. There’s Atiku, who knows that he is tainted enough not fit into Buhari’s campaign mantra of fighting corruption. Then, you have Amaechi, who is now considered a grave error, if not a boomeranging 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; and embarrassing himself and Buhari. It has become so bad that Tinubu is said to be now disaffected and interested only in Lagos governorship election and that of his immediate family members that he had imposed as candidates on hapless Lagosians. 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 APC apparatchiks from Buhari. Most notable is Imo Governor, Rochas Okorocha, who is now so afraid that his continuing to campaign for Buhari may cost him the Imo guber that he has begun to tactically distance himself from Buhari. His recent poster-campaign is remarkable for tellingly 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. Ditto for many other APC governors who are now refusing to release more funds for Buhari’s campaign; which explains Buhari’s recent not-so-secret pleas to Al-Qaida linked Arab billionaires for much needed campaign funds.
Finally, APC now talks like it has something sinister to hide. Recently, when Nigerian military stated its resolve to capture terrorist Shekau, APC immediately launched defensive but false accusations that the military plans to capture a fake Shekau and then force him to implicate APC or Buhari as the closet sponsor or sympathizer of Boko Haram. As if that was not enough, the party went to town with accusations that PDP is planning to tap phones of its leaders and frame them by making deposits in their bank accounts and that of INEC’s Jega. The only reasonable conclusion to be drawn from all these wild accusations is that APC is struggling with a sense of alarm that implies that it is guilty of some hideous wrongdoings and is therefore desperately preparing its defenses in advance and in contemplation of being eventually implicated. (Credit: Prof S.O, Elombah).