Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

‘Governance Has Come Under Serious Trial Because Of APC Crisis’

By Lawrence Njoku (Enugu)
04 July 2015   |   4:18 am
NIGERIANS in Enugu state believe that the festering crisis in the All Progressives Congress (APC), especially at the National Assembly has seriously affected the one-month old administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Those interviewed insist that the attention of the President is being divided over the crisis, stressing that he should have been more focused on governance.
Obioha

Ralph Obioha

NIGERIANS in Enugu state believe that the festering crisis in the All Progressives Congress (APC), especially at the National Assembly has seriously affected the one-month old administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Those interviewed insist that the attention of the President is being divided over the crisis, stressing that he should have been more focused on governance.

They stated that the party is still being hunted by what they described as “strange bedfellows”, adding that the objective for which they came together has not been achieved.

A chieftain of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Ralph Obioha said governance has come under serious trial since President Buhari took over because the APC was yet to live out her past. Tracing the history of the crisis in the party to the formative stages where leading opposition parties came together to forge a new alliance that metamorphosed to APC, Obioha said individual parties that contributed to it are yet to embrace the new order.

“I think some of the members still hold firmly to the ideologies of their former parties. They have refused to embrace the new order. Remember that the party never tackled the issue of individual identity before the general elections. It was really a mega opposition without a firm foundation and due process of doing things.

Nigerians voted the party during the general election because they wanted change, not just because the APC is better organized than other parties. They wanted to give Buhari opportunity to lead having aspired to do so for sometimes without success. So I would say that the very foundation on which the parties came together is the major source of the problem they are facing now”, he said.

Another Ohanaeze chieftain and former Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Prof. Elochukwu Amucheazi said it was too early in the day to discuss the crisis in the APC.

He however attributed the problem to “lack of party ideology”, stressing that it vitiates his earlier positions that Nigeria don’t have political parties but “amalgamation of individuals with several individual interests” “It is personal interest, and not national interests that is at work in the party.

That is why you are hearing about these distractions here and there. A month after the inauguration of the present administration, one has expected that all the arms of government will come together to move the country forward. We are hearing is disturbing and does not say good of a party that want to survive and move the country forward.

So I think the APC should brace up and convince Nigerians on their claim that the party indeed is a credible alternative by finding quick resolution to their lingering crisis and face governance squarely”, Amucheazi stated. A Public Affairs analyst, Dr. Kenneth Igwe blamed the APC leadership for the crisis at the National Assembly.

He said the leadership was carried away in the euphoria of victory at the general elections and paid little attention on post election challenges. “They had all the time to resolve these problems to be able to position the party for challenges ahead, but were more interested in celebrations.

I do not see how they will get out of it than living with it. The problem has gone beyond the party; it is something the lawmakers should settle among themselves. Let the party leaders play advisory role which can only come by way of appeals to those involved in the crisis; that is the way out”, he said.

0 Comments