How the ADC Can Become a Credible Alternative to the APC
By: Deji Yesufu
As I approached my laptop to pen this article, I received a Facebook inbox message from one of my acquaintances on that social media channel. He needs money to support his young family, and I do not have anything I can spare. I can not even reply to his message because many other messages like that remain unanswered. I open this article this way to make the point that all of us Nigerians are politicians. As long as we live within a body polity and have a stake in the Nigerian question, we are all politicians and must lend our voices to the matter of good governance and the need to ensure that the overall needs of Nigerians are met.
What fuels bloody revolutions is hunger. The socialist quip that says that when the poor have nothing else to eat, they will eat up the rich is very true. Before Nigeria reaches that point, we must ensure that this country functions; that able-bodied men find jobs to do; that the health of our people is catered for; that our young minds are given sound education; and so on. What we can almost certainly surmise from the situation of Nigeria today is that things are not working, and it is the height of foolishness to continue to do the same thing and hope for a different result. This is the reason why I argue that the best thing that happened to Nigerian politics in the last two years was the emergence of a coalition under the ADC – African Democratic Congress.
The leading criticism of this coalition is that it is a gathering of spent politicians. I hear things like many of the people in the coalition are persons who have fallen out with Bola Tinubu and have now come together to remove him because they are unhappy with him. Some go further to explain that these people who have entered this coalition themselves have all kinds of evil records behind them; they come into the coalition with baggage, scandals, and records of fraudulent practices when they were in public office. They tell us that what this country needs is a new order – a kind of new breed without greed.
There is no doubt that these allegations ring true with some people in the coalition. However, we must recognise the peculiar situation that Nigeria finds herself in, and it is this: morality can no longer be a practical test for political worthiness in our nation anymore. The reason is that every single politician in this country comes to the table with one scandal or another. In the same way the Christian holy book claims that everyone has sinned, we must conclude that there is no politician in Nigeria today who does not have the vice of corruption in their kitty. Until we rid ourselves of this evil machination called corruption, which has become our second name as a people, we will have to make do with whatever alternatives are before us.
Another reality that we must keep in mind as we examine the ADC alternative in the light of the disastrous performance of the APC government, is that there is such a thing as a political class and that if we will practice democracy, we will have to dine with politicians – no matter how much we dislike them. Some have posited the likes of Omoyele Sowore as an alternative in 2027. The story of Gani Fawhemi’s foray into Nigerian politics is a pointer to the fact that puritanism is not an advantage in politics. The fact that people know you as a good person, or a freedom fighter, or an activist will not bring votes to you. And Sowore proved this by securing 33,000 votes only at the height of his popularity among Nigerians.
Politics is give and take; it is stretching your hand across the aisle and working with people groups that you will naturally not want to work with. As long as we have Nigeria, there is a people group that will determine the direction the politics of this country will go. They are the Northerners. They have the numbers and they have the political machinations to install kings in Nigeria and to dethrone them. Another point we must keep in mind is that Bola Tinubu is already using the first four-year term that northern Nigeria has given us in the south; we are left with only another four years for the south, and woe betides this nation if this present administration runs this nation for eight years at this rate. What then is the way forward?
The ADC coalition has brought two political heavyweights to the discussion. In the 2023 presidential elections, of the 23 million votes cast, Bola Tinubu polled 8.8 million votes; Atiku Abubakar had approximately 7 million votes; and Peter Obi had 6 million votes. Going by those numbers alone, we see that a coalition that will bring Atiku and Obi together has the potential of polling 13 million votes of the 23 million votes that can be cast in a presidential election in this country. This is why such a coalition greatly threatens the present administration. The problem, however, is not with the forming of a coalition but whether these men can work together. Will they be able to jettison individual interest and support one candidate to emerge? Only time will tell.
I think that Peter Obi’s proposing a one-term of four years to the coalition as a condition to work with them is a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, some other politicians in the coalition are beginning to say the same thing. This should not be a thing to concern close watchers of events in the ADC, though. Everyone knows who brought the idea of a single term of four years to the table, and when the time comes, I am sure the politicians will sort that issue out. I think Atiku Abubakar should take the back seat and allow Peter Obi to finish up the “second term” for the southern people of Nigeria. It will bring an end to the question of a man from Eastern Nigeria leading this nation, and it will quieten the agitation for secession by many in that part of the country. I also think that four years is sufficient for Obi to put individuals into institutions in this country that will make it work. The ball can be set rolling, while we hope that we find a worthy northern candidate in 2021 to continue the good work that Peter Obi has laid down.
The political development of a country can be likened to something that Christians refer to as sanctification. No country has ever really entered into a political eldorado overnight. Most nations we envy today have been working on their politics for centuries. We imitate them today because many of their forbears paid the price for what their children are enjoying and even taking for granted today. The ADC coalition can work. The present administration has given them all the impetus to succeed through their thoughtless and people-unfriendly policies. The ADC coalition can build on that momentum, choose a worthy presidential candidate, and sell a solid, friendly program to the electorate, and the rest, like they say, will be history.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected]
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