APC’S SLIPPERY POLITICS AND ITS MANY CAPOS . Femi Ojo

Picture courtesy of www.nta.ng and Arisenaija

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The current drama in the National Assembly especially the boxing contest in the red chamber last week where politicians who supposed to be honorable in the manner in which they carry their legislative functions but who became disparagingly dishonorable by combating themselves like Mike Tyson of this world in a boxing ring, has clearly shown that the ruling party’s political mafia’s family is yet to settle for a mutual political capo.

Capo di tutti capi simply connotes in mafia parlance a supreme “godfather” or Italian parlance “boss of all bosses” and it is common knowledge that in mafia world, tensions and internal warfare for supremacy and power to control other members typified this game. One can see similar characteristics in our ruling party looking at the different contradictions that the party has been characterized with in the current post-election period. The outcomes in both chambers of the National Assembly last week where against his party’s imposed position, the Senate President, Senator Olubukola Saraki announced the names of Senate’s principal officers and similarly, in the House of Representatives there were egoistic tensions which later turned the red chamber to a boxing ring with honorable members doing the most dishonorable things in the public has given the impression that APC is a political house with many egoistic bosses.

The ruling party can be described as a political venue where all manners of political prostitutes strife for power and influence with no absolute loyalty to the party. The many capos in the ruling party with their egoistic struggle for power and influence may disappoint Nigerians who voted for change as hyped by the ruling party during the electioneering campaign. It is pertinent to appeal to the many political bosses who wield influence in the party as a matter of urgency to call themselves to order and find mutual compromise on the many political issues that are currently tearing the party apart. As it is today, the slippery politics of APC and its many political schisms by its factional capos has given an impression that the party lacks the political maturity to deal with its divergent polemics.

It is already a month that the party has been in the saddle of our nation’s politics and within this short period, the slippery politics within the APC ruling party has not only slowed down the pace of governance but has also paved way for the gradual coming back of the defeated PDP in deciding the outcomes of governance and politics in our polity. Perhaps the APC needs some tutorials as suggested by some opposition chieftains on how to manage electoral success and governance!

The political tragedy that may befall APC in the face of the current political drama by various loyal warring factions may be too fatal if nothing is done urgently. The many capos of the different factions in the ruling party must be united by the President Buhari for the sake of delivering some of its over-hyped manifestoes to Nigerians whose expectations from this government are very high. As the party stands now, the many warring factions in the party need to be called to order by the President whose administration may be greatly affected if these factions within his party do not settle their political differences amicably.

Though expectedly, going back to the historicity of the formation of the current ruling party, one should expect polemics and some internal contradictions but what is worrisome is that one equally expects that those that championed the formation of the party should have thought seriously on the centrifugal characteristics of its membership and long before now strategically fashioned out co-optioning political solutions to manage these diverse egoistic interests in the party. But unfortunately as the situation currently appears, the ruling party was formed on the notion of changing the person of the former President Jonathan without serious thoughts on how to manage the egoistic influences of different political characters that joined its political mantra of “change”.

I will end my premise with an appeal to Mr. President and concur with Mr. Dele Momodu who opined thus in his recent article titled “A Desperate Memo to President Buhari”. He opines “It is very essential that your party sees and embrace you as their father and not the other way round. Whether you like it or not, and whether others in your party want to accept it or not, you are the de facto national leader of your party. You are the President and Commander in Chief of our country. Yes, you are the capo di tutti capi. You therefore cannot be subservient to any other person. You must immediately take upon this role and assume that mantle. Please feel free to lay down the law and if occasion demands, enforce our law. That is what leaders do. Ambivalence or hesitancy will simply not do! You have the next four years minus one month and time is ticking away dutifully”