BEYOND SIZE: APC AND THE NEW NIGERIA The high fives acknowledge the new size of APC as the New PDP merges with it. Some already calculate that the merger makes the APC the larger party in Nigeria and as such the largest party in Africa. As a member of the APC I am naturally thrilled that size is making the playing field more level, but I am conscious that it is about much more than size. It is about how you govern well and provide the people a better option. What does that mean for the evolution of the APC. One of the things I am familiar with, as an APC insider, is the strenuous efforts being made to take the Party beyond a machine for votes into a disciplined, ideas-driven ideological platform for offering a different track, a new way to the people of Nigeria. I see this in efforts to develop a new party plank, new manifesto and the conversations about how to ensure that all learn to be loyal, not to individuals, as is the tradition in more recent Nigerian politics, but to a body of ideas and a way of relating to the people. What thrills me the most of the ongoing internal dynamics is that of the three different working groups I am associated with inside the party is growing consensus, in each that the ideals of Social Democratic ethos be the anchor. A peoples oriented direction in which the clearly identified best interest of the common man is the essence of public policy and the direction of governance seems to be crystallizing so subtly but surely. As that general disposition of leadership conversation has been pleasing, I have continued to challenge compatriots for a personal commitment reflection and affirmation of a new way from the Party’s leadership elite, beyond talk. The pleasant surprise is that thrust is being well received. Also heartwarming is the intellectual back room of the party, a matter on which I have been critical of recent political parties which have seemed anti- intellectual, compared to parties elsewhere, and the parties of 1960s Nigeria. There are a number of norms about how we govern, that is disconcerting that needs to be re-examined and jettisoned. Two of them I am most concerned with, are the cost of the burden of the personal comfort of the people in power, and the cost of the process of governing in general. I have been of the view for some time that we should survey the average of cost of governing to revenues; to GDP; and to the quality of life of the people. From this we should set for ourselves a ratio that should be one of the lowest of cost for governing in the world. Our current ratios must approximate one of the worst in the world. We must set the example that public life is about self sacrifice in service and develop a code for the simple life in public office. When last did you see a Governor or cabinet minister on a commercial flight? To spend the amounts some states spend on managing their fleet of aircraft or chattering for the convenience of a few, in country where the quality of life, projects a misery index that mares the country as close to Hell as you can on planet earth, it is a moral crises that we spend so much on executive travel convenience. Private wealth used to buy Private Jets is another level of moral question but to deplete the commonwealth so the governor can jet into Abuja and events elsewhere is matter for party debate. Our strategy as a political party, I have argued, should be, if we were a company, to be seen as a low cost strategy company. A good example of that, in practice, is the furniture maker, Ikea. It is not a poor company but its strategy is a low cost strategy. Staying faithful to strategy, its six foot plus chief executive traveled hundreds of thousands of miles every year, in economy class. I am not suggesting that our Governors travel economy, but Business class should be the top limit, and most public servants should go economy on state business. The reason British Airways treats Nigerians so badly and is one of the most customer unfriendly airlines in the world, is because Nigerian government officials never stay home, and spend insane amounts of public money flying BA First Class. That is truly a sin that cries to Heaven for forgiveness. Overall I am pleased at the kind of conversation going on in leadership circles. APC is looking at a new manifesto emphasizing free primary education with free feeding of the pupils, an aggressive anti-corruption stance that begins with making corruption more difficult and then goes on to make example of those who beat the system. This is why it is important that the leaders look themselves in the mirror and see a new beginning. APC cannot afford to be another PDP in new clothing. The people are fed up with the Hunter-conqueror mindset that sees the people as a defeated people and the commonwealth as war booty. I personally cannot wait to see the new peoples manifesto of the APC with its emphasis on the basic needs of the people driving a high growth economy that aim to have predominantly middle class society rather than the current situation where our airports are now inadequate to park the private jets of a few largely unproductive people who have access to political power. That they now park their aircraft in neighboring countries as our overcrowded private terminals yearn for expansion is not a statement about wealth but an emblem to our poverty of mind. The Gini index which measures income distribution between the top and the bottom of our society is already an advertisement for the coming anarchy which the APC must work to arrest. Not to offer a clear alternative to way things are would be to fail to do the needful to stave off the looming revolution. I am glad that is so clear to the APC Chairman Chief Bisi Akande who lived a good example of the simple life as Governor and was do acknowledged and celebrated by my group, the concerned Professionals back then. PU
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 15:29:20 +0000
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