APGA-APC ALLIANCE, TALE OF TWO BLACK BIRDS

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There are two black birds sitting in the East. One named APGA, one named APC! Permit my introduction this short essay with a parody of the popular ageless nursery rhyme. Indeed, the modus operandi of APGA and APC befits only the kindergarten class. By the way APGA stands for All Progressives Peoples Alliance and APC stands for All Progressives Congress. The latter is the ruling party in Nigeria while the former is the ruling party in Anambra State; the lone ranging party that has over the time earned the unpleasant sobriquet of Anambra Peoples Grinding Alliance.

Not far into the recent past, the leadership of APGA announced their formal alliance with APC and APGA’s adoption of President Muhammadu Buhari as APGA’s presidential candidate for the 2019 election. That stance of APGA’s raised not a few eyebrows, but also enough dust among political stakeholders, actors and activists in the East. The crux of the matter being the obvious inglorious betrayal by APGA of Ojukwu and Ndigbo in taking Ndigbo back to what Ikemba aimed to take Ndigbo away from.

All of his adult life till his transition to the great beyond, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu stood with Ndigbo and defended Ndigbo against oppression and injustice by Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and the rest of Nigeria. Ojukwu founded APGA as aplatform for Ndigbo to negotiate for their share of Nigeria. Ojukwu established APGA to stop Ndigbo from being mere joiners of Hausa-Fulani party or Yoruba party. It was a truism that there were unique Hausa-Fulani party and Yoruba party where Ndigbo go to as mere joiners. The situation inspired him to create APGA as an Igbo party with a national outreach, just like PDP, APC or any other party with ethnic/regional leaning.

In the first republic politics of Nigeria (1960-1966), Hausa-Fulani created Northern Peoples Congress (NPC). The Yoruba created Action Group (AG) while what should have been an Igbo party was created as National Convention of Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC). Many still wonder why leaders of Ndigbo at that time opted for an assumed national party when the two other regions reflected regionalism. Why did Ndigbo not have a party by the name Easter Peoples Congress (EPC) as the North had NPC.

In the second republic (1979-1983), Hausa-Fulani had the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the Yoruba had the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), while Ndigbo had the Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP). In the short-lived quasi-third republic (1992-1993) characterized by the strange system of government described as diarchy, North had the National Republican Congress (NRC) while the South in some senses had the Social Democratic Party (SDP). There just the two parties as the then military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida attempted to institute a two-party system. As in previous republics, Ndigbo were mere joiners.

Now in the fourth republic, it is widely explained that the PDP is a Fulani Party just as the APC is also regarded as a Fulani party. There are different parties that reflect the Yoruba politics. They include the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The question remains which one is the Igbo party? That is where the APGA created by Ojukwu would come handy with an answer. But alas APGA chose to collapse its structure to the APC and Buhari in 2019. In principle APGA is now APC and APC is APGA. That is most unfortunate as obviously Ojukwu soul cannot be resting in peace across the bridge where he reigns now. APGA has offended Ojukwu!

It must not be surprising that at his parole by the then President Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, GCFR, in 1982, Ojukwu joined NPN his benefactors. But a good scholar of history will know that the same NPN ensured that the great and very famous Ojukwu lost a mere senatorial election into the Nnewi senatorial district to further clip his wings and rubbish him. Hence, Ojukwu never felt at home in the world of Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba party politics, warranting his eventual successful creation and registration of APGA for Ndigbo to ventilate boldly and powerfully on Nigeria’s national affairs. Ojukwu sustained APGA until he transited to greater glory in the great beyond.

It is a crime against Ojukwu and Ndigbo that his disciples, including his infamous son of no political value or relevance in Nnewi not to talk off Igboland, would insult Ojukwu in his grave and make him to lose his rest and peace by coquettishly hobnobbing with APC that Ojukwu so loathed and would not have touched with a million feet pole. The traitors dragged APGA into APC and even adopted the Daura terrorist as APGA presidential candidate in the 2019 election. No doubt, Ojukwu must be weeping in his celestial abode.

How could APGA leaders and Ojukwu’s seed forget all the atrocities caused by the militant wings of APC viz Fulani Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen? How could APGA have forgotten the globally confirmed marginalization of Ndigbo in Nigeria by the Fulani hegemony and oligarchy that form the leadership of APC? How could APGA have forgotten the threats by Othman dan Fodio and reconfirmed by Ahmadu Bello that one day Fulani would colonize Eat of Nigeria? How did APGA leaders go into alliance with APC when all of the security chiefs of Nigeria are Fulani Muslims and none is Igbo?

How did APGA forget “Operation Python Dance 1 and 2” that have claimed lives of Ndigbo and impoverished them with illegal tolls that they pay to Fulani soldiers? All the evil that go on against Ndigbo and the middle belt region without any effort to ameliorate them by the APC government led by Fulani ought to have deterred APGA from insulting Ojukwu with such unholy alliance with APC. But this is the current generation of APGA that will receive money and watch their mothers, wives and daughters raped by Fulani herdsmen. Ndigbo, sorry!

As it is now, with the anti-Igbo alliance APGA entered with APC, their story has become the tale of two black birds. APGA is now an oppressor of Ndigbo as much as APC. APGA is now culpable in the 95% and 5% equation that Buhari publicly declared as his reason for his absolute exclusion of Ndigbo in the sharing of Nigeria’s commonwealth. APGA have now implicated themselves in the clamp down of the East by Buhari and APC via the aforementioned instrumentality of “Operation Python Dance” through which the East has been turned into an occupied area by Fulani soldiers that steal, rape, kill and destroy lives and property of Ndigbo.

The end of discussion on the weird alliance between APGA and APC is that both must be seen from the same radar and tarred with the same brush. The mantra should be “any vote for APGA is a vote for APC”. If Ndigbo want to ensure an end to Fulani herdsmen menace in the East; if Ndigbo expect an end to “Operation Python Dance” in the East; if Ndigbo desire reintegration into the midstream of Nigerian affairs, then Ndigbo must say no to APGA and APC at all levels in the 2019 general elections.