Remembering APC’s formation: The making, entrenchment and giant strides of Nigeria’s super party

By Wilfred Eya and Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

It is not contestable that there is need to celebrate the All Progressives Congress (APC) despite obvious challenges the nation has contended with since it took over power in 2015. In a literally explosive presidential election, the ruling party disrupted what seemed like Nigeria’s political culture when it upstaged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which hitherto, held sway for 16 unbroken years.

For majority of Nigerians, the party was a child of necessity when it graced the Nigerian political firmament on February 6, 2013, almost two years ahead of the 2015 general elections.

From the ashes and dust of many years of PDP’s nearly invisible control of Nigeria’s political space, APC recorded a feat after three legacy political parties accepted to collapse into one partisan entity for the merger that produced the ruling party.

The legacy parties, comprising the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and breakaway members of PDP, then known as nPDP, gave birth to the APC.

The political parties had as their leaders the incumbent President, Bola Tinubu for the ACN, the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari for the CPC, and Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu for the ANPP. While former governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha led a faction of APGA into the merger, the likes of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, former Rivers governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi spearheaded the breakaway PDP factions into the merger.

The three legacy parties had passed resolutions, after organising their various conventions, and given the go-ahead to forgo their individual identities before merging into what finally became one big political brand, the APC.

Though the actualisation of the merger was not a walk in the park, the young political association finally received approval and endorsement of the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), precisely on July 31, 2013.

Subsequently, the commission withdrew the operating licenses of the three legacy parties (the ACN, CPC, and ANPP) and permitted their collapsing into the political party, the APC.

The dramatic and intriguing journey to the registration of the APC was, retrospectively, laced with a landmine of challenges and many other hurdles.

Earlier in March 2013, two other political associations seeking registration – African Peoples Congress and All Patriotic Citizens – had equally applied to INEC for registration, adopting the same APC as their acronym. The development was interpreted as a deft move to thwart and frustrate the successful registration of the coalition of the opposition parties, ahead of the 2015 general election.

The battle for the registration of the APC was so fierce that in April 2013, those behind the merger even considered changing the name to All Progressive Congress of Nigeria (APCN) to avoid further complications and clashes.

However, the hostilities against the emergence of APC, began to cave in, in November 2013, when five serving governors, along with former vice president, Atiku from the ruling PDP, defected to the APC.

The governors that defected to the APC were Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa and Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto.

It was previously reported that then Governors Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger and Sule Lamido of Jigawa State were set to defect from their party, PDP, to the APC. However, both ended up remaining with the PDP.

But to confirm that APC had become an emerging political force, the then Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu, as an incumbent, was the senatorial nominee of the PDP for Niger East senatorial district in the 2015 elections, but lost in a landslide to APC’s David Umaru.

Subsequent situations confirming the APC as the rave of the moment played out at the National Assembly where 49 legislators equally joined the ranks of 137 legislators in the APC as a result of the prior merger of the smaller opposition parties.

The moves initially gave the APC a slim majority of 186 legislators out of a total of 360 House of Representatives legislators. However, subsequent political wrangling and pressure from political factions and interests outside the National Assembly, gave the party only 37 additional legislators.

It thus gave the APC a nominal majority of 172 out of 360 legislators, as opposed to the PDP’s 171. This was further confirmed when the party seated 179 members on January 15, 2015 at resumption after a long recess to finally affirm its majority.

Its foray into the executive cadre was even more impressive. The first and ultimate fruit of the merger became ripen when the APC presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, massively won the presidential election by almost 2.6 million votes with the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan conceding defeat on March, 31, 2015.

To wrest power at the centre from the incumbent president and the then ruling party, the PDP, which earlier boasted and swore to keep the mantle of leadership for 60 years provided, in reality, the party’s first major turnaround that brightened its future and fortune.

Another bold statement the emergence of APC made in Nigeria’s political space and history was that an opposition political party, a product of a coalition, defeated a ruling party in a general election and ensured that power was transferred peacefully from one political party to another for the first time in the nation’s history.

APC did not just record only that mileage as the party of the moment, it also carved another political niche in ensuring that the party controlled greater numbers of state governors than other opposition parties since the ruling party came to power in 2015.

Interestingly, the icing on the cake was when APC equally won the majority of the seats in the Senate and House of Representatives after the 2015 general election.

Though it fell shy of winning a super-majority to override the ability of the opposition PDP to block legislation, APC eventually produced majorly the principal officers of the National Assembly with Bukola Saraki emerging as the Senate President in a dramatic circumstance, while Hon Yakubu Dogara took over the House of Representatives as the Speaker.

The emergence of Saraki as the Senate President was, in retrospect, the first noticeable major crack on the wall of the APC. That singular incident divided the party so sharply from inception of President Buhari’s administration.

The development combined with the cold war over the misunderstanding that trailed the resistance to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket that would have produced former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu as the running mate and vice president to Buhari.

But the challenges and hurdles the legislative crisis and refusal of the Muslim-Muslim joint presidential ticket inflicted on the future of the party were very insignificant compared to the executive crisis signposted by Buhari’s prolonged medical trip to the United Kingdom (UK) and the crisis over the constitutional transfer of power to vice president, Yemi Osinbajo.

Like every institution populated by human beings, Buhari’s long absence on a medical trip in the UK and his lukewarm disposition to managing the crisis fuelled more misunderstandings in the party, resulting in more widening of the cracks within the party that affected the growth and development in many ways.

Although, in the consideration of many, so many factors combined to ensure that APC-led government did not live up to the pre-election campaign promises of delivering on its three-point agenda of fighting insecurity, corruption and turning around the economy. However, it did not however stop the ruling party from retaining the presidential power and majority seats at the National Assembly after the 2019 general election.

The ruling party, out of experience, corrected its previous mistakes when the party got it right in installing its anointed legislators as principal officers of both chambers of the National Assembly. And while Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North) emerged as the President of the Senate, Femi Gbajabiamila (Surulere I) became the Speaker of the House of Representatives in a seamless legislative election which ensured that the party avoided large-scale internal dissent like in 2015.

But, despite retaining the privileged presidential seat and installing the right principal officers of the National Assembly, a combination of leadership crises across all strata in the country, failure to actualise its campaign promises among others visibly stagnated the growth and potential of the ruling party.

Curiously, from the tenure of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun as party’s National Chairman to the current regime of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, no overall headship of the ruling party left the stage untainted and in glorious circumstances.

While Oyegun was booted out during a national convention after failing to be re-elected to actualise his ambition to serve for a second term, his immediate successor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was controversially sacked just after two years into his first tenure.

The intriguing drama consuming the headship of the ruling party continued when the Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee was halted from perpetuating itself in office with the tenure of Senator Abdullahi Adamu after several extended tenure elongations.

Regrettably, Abdullahi Adamu also tested the bitter pill and ate the humble pie when he was allegedly forced to resign after serving roughly two years into his tenure and eplaced by the incumbent, Umar Ganduje.

The crisis in the ruling party did not only stop at consuming the headships of the party’s national and state leaders, it equally caused many electoral casualties, especially in Zamfara and Rivers states, particularly in the 2019 general election, when they lost the ticket and privilege to participate in the governorship and legislative elections.

But, regardless of whatever perception anybody tenaciously holds about the party’s journey so far, what is incontrovertible is that the leaders, chieftains, and members of the APC have learnt and mastered the act of winning elections.

For many political watchers, what took the PDP several years to perfect, the APC has mastered and outclassed it with just nine years in charge of affairs at the centre. And majority of Nigerians agree that if the ruling party continues with the manner they are going, it may take several other decades for the opposition to wrest power from the APC.

Landmark achievements

Under President Buhari, Nigeria saw the most ambitious legislative programme in its history. Several landmark Bills were passed or amended including: Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2022; Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2022, which repeals the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended: Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2022, which repeals the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011 as amended in 2013, and provides for the effective implementation of international instruments on the prevention and combating of terrorism and suppression of the financing of terrorism; Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Bill, 2022, which makes comprehensive provisions for the seizure, confiscation, forfeiture, and management of properties derived from unlawful activity.

Also, there is the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, 1993 (Amendment) Act, 2019, which to deliver increased revenues to the Federation; Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON (Amendment) Acts of 2019 and 2021; Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) Bill, the first legislation in Nigeria’s history focused on curbing anti-competition practices; establishing the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission; Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Establishment Act, 2018; Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill, an Executive Bill, signed into law in 2019. The Bill facilitates the identification, tracing, freezing, restraining, recovery, forfeiture and confiscation of proceeds, property, and other instrumentalities of crime, as well as the prosecution of offenders in criminal cases regardless of where in the world they might be.

Others are: Act establishing the Police Trust Fund, which will significantly improve funding for the Nigeria Police Force (2019); Nigeria Police Act, 2020 – the first comprehensive reform of Police legislation since the Police Act of 1943; Repeal and Re-Enactment of the Companies & Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 2020 – the first comprehensive reform since 1990.

Under the APC, the legislature also passed the Not Too Young to Run Bill (2018) – a Constitution Amendment Bill, to reduce the age of eligibility for running for elective office in Nigeria; Nigerian Correctional Services Bill, 2019 – the first comprehensive reform of prison legislation in close to five decades; Suppression of Piracy and other Maritime Offences Bill, 2019 – the first anti-piracy legislation in West Africa and A Bill to grant financial autonomy to States’ Houses of Assembly and States’ Judiciary (2018).

To the APC’s credit is the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, Finance Act 2019 and 2020; and the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018.

EXECUTIVE ORDERS

The APC under Buhari pioneered the use of Executive Orders by any government in Nigeria. His Administration, from 2017, issued a number of landmark Executive Orders, including: Presidential Executive Order on Promotion of Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment (2017); Presidential Executive Order on Promoting Local Procurement by Government Agencies (2017) among others.

INFRASTRUCTURE

As with legislative reform, Nigeria under the APC has witnessed some of the biggest and most ambitious federal infrastructure programme since Nigeria’s Independence.

The Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCorp) was established by President Buhari in February 2021, with initial seed Capital of N1 Trillion, provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). InfraCorp’s goal is “to catalyse and accelerate investment into Nigeria’s infrastructure sector by originating, structuring, executing and managing end-to-end bankable projects in that space.”

RAIL

In the rail transportation, APC recorded a feat. Under the APC federal government, the 156 kms Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail was completed and commissioned, within a Nigerian-record-time of four years (2017 to 2021). There was also 8.72km extension to Lagos-Ibadan Rail Line, to Lagos Port Complex, which wad completed in 2021. The 186km Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge Rail Line was completed and commissioned in 2016, likewise 327km Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail, which was commissioned in 2020, 33 years after construction began.

As part of this project, there was the full rehabilitation of the Railway Village, Agbor, as well as construction of a Railway Ancillary Facilities Yard, also in Agbor. In 2021, the Line commenced commercial freight haulage, transporting pipelines for the AKK Gas Pipeline project.

The APC government commenced the E-Ticketing concession process for the Lagos-Ibadan and Warri-Itakpe Standard Gauge Rail Lines. The scope of the project was to design, finance, build, operate and manage Secure Ticketing Solution systems (Hardware and Software) for the two lines; and completion of the E-Ticketing concession process on AbujaKaduna Route in 2021, which increased the monthly generated revenue from less than N200 Million to N400 Million.

The Abuja Light Rail was completed in 2018. The Ground-breaking for the 284km Kano-Maradi Standard Gauge Rail (with branch line to Dutse), was done, as preliminary works started 2021. There was also ground-breaking for complete revamp of Port Harcourt–Maiduguri Narrow Gauge Rail. Work kicked off in 2022; and 377 Wagons, 64 Coaches, and 21 Locomotives (including DMUs) purchased for the Standard Gauge network, between 2016 and 2021.

More than 11,000 new jobs were created from the on-going rail modernization projects in the country. More than 100 qualified young Nigerians awarded full international scholarships for undergraduate/graduate courses in rail engineering and transport in China, from 2018. In addition, dozens of Nigerian engineers have been trained as part of the railway modernization projects.

The was establishment of a new Transportation University in Daura, Katsina State, and establishment of a new Rail Wagon Assembly Plant in Kajola, Ogun State – both nearing completion of construction; and 3, 000 tons of cement transported monthly through train freight service from Lagos to Kano.

ROADS

Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), under the APC has invested over one billion dollars in three flagship projects: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway (for completion in 2022), Second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway.

Also, more than a trillion Naira had been mobilized by the ruling party through Executive Order 7, for road projects across all six geopolitical zones of the country, like Bodo-Bonny in Rivers and Apapa Oshodi-Oworonshoki-Ojota in Lagos.

More than 600 billion Naira worth of Sukuk Bonds raised since 2017 for more than 40 critical road projects across all six geopolitical zones. Between November 25 and December 13, 2021, the Federal Government handed over to benefiting communities 941 km of completed Sukuk road projects connecting 10 states in five geo-political zones of the country.

AIR AND SEA PORTS

The APC federal government completed new terminals for International Airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt. There was successful construction of new runways for the Abuja and Enugu International Airports. Also, the Abuja International Airport runway was reconstructed in 2017, for the first time since the airport was built in the early 1980s.

In 2019, President Buhari approved a special fund of N10 billion for the reconstruction of the Enugu Airport runway. It was completed and reopened in August 2020.

President Buhari approved funds for the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) to build a world-class Flight Safety Laboratory (FSL) in Abuja, and train personnel to run it. Now Nigeria no longer has to send aircraft Cockpit Voice Recorders and Flight Data Recorders (“Black Box”) abroad for downloading and analysis.

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) in July 2017 received the ISO 9001:2015 certification (re-certified in August 2020) for aeronautical meteorological services delivery, making Nigeria the first-ever African country to achieve this feat.

Significant infrastructure upgrades at various Airports nationwide include: Cat-3 ILS/DME (ILS = Instrument Landing System; DME = Distance Measuring Equipment) installed in Lagos and Abuja Airports in 2019 — which allows planes to land in zero visibility.

AGRICULTURE

The APC government made giant strides in agriculture. These include:

Anchor Borrowers Program (ABP):

The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria, launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 17, 2015, disbursed more than N800 billion to more than four million smallholder farmers of 23 different commodities (including Rice, Wheat, Maize, Cotton, Cassava, Poultry, Soybeans, Groundnut, Fish), cultivating over 5 million hectares of farmland.

Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI):

Launched as a government-to-government partnership between the Nigerian and Moroccan Governments, in December 2016, the PFI produced 30 million 50kg bags of NPK 20:10:10 equivalent in 2020, bringing total production since inception to over 60 million 50kg bags equivalent; and number of participating blending plants increased to 72 from the four that were operational in Nigeria at the inception of the initiative.

HOUSING

The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, has completed or is completing housing projects in 34 States of Nigeria, under the National Housing Programme, with the support of the State Governors who provided the land. So far, more than 5,000 houses are at various stages of completion, and thousands more are planned.