National Institute of Progressive Studies: Issues and Challenges By Salihu Moh. Lukman

On Thursday, December 28, 2023, His Excellency, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, APC National Chairman, after the visit of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) to President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos, informed journalists that the party will establish a National Institute of Progressive Studies in 2024. This is a welcome development, which should be commended. Noting that the idea of establishing a Progressive Institute is as old as the APC, now that the National Chairman has expressed commitment to establish it in 2024, is a remarkable departure from the pronouncements of previous National Chairmen.

Perhaps, also worthy of commendation is the initiative of Dr. Ganduje to visit President Asiwaju Tinubu together with all members of NWC. This has not happened in a long time. The last time the NWC, as a body, met with the President is probably during the tenure of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole between 2018 and 2020. Throughout the tenure of the Caretaker Committee between June 2020 and March 2022, it was only the Chairman, His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni that meets the President. Most times, those meetings were used to legitmised many decisions, which would have ordinarily required affirmation by organs of the party. This practice continued during the tenure of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu between March 2022 and July 2023.

In fact, the attempt to impose a so-called consensus Presidential candidate for the APC took advantage of this practice. The whole NWC of the party was reduced to a rubber stamp as virtually all the consultations between former President Muhammadu Buhari and party leaders excluded the members of the NWC, apart from the National Chairman, Sen. Adamu. Sen. Adamu only informed members of the NWC on July 6, 2022, without even the courtesy of inviting responses. The rest, as is often said, is history.

A major challenge facing the APC so far, is the question of whether it can truly become a progressive political party, not just election platform. For APC to become a progressive political party, an important precondition is that organs of the party must be made functional such that regular meetings hold as enshrined in the APC constitution. Meetings of organs of the party should be made to discharge the full responsibilities assigned to them. These organs are the National Convention, National Advisory Council, National Executive Committee, National Working Committee, Zonal Congress, Zonal Executive Committee, State Congress, State Executive Committee, State Working Committee, Senatorial District Committee, Local Government Area/Area Council Congress, Local Government Area/ Area Council Executive Committee, Ward Congress, Ward Executive Committee, Polling Unit Committee, National Caucus, State Caucus and Local Government Area/ Area Council Caucus.

It is expected that through meetings of these organs, the aims and objectives of the APC as contained in Article 7 of the party’s constitution would be achieved. Being a party envisioned to be progressive would entail that through meetings of organs of the party, specific objectives such as developing and promoting ‘economic policies that guarantee public participation in and, where necessary, control of major means of production, distribution and exchange’ as provided in Article 7(vi) should define the orientation of all governments controlled by the APC, from Federal to State levels.

In addition, observance of affirmative action in elective and appointive positions for youth, women, Persons Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) as enshrined in Article 7(vii and viii) should go beyond the current window dressing practice. Similarly, challenge of upholding ‘principles and practice of internal party democracy at all levels’ as well as institutionalising ‘representative democracy, discipline and observance of the rule of the rule of law’ as stipulated by Article 7(ix and x) shouldn’t be matters of claims. For instance, the National Convention of the party, which holds every four years should not be limited to just electing National Officers, as is the practice. It should ratify policies and programmes of the party. In addition, it should receive reports from organs of the party and take appropriate decisions in line with recommendations contained in the reports. The National Advisory Council, being the conscience and soul of the party should be able to intervene in all internal disputes and promote reconciliation. They can also advise and initiate policies to guide the party.

On its part, the National Executive Committee is required to ‘examine the actions taken or legislation proposed or passed by any Government, Legislative House or Local Government Area/Area Council and determine what further actions the party should take’. It is also the National Executive Committee that is mandated to ‘ensure that the actions and policies of the government at the Federal and State levels are consistent with the party’s manifesto and campaign promises’. Other practical functions of the National Executive Committee include raising adequate funds for the management and sustenance of the party, approving the national budget of the party, receiving quarterly financial report from the National Working Committee on income and expenditure of the party, etc. The National Working Committee is ‘responsible for the Administration of the party and putting into effect the decisions of the National Executive Committee.’

To achieve all these, the APC constitution makes provisions for twenty-five elected members of the National Working Committee and assigned specific responsibilities to each of them. How all these are coordinated and oriented to serve organs of the party to make them discharge all the responsibilities outlined in the APC constitution are assumed to be given. The sad reality however is that many party leaders emerge with hardly clear knowledge of their responsibilities. Many are ignorant of their basic responsibilities and least interested about provisions of the party’s constitution. Expectations about promoting implemention of provisions of the party’s manifesto will be a tall order.

This is unfortunately also the case with all political parties in the country, not just APC. The only thing indisputable to most party leaders is abiding commitment to do everything possible to win elections both internally within the party and during elections, which may be reduced to strategies to manipulate results of electoral contests. Mainly, because everything is reduced to manipulating electoral contest, all party activities are reduced to issues of elections. This create the unhealthy reality whereby virtually all political parties in the country, including the APC, are alienated from governments they produced. Parties produce governments but have almost zero influence in the decisions of the governments and elected representatives.

Without doubt, these were some of the issues Nigerians expected APC will change. Those expectations were responsible for why Nigerians supported the APC. Painfully, between 2015 and 2023, APC failed Nigerians on that score. The good thing however, unlike in other parties, in the case of APC, there were strong internal contestations pushing for reforms so that the APC can return to the path of meeting the expectations of Nigerians. Those internal contestations were responsible for the leadership changes in APC. Part of the reality compelling virtually all the leadership changes in APC, at least since June 2020, was attempt by leaders of the party to grandstand and block campaigns for internal reform. Without going into details, that was what consumed the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s National Working Committee. It was also what set the His Excellency Mai Mala Caretaker Committee against the party’s leadership. It was what consumed Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore.

Beyond the APC, inability to make political parties functional such that organs of the parties are discharging all their responsibilities including examining actions of government and elected representatives, as well as promoting policies in lines with provisions of the party’s manifesto is partly responsible for complete absence of ideological orientation by all parties. The reality facing Nigerian democracy begs the questions: how can we make our parties functional beyond electoral contests? How can we develop the capacity of party leaders to both understand their responsibilities as enshrined in the party’s constitution as well as have the requisite skills to contract the needed relationship with elected representatives to influence and guide their conduct to implement the manifesto of the party and all campaign promises? In simple terms, how can we transform party leadership beyond surrogate status?

These are no easy challenges. It requires strong political will. If APC is to return to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party, these are issues that must be positively responded to by the leaders of the party. The declaration by the National Chairman of APC, Dr. Ganduje, that the party will be establishing a National Institute of Progressive Studies in 2024, should be oriented to respond to all the challenges of making APC to emerge as a functionally progressive party. Such an institute should develop the needed programmatic framework of undertaking the requisite broader operational training to develop the aptitude of party leaders at all levels to discharge all their responsibilities to party organs. In addition, the institute should have the responsibility of organising political education courses for all party leaders at all levels.

Details of all of these are very easy to develop as there are models across the world, which could serve as references. For such an institute to succeed however, there are fundamental issues which must be resolved. The first one is the question of funding. This is in two parts. The easiest is mobilising funds for the proposed institute. It is easy because there are many sources of funding, which could be assessed by such an institute. The most difficult is the challenge of mobilising funding for management and sustenance of the party. Currently, like all political parties in Nigeria, APC has no sustainable sources of funding. The only defined source of funding is fees for nomination forms paid by aspiring candidates. Although more than N30 billion was generated under the leadership of Sen. Adamu ahead of the 2023 general elections, it wasn’t used to fund activities of the party organs nationally. For instance each of the six zones in the country was only given N40 million, and each state was given only N20 million.

If the organs of the party at all levels are to function as required by the provisions of the party’s constitution, the APC should have an annual budgets of not less than N100 billion. Certainly, funding activities of States, Local Governments and Wards organs of the party throughout the country would require not less than N50 billion. With an annual budget of not less than N100 billion, how can the party mobilise the required funding? What will be the responsibilities of all the organs of the party in the process of fund mobilisation? How will the funds be shared and what will be the accountability structures that will be put in place?

Part of what the budget of the party must clearly outline is unambiguous reward and conditions of service for party leadership at all levels. If the confidence of party leaders is to be strengthened, reward and conditions of service for party leaders should be benchmarked with public service conditions of service. This would entail, for instance, the National Chairman should have the same condition service with the Vice President. Deputy National Chairmen should have the same conditions of service with Senate President. National Secretary, the same conditions with Secretary to Government of the Federation. And other members of National Working Committee should have the same conditions with Ministers.

This should be cascaded down to states, local governments, and wards and should necessarily require that qualifications for all positions are appropriately benchmarked with corresponding public service qualifications. But first things first; the issue of party funding and capacity to mobilise the fund to implement all these should be resolved beyond assumptions. A situation whereby the National Chairman of the party is reduced to a beggar, expecting charity from elected and appointed officials in government is unacceptable. Once that is the case capacity of the party to influence and regulate the conduct of elected and appointed officials in government will remain weak.

Once the issue of party funding is not resolved, the current reality whereby party leaders are not committed to discharging their responsibilities will continue. Given such reality, the only realistic mandate of any proposed Progressive Institute could only be to develop the capacity of party leaders to manipulate electoral contests. Certainly, that couldn’t be the kind of institute Dr. Ganduje is proposing.

Beyond every doubt, Nigerian political parties should have a programmatic framework of developing the capacity of political party leaders to discharge the responsibilities assigned to them by their respective constitutions. Above all, if political parties in Nigeria are to emerge as the supreme political authority directing and regulating the conduct of elected representatives to ensure that policies and legislations by elected officials produced by parties are representative and responsive to the interest of citizens in lines with provisions of the party manifestos and campaign promises, the desirability of an institute should be welcome.

Such an institute can only succeed in meeting the expectations of Nigerians if it is part of wider strategy of reforming Nigerian political parties to ensure that their structures are functional in line with extant provisions of their constitution. Therefore, the proposed National Institute of Progressive Studies to be setup by APC should be part of a wider strategic reform initiative by the party to ensure that structures of the party at all levels are functional and elected party leaders at all levels are oriented to deliver on their respective mandates as enshrined in the APC constitution.

For this to happen, we must passionately appeal to President Asiwaju Tinubu to strongly support Dr. Ganduje in every ramification, especially on the critical issue of resolving the challenge of party funding. Both President Asiwaju Tinubu and Dr. Ganduje have a golden opportunity to engrave their names in Nigeria’s political history if they can initiate reforms of Nigerian political parties beyond the status of serving as election platforms. Nigerian democracy is hungry for political parties that truly assert their authority as being supreme, on account of which manifestos of political parties will have expression in the policies and legislations of governments they control.

May God Almighty strengthen the capacity of Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman of the APC to succeed in truly returning the APC its founding vision of being a progressive party. May the proposed National Institute of Progressive Studies serve as the needed watershed for a deeper political reform that would change the orientation of Nigerian political parties and raise the profile of party leaders beyond the status of being reduced to surrogates such that party leaders have the same ranks with corresponding elected and appointed political leaders in government at all levels as provided under the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended.

Best wishes for 2024. May the New Year produce a new positive political reality for Nigeria such that our parties are transformed beyond being mere election platforms. May APC truly emerge as a progressive political party in 2024! Amin!

Moh. Lukman is Kaduna based chieftain of the APC