SETTING THE AGENDA: What APC Must Do Post - Convention (Media As Watchdog Role)

 

                  (Courtesy, Google)

The National Convention of the All Peoples' Congress (APC) has been concluded. The party's national executive is now known and have been sworn in.

It is indeed cause for relief that, that particular hurdle has been scaled successfully, although too infrequently. The last National Convention last held in 2022/23.

Despite the successful hosting of the convention, the ruling APC must quickly work at getting so many things in check.

Firstly, APC must settle so many internal Party wranglings still subsisting within its ranks. Gov. Simimalayi Fubara of Rivers state and the Rivers APC, Gov. Dapo Abiodun and ex governor turned Senator Gbenga Daniel, Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso and his kwakwasiyya  domineering influence on opposition NNDP and rippling negatives on Kano's APC, Ex Speaker Yakubu Dogara and disenchantment with Bauchi APC, etc. are few of the many internal tensions within the party that APC must address quickly to foster peace and unity. 

Currently, APC faces difficulties adhering to democratic ideals within its fold, causing disputes over candidates' selection for general elections. This arose because such processes are flawed and are often placed on personal interests above overall party goals.

Secondly, the Nigerian political landscape has been beset with the "APC Tsunami" effect, where members of all leading opposition political parties in Nigeria have been effecting from their parties upon which platform they were elected, to join the ruling APC. 

Reports say that these defecting governors, senators and House of Representatives members were enticed with promises of automatic reelection into office if they quit their former parties and join APC. Mega Mode Media cannot verify the authenticity of this claim.

But, this plan is proving costly. Those hitherto presiding over the affairs of the party are not yielding control and authority of the party at the states level to the newcomers. And, for people who have been operating at the top hierarchy of the parties they are defecting from, they also find it beneath their pedigrees ti be reduced to mere floor members at their various states. Managing this impasse to find lasting solutions to this problem has been thorny. As APC approaches another election season, this is a situation the ruling party must resolve quickly to avoid chaos.

Thirdly, APC is the ruling political party in Nigeria. So, the party bears the brunt for everything bedeviling the economy and prevailing hardship in the country. Within the available window of the next few months, the ruling APC at federal, state and local government levels must ensure the masses feel, tangibly, the impact of good governance, especially, regarding food security. 

Mega Mode Media proposes that the various agricultural loan banks must be empowered and stringently tasked to help local farmers lower production costs. Appropriate marketing boards and market enforcement agencies should be set up to rigidly ensure prices of farm produce are still not sold at exorbitant rates following this intervention.

Fifthly, APC celebrated having 8, 456 delegates in Abuja for the convention. Its e-registration exercise hovers around seven million to twelve million members nationwide. Hardly cause for euphoria, that is less than half of Lagos state alone. 

As King Charles III said during President Tinubu's recent state trip to UK, Nigeria has 250 million people, half of this figure comprises the youth of between 18 and 30. This demographic is the dream population of any country, to have such huge, young, energetic population. But, they are largely disenchanted in Nigeria because of mass unemployment and hardship, causing increased criminality and deviant behaviour.

The ministers of youth have done nothing to justify the creation of that ministry by at least, mobilizing and encouraging the teeming youth of Nigeria towards believing in the Tinubu administration and its Renewed Hope agenda to retool Nigeria.

Now, with such paltry figures in its e-membership registration, coupled with alarming voter's apathy, 

Getting-out-the-Vote (GOTV) on election day looks hazardous.

Mega Mode Media believes the ministry of information and national orientation, and its news agencies like NTA, FRCN, VON, etc. must ensure production of jingles with nationalistic fervour for immediate broadcast on these news agencies. In the 80s, jingles like "Andrew, you want to check out?", "Me I like my country", etc. fired patriotic zeal amongst the masses. The APC must make policy directives to this effect. 

This newspaper knows they hardly cost anything to produce, the staff of each news agencies can conceptualize and execute these effectively atimomal cost and effort, like in the 2980s

Mega Mode Media urges that the ministry of youth must be rejigged. There is no excuse for its abysmal failure to minimize the largest frustrated and angry Nigerian youth, despite many ingenuous ways it can engage with them.

Yet, they form the nucleus of the electorate and voters on election day.  

With the euphoria of the National Convention dying down, these are what the APC must do to guarantee mass victory at all levels for impactful power consolidation and good governance as the clock ticks fast towards Election Day 2027.