ACN: What next after the broom revolution?

Following the overwhelming success of the Action Congress of Nigeria at the polls in the South-West, CHUX OHAI writes that the sweeping revolution should not stop at the level of celebration

Shortly after the Action Congress of Nigeria won the governorship and house of assembly elections in Lagos State, a visibly elated and grateful Governor Babatunde Fashola had addressed the electorate.

Summing up the significance of the victory to both the ACN and the people, he had said, “April 26 was a day of victory. This is a victory for Lagos State. Also, it is a victory for good governance and for the development of our people.”

In just a few words, Fashola had, consciously or not, spoken the minds of the hundreds of thousands of Lagosians who voted him into power for the second time running.

In doing so, he had also echoed the thoughts of millions of other supporters of the ACN in neighbouring Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Edo and, perhaps, Anambra states, whose votes had helped the party coast home to victory at the polls.

Indeed, April 26, 2011, about 10 days after bloody riots engulfed parts of Northern Nigeria in protest against the outcome of the presidential election, was the day that the ACN emphatically confirmed its supremacy in the South-West geo-political zone.

It was a day in which the hopes and aspirations of millions of Nigerians for progressive governance, as exemplified in the performance of the administration of Governor Fashola in Lagos, were rekindled via the ballot.

In the build-up to the general elections, the ACN leadership had repeatedly reassured its supporters nationwide that it stood for a masses’ oriented programme that was guaranteed to fetch the much-needed dividends of democracy in terms of free education, free health care services, improved social services and facilities, as well as the provision of basic amenities to the people.

In other words, the party had always pledged to focus on providing qualitative education at all levels, establishing an efficient health care delivery system, providing jobs to the teeming masses of unemployed Nigerians and housing at affordable costs, as well as developing infrastructure and enhancing agricultural production in the states under its control.

The ACN’s capacity to fulfil these objectives was still not in doubt when on April 16, 2011 the people of the South-West, excluding Osun State, went to the polls and voted the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, President Goodluck Jonathan, instead of Malam Nuhu Ribadu, who was the ACN candidate.

Needless to add that Jonathan’s landslide victory in the region did not only transmit shock waves down the spines of the ACN leadership, it actually sent them scurrying back to the drawing board. At the same time, it left millions of worried supporters of the party in morbid dread of a possible take-over of the South-West by the PDP.

This general feeling that the tide might turn against the ACN persisted despite a spirited effort on the part of the leaders of the party to assure their supporters that they were still in control until Tuesday, April 26, 2011.

On that day, the entire region witnessed the total defeat of the PDP in most of the South-West geo-political zone.

Interestingly, the ruling party failed to fulfil the promise of its leaders to prise key states in the South-West, such as Lagos and Ekiti, from the grip of the ACN by ‘do-or-die’ means.

The ACN did not only win by an overwhelming majority in Lagos State, it went on to sweep the PDP out of crisis-ridden Ogun and Oyo states. The party’s victories in both states, as well as its successful ‘defence’ of its control over Lagos, did ignite widespread celebration among its supporters in the region.

Apart from that, the development spelt the birth of a ‘broom revolution’ in the region, which signified the dawn of an era of masses-oriented policies and beneficial governance.

Besides the notion that a glorious future awaits Nigerians living in this part of the country in the years ahead, it is believed that the ACN domination of the South-West may have truly liberated the region from the seemingly intermittent spells of political violence, alleged corruption and ineptitude hitherto witnessed under the erstwhile PDP governors.

Now that the party has firmly entrenched itself in the South-West, where it originates from in the first place, the people await the fulfilment of its own end of the mutual bargain, which is the pursuit of a representative and people-oriented policy in all the states under its control.

Suggesting the way forward for the ACN in an interview with SATURDAY PUNCH, the Chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group, Mr. Mashood Erubami, said that the onus of responsibility rested upon the leadership of the party to ensure that it did not derail from its chosen welfarist path.

Erubami noted that there were great expectations among the people in the states currently controlled by the party. He said that more than anything else, the masses expected to be duly rewarded for keeping faith with the party’s ideals.

He said, “I think the ACN should compensate the voters for their investments. It should strive to become the key political institution through which the aspirations of the people can be buoyed and their collective desire for good governance fulfilled.”

Erubami advised the ACN-controlled state governments to make the people the stand-point of their programmes, adding that such must be derived from the people and not the other way round.

He said, “The ACN governments must allow the people to participate in their programmes and to be involved in every decision they make.

“In programme and policy design and implementation, there must be true expression of the mandate of the people.”

Similarly, a Lagos-based educationist, Dr. Olu Adenibuyan, who is also the moving spirit behind an influential pressure group in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, affirmed that expectations were high in the five South-West states now taken over by the ACN.

He said, “Although there is evidence that the ACN objective of delivering good governance is already at work in Lagos State, there is a need to do more in other states controlled by the party.

“In Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, even in Edo states, the expectations of the people are high. The people simply can’t wait to enjoy the dividends of democracy as promised by the party’s leadership.” Listing a number of priority areas, which the ACN governments must address urgently, Adenibuyan said the party should concentrate on the provision of basic infrastructure, in the rehabilitation of the failing educational system and delivery of quality health care services, particularly in the rural areas.

He continued, “Most of the roads in the South-West are so bad that they have to be rebuilt urgently. There is a need to take a second glance at the state of the educational system, too. The same applies to health care, which is equally in a poor state.

“Also, potable water in most rural communities in the region, especially in Ogun, is hard to find. These are basic problems that the governments of the ACN states ought to deal with immediately.

“Apart from that, the people expect that the gover nments should move closer to them than before. I think one of the best ways to do this is to create more local government areas out of the existing ones where government’s presence is largely non-existent.”

Obviously, Lagos has, in the last four years of Governor Fashola’s administration, served as a model to most other states in the country, let alone its sister ACN states. If they could help it, even the PDP-controlled states would want to replicate what the Lagos State government has achieved in the area of infrastructural development, as well as what the present Osun State government has done in terms of youth empowerment.

Yet, in another interview with SATURDAY PUNCH, the National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that the ACN state governors did not have to reinvent what the party had achieved in Lagos.

While maintaining that the party would always keep to its manifesto, which was designed to be people and development-oriented, Mohammed said that it was mandatory for the state governors to listen to the yearning of the people and to meet their needs. Also, the ACN stalwart said that the party had devised a strategy to ensure that sitting state governors did not deviate from its policies.

He said, “In each of the five states of the South-West and Edo State, we have set up a model government, such that it will be impossible to vote in any other government.

“I can assure you that the ACN is engaging not just its governors, but also its legislators on what the party expects from them at both the state and national levels.

“We have decided to set up a monitoring team that will, at least twice in a year, monitor the performances of the state governors. “Similarly, we expect the legislators to make the kind of laws that will enhance the execution of the party’s laudable policies.

“For us, it is not going to be business as usual, but a collaborative effort between the party, the state governors and the legislators.” Already, during an event, which was organised to mark the 2011 World Day of Safety and Health at Work, Governor Fashola indicated that his administration would step up action in the direction of the provision of quality health care services in the state. In his address to the gathering at the event, he pledged his government’s commitment to ensuring safe working conditions in every part of Lagos State.

Also, the ACN governor-elect in Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has promised to embark on massive developmental projects that will erase traces of the ineptitude of the last government in the state, just as his counterpart in Oyo, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, seems to be on the path of vengeance against the administration of outgoing Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala.

Beyond the rhetoric of the ‘broom revolution,’ however, the question that seems to be on every lip in the South-West is what next? Will the ACN deliver on its electioneering promises? The people are waiting.