I warmly welcome Nigeria’s newest political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

As constituted on February 6, 2013, the APC comprises the former All Progressive Grand Alliance, the Action Congress of Nigeria, the All

Nigeria Peoples Party, and the Congress for Progressive Change.

As I understand it, the merger is to advance the best interests of Nigeria through correcting the lapses in our polity identified since 1999.  

It is widely-known that those lapses are symbolized by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has wielded power at the centre since that time.

Now, the sins of the PDP are many.  So are its sinners.  

But Nigeria’s sinners are not only in the PDP.  The PDP has become the symbol of Nigeria’s decay only because of its carnage in the center, but none of the parties that have held power in the States in the past 14 years are innocent.  

In other words, the real issue is not the PDP; it is the Nigerian politician.  The question is whether the Nigerian politician of the APC is different, or will be.

It is known that the immediate objective of the APC is to unseat the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.  

Mr. Jonathan has not confirmed he will run.  If he does, that would indicate an unrepentant PDP.  

It will also be good news for the APC because Jonathan ought to be pretty easy to defeat.   In my view, Jonathan’s biggest opponent in 2015 will be Jonathan, not a party or a presidential candidate.  

In 2011, he never debated anyone but himself; in 2015, he will.  Since 2011, he has put in the most atrocious shift a Nigerian ruler ever has, and failed to honour his promises and pledges.  In Jonathan’s care, Nigeria is worse than an open sewage.

Jonathan is Jonathan’s biggest weakness because his presidency has been but a broadcast of his limitations.  The Jonathan that has emerged since 2010 is, even by PDP standards, not a marketable one.  Unless Nigerians are such fools that that they will again mistake “clueless” for “shoeless,” it is unlikely he will make it past his own party’s primaries.  

In other words, in the 2015 elections, the APC will have more than a fair chance to wipe the slate clean.

But the task is not just removing the PDP; it is putting in, and putting first, Nigeria.   To do that, the APC must demonstrate the capacity, not just the rhetoric, for democracy.  It is an age-old challenge: many proclaim it, but few are strong enough to understand its implications.    

The question is whether, in practice, the replacement party is cut from the same cloth as the PDP.  Since you cannot get yam from cocoyam, will the men and women offered by the APC be achiever and people of character?

The new party has outlined its priorities to include agricultural development, jobs, free education, affordable healthcare, infrastructural development, adequate power supply, eradication of poverty and corruption, and rapid technological advancement and industrialisation.

That is all very good, but it is also just an overloaded shopping basket.  Any political party, especially a new one, can tender such a shopping cart at the checkout counter.   Does the APC have the political and patriotic capital to pay for it?

I certainly hope so, but the new party may be looking at the microscope from the wrong end.  Regrettably, that is the same exhaust pipe from which the PDP has always looked at the country, and it is the end from which Nigeria has been sold the most rotten goods.   
The correct and sensible place to start is for the ACP to assume the character of a party that seeks power not for the sake of power, but for service.