2023: How APC, PDP Are Confusing Their Followers With Incoherence

Without a doubt, Nigerian politicians in previous dispensations are known for powerful articulation, consistency, and coherence. But in the 2023 election cycle, presidential candidates and the fosterers of the two leading political parties in the country, APC and PDP, have made blunders that Nigerians should not easily forgive.

Iyorchia Ayu, the national chairperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is the latest culprit.

On Thursday, he made an error while speaking at the party’s campaign rally at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano state.

The consistency of the inconsistencies

On November 15, 2022, at the APC campaign flag-off in Plateau State, Bola Tinubu, the party's presidential candidate suffered a gaffe when he said, “God bless PD…APC”.

Everyone likened the gaffes to a physical illness until his meanest rival was caught in a similar web.

On December 13, 2022, the PDP presidential candidate, while speaking at the party’s campaign rally in Plateau State, begged the people of the state to “ensure that you vote for A… I mean PDP this time around”.

Other wanderers around the presidency, including Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi and the wife of the PDP presidential candidate, Titi Atiku Abubakar, have also made gaffes that have caught national attention.

And now, the embattled national chairman of the PDP nailed his party destructively when he said, “We are supposed to be the leaders in Africa, and everywhere in the world, we should be respected.

"PDP has brought us shame, and we will not continue to retain them in power… APC.

The confusions behind the string of slip-ups mean

The consistent slip-ups could translate to different meanings in different fora.

But the unignorable truth is that both the PDP and the APC have feelers in and around themselves.

They are interconnected to the point that the actors mistake the two parties for each other.

Atiku Abubakar vied for the presidential primary of the APC in the 2015 election cycle.

The political formation of Nigeria revolves around the assemblage of interest among friends and not ideology, national values, or common goals.

The gaffe, meanwhile, could also mean that the two parties are afraid of each other.

Psychology reveals that one won’t desist from thinking about one’s meanest rival.

The consistent inconsistency could be because the two parties are afraid that the presidency is between one of them and therefore feeling the heat of the competition.

Before the public appearances, we could not say if what the “powers that be” had talked about was how stronger their biggest opposition was becoming. 

All indications point to the feeling that the two parties are overly occupied with defeating each other, making them lose focus and coherence.

Maybe they are not ready to serve

Some Nigerians are becoming more sceptical about the readiness of the two parties to take the country to the promised land. 

The slip-ups are not only from the presidential candidates but also from their close quarters.

It indicates that they are only concerned and overzealously motivated to outsmart each other rather than bring governance dividends to ordinary people.

Some politicians, such as Festus Keyamo, one of the APC spokespersons, have argued that the candidates are making slip-ups because they overwork themselves on the campaign trail rather than medically unfit. 

As concerned Nigerians, we are now to ask them how sure we should be that they would have the strength to govern if, luckily, one of them emerges the winner in the forthcoming general election without getting too tired to deliver.