APC: The difficult pangs of leadership

Under two years of its formation, the All Progressives Congress, APC made the historic translation from opposition party to the ruling party in Nigeria.
By Levinus Nwabughiogu
Registered in 2013, the APC was a merger of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, All Nigerians Peoples Party, ANPP, Congress for Progressives Change, CPC and a faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and elements of the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP.
It had at the twilight of 2014, through a ballot process, chosen the former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari as its presidential candidate. Buhari in turn picked former Attorney-General of Lagos State, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, as his running mate for the 2015 election.
January 2015
To all Nigerians, February 14 and 28 were the dates for the presidential/National Assembly and Governorship/State assembly polls respectively. It was as such not surprising that most of the political parties paid little attention to the Yuletide break that gave yield to 2015.
The tension gripping the nation, however, lessened a little about two weeks to the election when the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced the postponement of the election for six weeks upon security considerations among others. The presidential election was thus shifted to March 28.
For APC, “change” was the message. And it permeated. Also, for the PDP, the message of continuity and transformation agenda sank deeper. But both were to be tested at the April polls.