APC: Forming, Storming, Norming And Performing

THE title of this article is coined from a famous statement “Accord Co-cordial, Now Accord Discordant” credited to the very colorful politician of the second republic, late Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe.
The statement was made in the aftermath of the conflict that led to the dissolution of the NPN and NPP parties coalition formed to rule Nigeria during Shehu Shagari’s regime (1979-1983) when the NPN party that won the election lacked the constitutionally stipulated national spread to form government without coalition.
Mbadiwe’s characterization of the events that precipitated the breakup of the coalition is similar to the present turmoil that the new ruling APC is currently  embroiled in .
Incidentally, the fear of the consequences of power maneuvers such as the one currently playing out in the APC with the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly, NASS as the theatre of war, was the subject of an article which l authored and entitled ‘Some Home Truths About APC’.
In the article, which was widely publicized in March last year, I argued that by not confronting its ‘Demons’ (office sharing) during her first convention, the APC was sweeping its problems under the carpet and it could potentially become the ruling party’s ‘Achilles heels’ in the future.
That prediction appears to be manifesting since the proclamation of the 8th National Assembly, NASS on the 9th of June this year during which the sharing of principal offices by legislators against the preference of the APC leadership has spiraled into a political imbroglio of sorts.
Arising from the scenario above, it has become imperative that the article ‘Some Home Truths About APC’ is reproduced to highlight the dangers earlier identified in the article that predicted the unfolding dangerous political dynamics which suggests that the APC may be drifting towards disintegration and therefore a potential casualty of the internal conflicts and disputations now tugging at the very heart of the party.
It is pertinent at this juncture to state that the reproduction of this article is not intended to make parody of politicians (in light of the disgraceful brawl in the NASS) or trivialize the very serious issue of the APC crisis (if caution is thrown to the winds) but it is a case for the ruling party to rise above narrow interests and deliver the ‘change’ it promised the Nigerian electorate that made the party their preferred choice. Having decided to discard the PDP government that had been on the saddle for sixteen years without meeting the expectations of Nigerians who were anxiously awaiting percolation of the dividends of democracy to the people on the lower rung of the ladder, the electorates are full of expectations of rapid positive changes in their welfare by our law makers and by extension the new ruling party. As such, the least expected is not the spectacle of pugilistic adults duking it out in the full glare of TV cameras in the otherwise hallowed chambers of NASS.
With apologies to Mao Zedong, the iconic Chinese leader who advocates that “politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed”, the horrific scenarios that have played out in 8th NASS since its proclamation, seem to suggest that the opposite is the case with politics in Nigeria as legislators in both the upper and lower chambers (rallying under the umbrellas of Like Minds and Unity Group caucuses) seem to be baying for each other’s blood.
That said, let’s get to the brass facts of my original thesis ‘Some Home Truths About The APC’.
In change management, there are four processes or stages that an entity must pass through before it can be said to have been fully formed. These are the Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing stages. The assertion above is derived from a group development model which was first developed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. According to Tuckman “these stages are necessary and inevitable in order for a team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to deliver results”.
To the best of my knowledge, the All Progressives Congress, APC has passed through the first stage of Forming but skipped the other three processes  which are very critical and are supposed to be followed sequentially after which a complete and viable entity can emerge.
According to Bruce Tuckman, the storming process, especially tests the conflict resolution capacity of the leaders or managers of the entity or team as it is the point at which interests and agendas are put on the table and blended into common goal or goals, if possible. The team or union could crumble at this stage if interests and agendas remain at variance.
However, in defiance of the expectation of PDP which envisaged that the APC would crumble at the Storming stage as the merging legacy parties were supposed to fight for party positions along the lines of their narrow interests and face the risk of disintegration, the APC successfully held her national convention with hitherto interim party positions becoming substantive and without the gloomy consequences of Tuckman’s Storming stage hypothesis being allowed to kick-in.
After a well packaged campaign and dexterous execution, the APC successfully replaced the PDP on the saddle of leadership in Nigeria following its victory at the March 28th, 2015 general elections.
Apparently, APC’s adoption of interim mode at the nascent stage of its formation is attributable to its strategy of avoiding the pitfalls that previous attempts at rallying opposition against the then ruling party, PDP (Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP led by Balarabe Musa, Umar Dangiwa, Beko Ransom Kuti and Ndubuisi Kanu etal) threw up. It is believed that when the ambitions and interests of leaders of the major coalition parties and cooperating regions, which were at variance, were brought too early to the front burner, it generated irreconcilable differences and conflicts leading to the still-birth of what initially appeared like a credible opposition.
Although APC cleverly sidetracked the difficult conversations associated with the Storming stage of development of the group which it could have dealt with at the national convention, as evidenced by the current pogrom in the National Assembly, the party merely succeeded in postponing the evil day because the conflict of interests which it had literally and conveniently swept under the carpet for short term benefit of snatching power first from PDP has now come back to haunt her in the long term as it is inevitable for conflicts to thrive whenever diverse interests and agendas converge.
As an amalgam of three major opposition parties – ACN, ANPP, CPC, splinters of APGA and PDP, originally formed to serve the interests of the three major ethnic groups and regions in Nigeria with distinctive and often contrary interests.
The validity of the above assertion is intrinsic in the following hypothesis: (A) The north populated by the Hausa/Fulani congregating under the political platform of CPC and ANPP feel aggrieved because they are not allowed to practice their religion especially with respect to Sharia laws under the current dispensation and the war against the state by the dreaded Boko Haram is a reflection of their resistance. (B) The west occupied by the Yorubas and operating through the political auspices of ACN are aggrieved that they are losing out in political appointments in Nigeria as it is presently constituted and are therefore venting their anger via the fearsome vigilante group Odua People’s Congress, OPC which harass, maim and sometimes kill none Yorubas in the western states especially Lagos. (C) The lgbos in Eastern Nigeria rallying politically behind APGA and ANPP are still nursing the bruises of the Nigerian civilian war, which resulted in their emasculation having lost the war.
Like the other nationalist groups, Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB which has been threatening secession is the symbol of the Igbo’s protest against Nigerian state as they essentially believe that the situation that led to the civil war has not changed.