By LAMIN MANNEH
The unavoidable death of the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) and National People’s Party (NPP), is a result of the need to form a party out of emergency to self-perpetuate into power, and as a result, their foundations cannot hold the structures of the parties resulting to their natural death.
The overthrow of the regime of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) by the junta, later named the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC), was premised on unseating President Sir Dawda Jawara and returning the power to the civilians as highlighted by Sanna Sabally, who is a key player in the overthrow of the PPP government. However, months after the coup, the AFPRC internally had a fracas that led to the destruction of the formation and uncertainties around the plan on relinquishing power back to civilians.
The Presidential candidate of the AFPRC, Yahya Jammeh, was clouded with thoughts as to what the next step, while he succeeded in pushing away his fellow coupists, he saw a need to rebrand the name of the party from Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) to Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), changing the meanings of APRC from the former AFPRC. Now what is left for the military man who refused to relinquish power and also wanted to consolidate power, a tough time, right? So, the only plan on his desk at that material time is to contest, and if that should be the case, he must establish a party out of emergency to get the backing from the polls.
Now the trouble in Jammeh’s head is how do I convince civilians to trust me? Without a doubt, after careful thought, he knew the motivating factors were within his control, and they were resources to organize political jamborees and the supreme power of incumbency. Jammeh being a smart military man played his tactics wisely and funded his party, convincing the electorates without tangible policies and a convincing track record of quality service delivery while as president for a year and a couple of months rather he used resources gained from best-known to him to win the 1996 elections.
The APRC’s structures are concerned with consolidating Jammeh’s incumbency rather than its longevity as a ruling party. As time goes by, the party’s ultimate focus is centered on never-ending the presidency of Yahya Jammeh rather than APRC. Succinctly, APRC’s natural death is unavoidable when Jammeh loses the incumbency because the party inherently is about an individual rather than a whole.
In December 2016, APRC was challenged by a coalition of political parties that crumbled not only the president but a party that had no succession plan nor foresighted defeat from any political party in the country. This coalition, involving UDP, PDOIS, GMC, and others was led by a UDPian, Adama Barrow. Again, this coalition is premised on unseating the president, and after three years the president will return the power, similar to the Junta, right?
Exactly three years after the elections, a faction of the citizens demanded Adama Barrow to relinquish power and keep to the campaign promise but Barrow failed to abide by the resolution passed by the leaders of the coalition parties which led to the destruction of the coalition like AFPRC; thus, Adama Barrow was left with no option on his desk but to form a party out of emergency to contest in 2021 elections.
The same strategies used by APRC ahead of the 1996 elections are what the NPP domesticated to campaign ahead of the 2021 elections. The power of Incumbency and resources are the recipe for the first-ever win for these parties. NPP formed to consolidate Barrow like how APRC was the cornerstone of Jammeh’s agenda to stay in power, is centered on how to cement Barrow as a president rather than preparing a successive plan for the continuity of the party as a ruling party. Akin to the failure of Jammeh to democratize and decentralize the focus of the APRC, the NPP will die a natural death like its twin, the APRC formed out of an emergency to contest in elections.
TheHeraldWhistleBlower 