APC MANIFESTO: A PHILOSOPHICAL CRITIQUE

First and Foremost, I think it is important to congratulate APC, a coalition of opposition parties in Nigeria for their performance in the just concluded elections and to wish them the very best in their journey for at least the next four years. This is a philosophical critique of the APC manifesto and I would gladly enjoin the reader to see it as such. In the next four years, APC under the leadership of Muhammadu Buhari will be governing the Nigerian nation and as such it is necessary for us intellectuals to start this debate of how we want our society to be governed. I really hope this piece will spur a necessary debate amongst intellectuals in the Nigerian political space, as it will determine our expectations and our reactions or responses as the case may be to whatever APC wishes to offer Nigeria.

One of the few questions that birthed political philosophy is How Do We Ought To Govern Our Society? We have usually neglected this question for those in power to answer and therein lies our greatest weakness as a democracy and that is also the reason we were left to suffer in the hands of those who claimed they will rule us for the next 60 years. In like manner, APC has presented Nigerians with a manifesto of how they intend to govern OUR society and it is for this reason that I consider this so called debate necessary. If our democracy is really defined as a government of the “people”, then we the people should be the deciders of how we should be governed and not just an imposition of how “some people” think we should be governed. It is okay that they have presented a sketch of their manifesto of how they intend to utilize the mandate but it is our responsibility to scrutinize this manifesto and consider whether it is feasible or workable or indeed how we should be governed. It is on this note that I expect not just a debate but rejoinders from intellectual Nigerians who will look at APC’s manifesto and raise issues where they are to be raised and not just sit back and wait until these policies are made and then realize that they either do not favor us or they have unintended consequences.

The APC Manifesto can be found on this link; www.allprogressivescongress.org/manifesto
My own appraisal can be found on this link juded27.tumblr.com

Views expressed are solely authors opinion and has nothing to do with www.omojuwa.com nor its associates