Strategic management teaches us that organizations are always itching to grow and that there are basically two ways of growing: the natural, slow, steady and sustainable route of organic growth or the fast, wait and take route of M/A. in organic growth, the organization acquires, satisfies and retains customers, makes some profits from mutually beneficial interactions with these customers, uses some profits to run its operations, pays some out as dividends, retains others and builds up from there; it also borrows in the ordinary course of business. It grows one step at a time; its character and focus are known and things are generally calm. The other model is mergers and acquisition which involves a company buying another ‘as is’ or executing a marriage with another. In both instances, the new partners try to knock things together, tinkering here and there and hoping that what they bought is what they expected (because book-cooking is an ever-present reality in the business).
One thing about M&A is that it is a fast-indeed, magical way- to grow. Thus immediately Standard Trust Bank completely swallowed UBA, it moved from a marginal and new generation bank to a top tier player and immediately Access Bank successfully acquired Intercontinental, it jumped from middle-tier and bank to watch rating, to one of the top 5. But it is not that easy and that fast. Go and ask them at UBA and Access: they dealt with and are still dealing with integration issues; integrating people, processes, practices, people and CULTURE. In the case of Transcorp, integrating the diverse and unrelated businesses was an issue and that is why that famed Nigerian giant was almost a still birth. On the other hand, look at First Bank, GTB and Zenith; they have all grown organically ( FBN got involved in sympathy and relationship-based, insignificant acquisitions) and that is why they are stable, growing in leaps and bounds and apparently solid.
I also read a bit of history and have self-taught myself issues in Nigerian political development. In the good old days of Nigerian politics, when Nigerians were Nigerians and there was no quota system or federal character and no indigene/settler dichotomy-at least in the South, the NCNC, hitherto led by Macaulay but by that time led by Zik, convincingly won the first elections in the Western House of Assembly. When the great day came, when NCNC and ZIK ought to reap the rewards of their political labours, events took a bizarre turn as people who won elections on the platform of the party crossed-the-carpet to the other party. Within the twinkling of an eye, the winner became the looser and the rest, as they say is history. The impact of that development on Western Nigerian politics, Nigerian political developments, and even the politics of Eastern Nigeria ( when Zik decided to go home!) are all recorded in the annals of Nigerian political history. I have read where Odia Ofeimum was trying to rewrite or re-explain the cross-carpeting matter but that is for another day.
APC is a political contraption that behaves like the proverbial chicken that releases 20 droppings within a minute of stooping down. From its name/acronym, to its registration, to expectations and participation in one or two elections; everything is about speechifying, threats, drama and theatricals. There has been so much discourse about a mega-party to wrestle power from the clueless and rudderless PDP leadership. All efforts at alliance had failed and even a party named Social Democratic MEGA party did not sail. Then, like-joke, like-joke, APC was formed from the merger of a full ACN and halves and quarters of ANPP, APGA and CPC. After being registered because they should be registered or because they threatened fire and brimstone, the leaders of the party started consultations across the country to ‘save our democracy’. Incidentally, most of those they consulted were not democrats but that is by the way! Before long, it became obvious that they were involved in high-profile marketing. And then, they captured the 7 minus 2 governors. And in a situation in which the governors run their states (everything about the states-including the flow of air and rainfall) with iron hand and unquestioning obedience, all their boys( never mind that they are all men and women) also saw the light and decamped along with them. Last December, in what Mr Aonofenokhai termed political fraud and misadventure, 37 representatives crossed the carpet from PDP to APC and APC immediately announced that it now had a majority in the house in a ratio of 172/171.
So, within few weeks of formation, the APC has achieved its publicly stated objective: to take over power from the PDP. In their hurry to achieve this, they have gone through macro mergers(parties) and micro acquisitions(politicians). The APC in a hurry to form a federal government is glossing over the essential ingredients of party formation: they ignored the citizens(voters) and concentrated on the big-names. They readily forget that the quarrel by big men (friends who later became the worst enemies) was also the genesis of the western Nigerian political crises. But they should have completed and consolidated the process: they should have converted and acquired President Jonathan so that as they take over at NASS, they also take over at Aso Rock and the matter would be closed and we shall have a brand new world made and remade in the image of APC.
All in all, it does not look strange to our brand of progressives that they have taken-over without any elections, through which the people confer their mandate on people through parties. In sokoto, the Governor and the whole house moved, abandoning the Deputy Governor. In Kwara, the executive and 22 members crossed the carpet. In Imo, the governor, legislators and even party officials moved! So people change parties as they change clothes-just as Governor Orji did few years ago? What about the political and moral imperatives? (Of course, PDP has been hitherto, greatest beneficiary of cross carpeting in the country) Even then, most of us are still excited by the prospects of a frontal challenge to PDP by progressivism. I am. But if the morning is an indicator of the day, then I wonder what this progressive takeover acquired through the backdoor would yield. The recent order by the APC NEC on its neo-majority members to block all executive bills and communication from the president is a sign of things to come. They linked it to what is happening in Rivers (and that is becoming real bad) but that cannot justify that level of abuse of power obtained through the back-door and which is even yet to be consolidated. This is making the country really ungovernable and has been described as legislative rascality, holding the nation to political ransom, opposition taken too far and even evidence of a hidden agenda. It can also be seen as an act of conversion by the legislators; converting the mandate given to them by the people and outsourcing it to another party for another purpose.
I love cartoons and have been collecting cartoons for the past4 decades. The BusinessDay cartoon, of 24/12/13 [by Asukwo] is already in my collection. It depicts a desperate politician with a broom by his side kneeling, bowing and pleading with the devil: please Mr. Devil, we need men like you in the opposition; please come join our party. You know the broom-y party. My advice to APC is, as our elders will say, to take it easy so that the thick soup will go round. As for how far this brand of progressivism will go, let’s wait until it comes to the sharing of the loot!
By: Ik Muo
