The outgoing 2019 has been a particularly good year for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). During the year, the party retained the nation’s topmost post, the presidency after its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari defeated his main rival and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, in the February general elections.
The National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, who had earlier aborted the process by one week announced the APC candidate as the winner having garnered 15.2 million votes compared with 11.3 million vote recorded for Atiku Abubakar. ‘’Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law and scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner,” Professor Yakubu had announced to the nation. Buhari, according to INEC results, won in 19 states – including the two most populous, Lagos and Kano – while Abubakar was victorious in 17.
The PDP and its candidate proceeded to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which in September, affirmed the APC and Buhari’s victory. Atiku had urged the tribunal to nullify Buhari’s election and declare him the authentic winner of the election over the allegation that Buhari failed to satisfy the minimum qualification criterion. Delivering judgment, Justice Mohammed Garba, held that evidence before the court showed that Buhari obtained Cambridge West African Examination Council (WAEC).
Garba held that it has been established that a candidate was not required under the Electoral Act to attach his certificate to his Form CF001 before he could be adjudged to have the requisite qualification to contest the election.
Justice Garba said: “I have no doubt in my mind that the petitioners have failed to prove that the second respondent does not possess the qualification to contest the election into the Office of the President as stipulated in section 131, 137, 138 of the Constitution. I am also of the firm view that the petitioners have failed to prove that the second respondent submitted false information which is fundamental in nature to aid his qualification to contest the election into the Office of the President as prescribed in section 35(1) of the Evidence Act, 2011.
“The onus rests squarely on the petitioners to prove their assertion that the 2nd respondent does not possess the educational qualification to contest the election or that he submitted false information which is fundamental in nature to aid his qualification. This I have mentioned that the petitioners failed to prove. The petitioners cannot, therefore, rely on any failure in the case.»
The tribunal also held that technological facilities like card readers, transmission of election results via server were strange to the country›s laws. The Supreme Court in October upheld Buhari›s mandate. The apex court unanimously dismissed Atiku’s appeal as “lacking merit.’’
Despite its grip on the central government, the APC encountered upsets in some states across the geopolitical zones. In the South-West, its controversial candidate, Adebayo Adelabu, lost to the PDP candidate and incumbent governor, Seyi Makinde. It lost its only state in the South-East, Imo to the PDP, as the latter regained lost ground with the victory of its candidate and former deputy Speaker in the eighth National Assembly, Emeka Ihedioha. The PDP also staged a remarkable feat in the North as it won two states both in the North-East and North-West.
Senator Bala Mohammed, the candidate of the PDP, was declared winner of the Bauchi State governorship election. He defeated the immediate past governor, Mohammed Abubakar of the APC. Mohammed polled a total of 515,113 votes to defeat Abubakar who got 500,625 votes.
In Adamawa State, the PDP candidate Ahmadu Fintiri, was declared winner of the governorship election after a supplementary election in 44 polling units across 14 Local Government Areas of the state. The Returning Officer for the election, Professor Andrew Haruna, said Fintiri polled 376,552 votes to defeat incumbent Governor Jibrilla Bindow of the APC, who got 336,386 votes. Senator Abdul-Azeez Nyako of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC) scored 113,237 votes to place third, followed by Emmanuel Bello of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who garnered 29,792 votes.
The development in Zamfara was most painful to the APC stalwarts as the judiciary retrieved its ‹›mandate›› and handed it to the PDP. The APC governorship candidate, Muktar Idris, was declared winner of the March election with 534,541 to defeat Bello Muhammad Matawalle of the PDP, who garnered 189,452, while the APC also won all the 24 seats in the State House of Assembly.
But in its judgment which finally settled the litigation over the APC eligibility to present candidates in Zamfara, the Supreme Court aligned with the earlier judgment of federal High Court, Abuja where Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu had upheld the decision of the INEC not to accept candidates of the All Progressives Congress in Zamfara for the 2019 general election. Justice Ojukwu in her judgment said that APC failed to conduct a valid primary within the stipulated time
The apex court five-member panel of Justices, in a unanimous judgment, voided all votes cast for the APC and effectively sacked its candidates who were declared winners in the February 23 and March 16 general election in the state by the INEC, ruling that the party had no candidates in the elections, as it failed to conduct primaries in accordance with its own rules and as required by law.
The panel, headed by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad, in the judgment, delivered by Justice Paul Adamu Galinji, ordered candidates of other political parties that came second to take over as the duly elected contestants. The apex court, in its verdict, equally upheld the judgment of the Sokoto Division of the Court of Appeal to the effect that the APC did not conduct any valid primary election and as such had no candidates for any of the elections in the state.
Justice Galinji described the votes polled by the “APC candidates” in the elections as wasted, adding that the party and the candidates with the second highest votes and the spread in the various elections were the valid winners.
Rivers APC crisis
In Rivers State, where a faction loyal to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and another led by Senator Magnus Abe were engaged in a supremacy battle for the control of the party structures, the war of attrition denied the APC valid candidates in Rivers.
The INEC, on the strength of the high court and the Supreme Court’s judgments delivered earlier in the year, had excluded the APC from fielding candidates for the general election held in the state on February 23 and March 9.
Move by the party to seek for fresh elections in Rivers was rebuffed by the apex court. The Supreme Court last April sealed its hope, dismissing its three appeals, which challenged the decision of the Federal High Court, sitting in Port Harcourt, the state capital that nullified its primary elections for the 2019 election.
The apex court in dismissed the appeal filed by the APC praying it to set aside its earlier judgment that upheld the decision of the lower courts, for lacking in merit. A seven-member panel of justices of the Supreme Court led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad, in a unanimous ruling held that the APC’s appeal was defective, incompetent and should be struck out.
The PDP candidate in Sokoto, Aminu Tambuwal won the governorship election.
Off season elections
Despite its setbacks in the North-East, North-West and humiliation it suffered in South-East and South-South, its victory in last November election in Kogi and Bayelsa states was a big relief for the Adams Oshiomhole led national working committee.
The APC governorship candidate in Bayelsa State, David Lyon, defeated the PDP candidate, Duoye Diri. In the results announced by the Returning Officer, Professor Faraday Orumwese, Mr Lyon polled 352,552 votes to defeat Diri of the PDP, who polled 143, 172 votes. The APC also retained its grip on Kogi as Governor Yahaya Bello, defeated the PDP candidate, Musa Wada.
Battle of wits in APC
For the former leader of the organised Labour, Adams Oshiomhole, it has been a tumultuous year. While President Buhari relished his victory in the comfort of the Presidency, it has been a different ball game for the APC national chairman.
Various stakeholders have been demanding for his resignation. First to call the shot was the APC deputy national chairman, North, Senator Lawan Shuaibu. Lawan’s letter addressed to Comrade Oshiomhole accusing the latter of running the party aground and pointing fingers of scorn at him for the setback the party suffered in the former home state of Zamfara was released to the public on May 28, the eve of President Buhari inauguration for second term in office.
The letter dated May 27 and delivered to Oshiomhole on May 28 was entitled: APC: Its Fortunes versus Misfortunes, time to act. Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman also released a stinker. In a statement issued on November 12, Lukman believed to be the Man Friday of the APC governors accused Comrade Oshiomhole of usurping the functions of other statutory functions of the party, the national caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) by deliberately failing to convene the meetings of such organs of the party. He further demanded for Oshiomhole resignation.
‘’In the current circumstance, nothing short of a NEC or National Caucus meeting of the party can resolve all our increasing organisational challenges as a party. It is either Oshiomhole respects the provision of the party constitution and convene superior organ meeting to deliberate on all our challenges, or he should just accept his inability to manage the party and simply resign.”
Some of the governors had earlier been placed on suspension last March by the embattled Oshiomhole. The list included Senators Ibikunle Amosun and Rochas Okorocha, former governors of Ogun and Imo states, respectively.
Equally axed were Ondo state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, Osita Okechukwu, the Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) and former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani. They were all given reprieve on December 16 by the party national working committee.
Third term controversy
President Buhari is not a man of sound bites. A very reticent politician, his public disclosure, not to seek for amendment of the nation Constitution to extend his tenure beyond 2023 was a big relief to the nation and his party desperate apparatchiks, already scheming for the party presidential ticket in next general elections.
Speaking last November at a meeting of the APC NEC, Buhari said he had no intention to prolong his stay in office. He said: ‘’I said you should read the constitution because I am not going to make a mistake. Besides the age, I am not going to contest for third term because I will go by the constitution. The constitution says two-terms. I’m going to be frank here because I won’t be needing anybody’s vote.’’
The clarification by the president came against the backdrop of speculations by some elements that there was a third term agenda. The opposition party, particularly made a similar insinuation, which the APC national leadership swiftly debunked, blaming the false report on the handiwork of detractors, who were yet to come terms with reality after losing the 2019 general election.