Despite several months of sustained denial of flight of amity and camaraderie in its rank, stakeholders in the fractured APC have since admitted it is a divided house, barely a year to the general elections.
Penultimate Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari announced a national leader of the party, Senator Bola Tinubu as chairman of a reconciliation team to the consternation of the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and other members of his National Working Committee (NWC).
The emergence of Tinubu as leader of a trouble-shooting team with the unfettered power to choose those he will work with has been perceived by chieftains of the party as a vote of no confidence in the Chief Odigie-Oyegun team, which has been scheming for tenure extension.
At a parley, with the NWC last Wednesday, the former Lagos State governor offered an insight into the terms of reference of the assignment he has been given: seek for cohesion within the party ahead of 2019. Tinubu declared that President Buhari was worried about the crises rocking certain state chapters of the party across the federation.
He said: “The solution is to seek opinion and advice on the various complex around some states or if there is any national one, to reconcile, move the party in a cohesive manner and reposition if any and build confidence among ourselves.”
Sunday Tribune examines the states embroiled in crises and the protagonists. At the heart of the crises is the battle to control the party’s structures ahead of next year election
Kano: Governor Ganduje, Kwankwaso foul the air
In Kano State, Governor Ganduje and his immediate predecessor and serving senator representing Kano Central Senatorial District, Rabiu Kwankwaso have been permanently engaged in supremacy duel.
But, the former governor has since lost out in the battle for the control of the APC structure in the state. At the last August state congress, Senator Kwankwaso and his supporters stayed away from the Sani Abacha Indoor Stadium, venue of the exercise.
Sunday Tribune checks revealed that Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, who was proclaimed as acting chairman by Governor Ganduje, following the removal of Senator Kwankwaso’s loyalist, Umar Haruna Doguwa, emerged as substantive chairman.
But, Doguwa rejected the outcome of the Congress which he derided as a “kangaroo exercise.”
He said: “What the Abdullahi Abbas-led faction of the party did was nothing but a kangaroo Congress because the party’s national leadership did not give the go-ahead to anybody to conduct Congress in the state.
“I am the one recognised as chairman of the APC in Kano by the national leadership and if the party decides to hold a congress in Kano, it will write to me and there was no directive to that effect. And, I can tell you that no state in the federation held congress today (July 29). A date will be fixed for the Congress and a letter will be sent to all state chairmen to hold it,” he said.
But, Senator Kwankwaso and his Man Friday, Doguwa, have since been left in the lurch, as Chief Odigie-Oyegun’s NWC upheld the result of the Congress.
Last month, fear enveloped Kano over a planned rally being organised by Senator Kwankwaso which was to coincide with a similar rally organised by the state governor and the leadership of the party in Kano to receive into its fold, Senator Basheer Lado, the PDP candidate, who lost the 2015 senatorial election to Senator Kwankwaso.
The former governor later shelved his visit to his home state. Speaking through a former Secretary to Kano State Government, Dr Rabi’u Sulaiman Bchi, Kwankwaso said the cancellation followed series of consultations.
He said: “I have shelved my visit to Kano to avoid the political clash in the state following series of advice I have received from well-meaning Nigerians home and abroad.
“In view of this and after lengthy consultations with well-meaning Nigerians home and abroad, we painfully have decided to shelve the scheduled visit at the moment.’’
Rivers: Abe duels Amaechi
In Rivers State, Senator representing Rivers South-East, Magnus Abe and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has not been best of friends since the state congress held last year. The former alleged that the latter manipulated the process. Senator Abe accused the committee sent by the national secretariat of the party to supervise the Congress of collaborating with the Minister of Transportation to write report sheets, outside a designated venue for the Congress without the conduct of an election. He further described the outcome of the Congress as an embarrassment to the country.
He was, however, countered by the former APC governorship candidate of the party in the last governorship election, Dakuku Peterside, who described the process as transparent.
The Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA) lauded the state chapter of the APC for the conduct of a non-elective congress and election of delegates for the party’s national convention which was, however, aborted. He declared that the Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi and the state party executives exhibited sound leadership in achieving transparent coordination of the Congress.
El-Rufai, Sani: No seeing eye ball to eye ball in Kaduna
Ahead of 2019, Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai is determined to appropriate the party structure to enable him to secure a second term ticket.
His resolve, however, met a stiff rebuff from Senator Shehu Sani and other stakeholders who lost out at the last Congress.
Aggrieved chieftains of the party led by Sani, who believed that the Congress was a mere charade and manipulated by El-Rufai, petitioned the national working committee of the party. But its initial move to ventilate its disaffection through a press conference was aborted by party thugs who invaded the NUJ Press Centre in Kaduna.
Last year, Senators Sani and Suleiman Hunkuyi, led to the APC national secretariat in Abuja, other aggrieved chieftains who felt that the congress conducted in the state fell short of the standard and guidelines laid down by the party national working committee stormed the party secretariat to demand cancellation of the exercise.
In the petition addressed to the national chairman of the party, Odigie-Oyegun and signed by Senators Sani, Hunkuyi and Alhaji Tijjani Ramallah and copied to the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abuja; the Resident Electoral Commission in Kaduna State and all members of the National Working Committee, they alleged among other infractions that ‘’the list of local government delegates purported to be the list to be submitted to the state Congress committee sent to Kaduna,’’ were compiled at the Government House, Kaduna.’’
The petitioners demanded cancellation of the Congress which it dismissed as kangaroo and “reappointment of a very credible team of state Congress committee for Kaduna State.’’
Speaking with newsmen shortly after a closed-door meeting with the national chairman of the party, Senator Sani expressed concern over development in Kaduna State chapter of the party. He further noted that reports from other states in the federation showed that the APC was about to repeat the same mistakes that led to the collapse of the erstwhile ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP).
“If we go back to history, I want to say that if we continue on this path where one person feels he is a god everybody must bow down before and worship him. We are simply repeating the very problem that destroyed the party we ejected out of power.
“If this country has to change, if our party has to provide that vehicle for change, then there should be a change in the way and manner we do our politics. People who resort to the use of violence or thugs to annihilate or liquidate perceived political opponents are on the wrong side of history.
“We are not agents of violence, we are loyal party men and women and we are saying it very clear to all Nigerians and to this party that if this party has to win the 2019 general election, it must, apart from fulfilling our campaign promises, set an example for discipline, for comradeship for self if obligation to members as President Muhammadu Buhari has set example and show us the way.
“What is happening behind us is something we will not tolerate. We appeal to the people in the position of power to know it very well that the very God which brought the APC to power is still alive and will always listen to cries of oppressed, denied and marginalised people. We are here in the spirit of that and hope to get the cooperation of the national leadership to come to the rescue of the party in Kaduna before it is too late.’’
Bauchi: Dogara battles Governor Abubakar
In Bauchi state, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara is the leader of the group battling for political space with the state governor, Mohammed Abubakar. In the former camp include, Senators Ali Wakili, Isah Hammah and Suleiman Nazif. They have been more vociferous in criticising the policies of the APC administration more than the main opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party. Incidentally, both Honourable Dogara and Governor Abubakar are from the same senatorial district.
Sunday Tribune checks revealed that a member of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Yarima also belongs to the hostile ‘faction.’ The embattled governor has been unrelenting in his attempt, albeit, futile, to take his pound of flesh. His attempt to recall the senators met a brick wall.
A similar unnerving scenario is playing out in Kogi state, where the state governor, Yahaya Bello, has made several aborted efforts to precipitate recall of Senator representing Kogi-west, Dino Melaye.
The implementation of the recommendation of reconciliation committee on the Kogi state crisis led by Chief Tony Mommoh, at the instance of the APC NWC has since been allegedly stalemated by Governor Bello.
Who reconciles Oyegun, Tinubu?
While Tinubu has promised to deliver on his assignment with diligence, without bias, discerning party faithful will not forget in a hurry the simmering cold war between him and the national chairman of the party, Odigie-Oyegun. The duo had engaged in media diatribe over the outcome of the controversial primary held in November 2016 that produced Rotimi Akeredolu, the Ondo state governor-elect as the
APC standard bearer. Checks revealed that the national chairman of the party and his camp in the NWC have been unsettled over Tinubu’s recent assignment, which they perceived as a lifetime opportunity for him to take his pound of flesh. The embattled Oyegun has survived several onslaughts against his leadership with Tinubu fingered as arrowhead, the last being the last October plot to remove him as national chairman on the eve of the party National Executive Committee. Will Tinubu railroad the former Edo state governor to the guillotine? The answer lies in the belly of time.
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