In two weeks and three days, the battle for the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) National Working Committee, (NWC) would have been fought and won among the power blocs in the ruling party. The substantive national officers that will emerge on February 26 will run the affairs of the party for four years and preside over the conduct of the Presidential convention where the standard-bearer for the 2023 general election will emerge. The tendencies smarting to produce the national chairman are aware that the fate of presidential hopefuls is tied to the outcome of the scheduled February convention: who gets what depends on the power bloc that produce the national Chairman.
Four erstwhile opposition parties coalesced to form the APC in February 2013: the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) led by Muhammadu Buhari; the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP); the Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN) with Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the driving force; a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) led by a former Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha. Some aggrieved governors and chieftains of the erstwhile ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) operating under the platform, the New PDP (nPDP) also dumped it for the APC. In the nPDP were former Kwara State governor who later emerged as Senate President, Bukola Saraki; his home state governor, Abdul Fatah Ahmed; former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi; former Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal; former Sokoto State governor, Aliyu Wamakko, former Nasarawa State governor, Adamu Abdullahi, among others.
It was revealed that the election for national chairman of the APC is a three-horse race between two chieftains of the defunct CPC and one with a root in the moribund nPDP, who incidentally are from the North Central. The list includes, former governor of Nasarawa State and Senator representing Nasarawa South, Tanko Al-Makura; his colleague representing Niger East (of the defunct nPDP bloc), Sani Musa and another chieftain of the party from Kwara State, Saliu Mustapha, who also belongs to the defunct CPC. Other aspirants from the North Central are former Benue State governor and Minister of Special Duties, George Akume and a new entrant into the race, former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, ex-Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Honourable Bawa Bwari from same Niger State as Sani Musa. Other contenders for national chairman outside the North Central are former Zamfara State governor, (North-West) Abdulazeez Yari; former Bauchi State governor and former Minister of Aviation, Isa Yuguda, (North East); former Borno State governor, Senator Ali-Modu, Sheriff, (North East) and a chieftain of the party from Adamawa State, Sunny Sylvester Moniedafe (North East).
The defunct ACN produced the pioneer national chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande. He handed over to former Edo State governor and chieftain of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Chief Odigie Oyegun. The latter lost the coveted seat to the power-play between him and some of the influential governors in league with a national leader of the party and now presidential hopeful, Bola Tinubu. In a comeback bid, another member of the defunct ACN power bloc, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, emerged as chairman in June 2018, on the eve of another general election in 2019, in what was perceived as a move to pacify the estranged former governor of Lagos State, Tinubu by President Buhari. Oshiomhole’s tenure was tumultuous as his romance with the governors was short-lived. At an emergency meeting of the APC National Executuve Council, (NEC) held on June 2020, Comrade Oshiomhole was removed while Yobe governor, Mai Mala Buni, who was a member of the defunct ANPP, former national secretary of APC before he became governor, emerged as chairman, APC Caretaker/Extraodinary Convention Planning Committee,(CECPC).
Will CPC mount the saddle?
Ahead the 2023 general election, power brokers in the Presidency and the Buhari House, the national Secretariat of the ruling party, who have the ears of President Buhari are pushing for a candidate with a political lineage to the defunct CPC, the platform that produced Buhari, whose tenure will lapse next year. In the ongoing macabre power game in the APC, there is a subtle campaign of calumny against the defunct ACN which had produced the national chairman of the APC, twice since its inception: Akande and Oshiomhole, while the defunct ANPP had equally produced twice: Odigie Oyegun and Mai Mala Buni, the chairman of the APC CECPC.
Already marked for possible less visibility in the political chess is a former Benue State governor, Akume, who has been known as an ally of a national leader of the party and presidential aspirant, Tinubu. Apart from Akume, a former PDP chieftain and Chief Whip in the House of Representatives, Bwari, also had a romance with the defunct ACN. A party source said that while the caretaker committee of the ruling party continues to deny zoning of offices in the media, the position of national chairman has been micro-zoned to the North-Central by influential governors in the APC and their allies in the Presidency. According to the source, “The race is between former Nasarawa state governor, Tanko Al Makura and Senator representing Niger-East, Sani Musa.”
The source further claimed that the senator representing Nasarawa Central enjoys the support of governors in his immediate power base, the North-Central, with the exception of Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, who is against zoning of the office of the national chairman to his zone since it would jeopardise his presidential ambition. Abubakar Bello, Niger State governor, is also giving support to an aspirant from his state, Senator Sani Musa. The forum of APC governors, the Progressive Governors Forum led by Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Abubakar Bagudu, is divided between Al Makura and his main rival in the zone, Senator Sani Musa. Unlike his Niger State counterpart, who last week got the endorsement of his governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, the Nasarawa governor, Abdullahi Sule, has not been indifferent to Senator Al-Makura’s aspiration and has been in the vanguard of politicians selling the candidacy of the former governor to the forum of governors and stakeholders in the party.
Any likely surprise?
What counts for Senator Al-Makura in the race, his CPC affinity, will also work for the aspirant from Kwara State in same North-Central, Mustapha. A loyalist of President Buhari in the uncertain days of his failed bid for the presidency under the defunct CPC, Mustapha, a former deputy national chairman of the defunct CPC, is perceived to have good friends in the Villa. It could not be confirmed if his aspiration enjoys the blessing of the ubiquitous power bloc, the Forum of APC governors aside from the open support from his home state governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq. Mustapha has severally been accused of having expressed strong reservations about the firm grip of the governors on the party structures in their states and statutory organs in Abuja. But Mustapha has maintained that he remains the candidate to beat since his support base cuts across all tendencies in the heavily fractured APC. He said: “I have been endorsed by every well-meaning stakeholder; that is why I am motivated in this race. I have retained that neutrality and I’m hoping that given the opportunity to be chairman of the party will be my first legal step on reconciling the factions in the party. We need all hands on deck.
Outside the North-Central are one contender for the office from North West, former Zamfara State governor, Abdulazeez Yari and three from North east: former governor of Bauchi state, Mallam Isa Yuguda, former Borno State governor and former national chairman of the PDP, Modu-Sheriff and Sylvester Moniedafe from Adamawa. Two serving governors said to be scheming for vice-presidential slot from the North-East, Yobe State governor and incidentally Chairman, APC, CECPC, Buni and his next door neighbour, Babagana Zulum have been linked to the aspiration of certain presidential hopefuls. Mamman Mohammed, Director General Press and Media Affairs to Governor Buni has since dismissed as a mere speculation that his principal was scheming to be vice- president in 2023. The zone is divided into two by the ruling and main opposition parties: the APC and the PDP. While the former controls Yobe, Borno and Gombe, the latter is in control of Adamawa, Bauchi and Taraba states.
Will the trio of Zulum, Buni and Inuwa Yahaya anoint a Yuguda or Modu-Sheriff or supplant them in a tradeoff for the slot of vice-president? The answer to the poser will be answered on February 26.