Oshiomhole: The final battle of a forsaken General?

VARIOUS permutations are trailing the planned meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) coming up in Abuja on Tuesday. Major power centres are involved in deft moves to gain upper hand in the supreme contest over the control of the national leadership of the ruling party. While governors are pulling the strings, in some cases in opposite directions, the members of the APC caucuses in the National Assembly and the multiple organs of the national leadership, including state chairmen, are either watching with bated breath or skewed in their loyalty and confidence in the leadership of the embattled APC national chairman and former governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

The battle for the soul of the APC seems more intense after the meeting convened by the acting national secretary of the party, Victor Giadom, which Oshiomhole did not attend, ostensibly on the contentious grounds of legitimacy. Thus, some party buffs believe that the fact that the meeting held was a plus for the camp of the acting national secretary against Oshiomhole who had made spirited efforts to stall it. Both camps had relied on the provisions of the APC constitution on the powers and mandate to convoke such a crucial meeting. While the camp of the national secretary claimed it had the constitutional right to exercise such power, that of the national chairman said only himself was vested with such power, based on the same constitution.

Constitutional powers

A string of litigations had also preceded the controversy over who among the principal national officers of the party has got the right to exercise the power to summon the meeting. The interim injunction obtained by an APC chieftain from an Abuja court declared Oshiomhole suspended from parading himself as the national chairman of the party. But he succeeded in obtaining a counter injunction from a court in Kano. The contradictory declarations from both Abuja and Kano deepened the schism in the APC.

The national vice chairman (North-East), Salihu Mustapha, is a major backer of Giadom. It will be recalled that the smoldering crisis in the party became fierce when the party’s deputy national secretary took over in interim capacity after Mai  Mala Buni was elected governor of Yobe State in 2019. So, the party named Waziri Bulama as national secretary and released a statement on behalf of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC calling for a NEC meeting to discuss the crisis in the party. There was a counter statement by the party’s spokesperson, Lanre Issa-Onilu; the party’s national legal adviser, Babatunde Ogala; and Mr Bulama, saying Giadom’s call was “unconstitutional” and beyond his powers. Explaining his decision to call a NEC meeting, Giadom said in a statement that the party’s constitution empowered him to call a NEC meeting in the absence of the national chairman.

Citing Article 14.4 and 25 (B) of the party’s constitution, he stated that: “It is on record that the erstwhile national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiohmole, has been suspended by a court of competent jurisdiction. The two deputy national chairmen are no longer in office. The next most senior party officer should be the national secretary of the party.

“But as we all know, our erstwhile national secretary, in the person of Honourable Mai Mala Buni, is now the Executive Governor of Yobe State. Hence, as the acting national secretary, I have the constitutional power to steer activities of our great party.”

He also accused both the party’s spokesperson and Bulama of trying to mislead the public in their joint press release.

“Article 25 (B) (i) of our constitution is very clear and it says the National Executive Committee of our great party shall meet every quarter of a year. It is on record that the last National Executive Committee meeting was held on the 22 of November 2019, which is about four months to 17 of March fixed for the NEC meeting which itself is a breach of the party’s constitution.

“While Article 25 (B) (ii) provides that the NWC of our great party may summon an emergency NEC meeting at any time, provided at least days’ notice of the meeting is given to those entitled to attend. The Notice given on March 6, 2020 is in strict compliance with the provision of the constitution,” he stated.

In the interim, however, an Abuja High Court may have facilitated the holding of the NEC meeting of the APC scheduled for Tuesday in Abuja. The court gave an order restraining the opposing camp in the APC NWC from disrupting the meeting, which some members of the NWC described as unconstitutional because it was beyond the powers of Giadom.

The cabal versus Oshiomhole

Insiders hinted that a powerful caucus in the APC had resolved to take full control of the party machinery. Members of the cabal claimed the embattled national chairman ought to go, in order to rescue the party. However, the ultimate game and plan of the cabal is to put itself in good stead ahead of the politics of the 2023 elections.

According to the sources, the two major grounds for the plot by the cabal against Oshiomhole is the belief that he failed to rise to higher moral grounds during the primaries of the APC that preceded the last general election, perception that he is a surrogate of Senator Bola Tinubu and the need to clip the wings of the latter over his perceived presidential bid in 2023.

“We need to evolve and devolve more strategies. If we have been using one strategy over 40 years and it has not worked, don’t you think you should review and change the system? You can see the way the Northerners deceived a former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu, to acquire and consolidate on power. Look at the way they have treated him! I can confirm that Comrade Oshiomhole is gone as APC national chairman. The cabal wanted him out because they strongly believe that he is Tinubu’s man,” a top party faithful stated.

Another high-level source in the party told Sunday Tribune that the cabal prefers Ekiti State retaining the slot of APC deputy national chairman (South). But they are looking beyond Senator Gbenga Aluko who elders in the party in that state seem to have endorsed.

According to one of the sources, “they prefer an APC chieftain from Ekiti State; it may not necessarily be Aluko as deputy national chairman (South).”

Akpabio or Ebri as Oshiomhole’s successor?

Barring any twist, the national chairman of the APC may have lost the battle to remain on the driver’s seat in the APC. The powerful forces behind his current trials appear unrelenting and have, indeed, upped their game in their bid to oust him from the exalted office. His predicament and frustration seems to have been worsened by what some insiders described as the apparent laissez faire and ambivalence of the de facto leader of the APC, President Muhammadu Buhari. Party buffs claimed his body language depicts acquiescence to ongoing ‘reformist’ agenda in the party’s top echelon being spearheaded by a cabal. As a replacement for Oshiomhole, the cabal, therefore, has in the interim two prominent names from the South-South. The names are a former governor of Cross River State, Chief Clement Ebri, or the current Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio. The latter hails from Akwa Ibom where he served as a two-term governor and was also elected on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into the Senate before he defected to the APC preparatory to the 2019 general elections.

On the other hand, former Governor Ebri had, in the past, withdrawn from the race for the chairmanship of the party. In a statement he personal signed, he said, “following deep consultations with my family, friends and associates, party leaders and stakeholders in the progress of our great party, the All Progressives Congress, I have decided to withdraw my candidacy from the race for the national chairmanship of the APC.

“This decision has been taken in what I consider to be the overall best interest of the party and my belief that all stakeholders must row in the same rancour-free direction as we approach general elections in a few months.”

That was vintage Ebri in June 2018, at the peak of the intrigues, back-stabbing and horse-trading at the threshold of the emergence of Oshiomhole as APC national chairman.

There are speculations, however, that the cabal pushing for ‘change’ could fly the dummy in respect of their preferred choice as the replacement for Oshiomhole during the NEC meeting in Abuja. A source corroborated the information, saying “the meeting of the APC NEC will hold on Tuesday and they are concluding arrangements to ease out Oshiomhole. Once they achieve that, they would have succeeded in taking over the party completely, because if Ebri becomes national chairman, he will have to do their bidding. They will control him.

“The reality is that it is not the South that is going to determine the candidate of the APC in 2023. The cabal from North will determine who they will give it to in the South and they will not give it to one of the best. They will look for a federalist who shares their sentiments, biases and beliefs.”

Soft-landing and Edo 2020

The question of giving Oshiomhole a kind of soft landing is not yet being discussed, because of the ongoing battle at different fronts within the party. However, some party faithful contend that the embattled national chairman failed to live above board in shepherding the APC. The situation, according to them, led into a lot of unpleasant stories for the ruling party in a number of places in the 2019 general election.

“He also misbehaved and almost destroyed the party by compromising on a lot of grounds. So, members of the powerful cabal have used him and dumped him,” another APC top shot claimed.

The politics of Edo State is another area of concern in the party. According to many watchers of events, the raging battle between the estranged national chairman of the APC and his successor- governor in Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has equally gained serious attention and engagement of the clique. And from all indications, all these are some of the contentious issues the Tuesday meeting are expected to address and which would eventually determine the fate of Oshiomhole in the party now,  his political future and what would become of the APC should all entreaties fail.