Attendance at the event held at the Lagos Hall, Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, offered an illumination of the forces behind his aspiration and the fact that his emergence is already a fait accompli: a done deal.
Sunday Tribune checks revealed that it was a gathering of certain power blocks in the ruling party and top chieftains from his immediate geopolitical zone, the South-South. Leading the delegation from the Presidency was the Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang. Apart from Enang, members of the party appointed on to some sensitive agency’s board who attended the declaration were: Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, Nsima Ekere and the Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu. National vice- chairman, South-South of the party, Honourable Hillard Eta, led chieftains from his zone which included, Chief Frank Kokori; Great Ogboru; Speaker Edo State House of Assembly, Kabiru Adjoto; Deputy Whip of the Senate, Senator Francis Alimikhena; Senator Magnus Abe; former Edo State deputy Governor, Lucky Imasuen, amongst others.
From the camp of the governors were the host governor, Godwin Obaseki and Imo State governor and chairman of the All Progressives Governors’ Forum, Rochas Okorocha. Former Bayelsa State governor, Chief Timipre Silva, was equally present.
Addressing the gathering of party faithful, Oshiomhole promised to run an inclusive administration while dismissing insinuation that a certain national leader of the party who has been sidelined by certain forces in the Presidency and the APC National Working Committee led by Chief John Odigie-Oyegun was behind his ambition.
The former Labour leader laboured to convince anxious party faithful last Thursday of his readiness to serve and unite all aggrieved members of the party.
He said: “I want to assure our leaders, the leaders of the All Progressives Congress, our overall leader, who is also the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, and leaders of the National Assembly, all the governors elected on the platform of our party, all the state houses of Assembly and all party leaders that I am cleared as to what my tasks will be if elected.
“I want to be of help, I want to be of use to all those who need it but I am not capable of being used. I believe that this needs to be clarified because there is so much suspicion in our political space. People fight often for things they are not even quite sure of what they think they are. They are fueled and sustained by suspicion. The way to eliminate suspicion, is to put on the table what is on the table. What is under the table, keep under the table until it moves to the top of the table.”
Sunday Tribune learnt that Oshiomhole’s assurance became more apposite against the background of speculation that members of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) were smarting to consolidate their grip on the APC.
At t its formative stage, members of the defunct ACN, the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP), CPC and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA) some serving PDP governors and serving federal lawmakers, (operating under the aegis of New PDP) coalesced to form the APC.
It is recalled that at the time, Aliyu Wamakko and Rabiu Kwankwaso and Abdulfatah Ahmed, then sitting governors of Sokoto, Kano and Kwara dumped the erstwhile ruling party, the PDP for the erstwhile main opposition party in 2014 ahead of the general election. Also in the team were Murtala Nyako, Rotimi Amaechi and Saidu Dakingari, former governors of Adamawa, Rivers and Kebbi states, respectively.
Other chieftains of the PDP who defected to the APC were Aminu Tambuwal, as sitting Speaker of House of Representatives, Senator Bukola Saraki and former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar.
But trouble started for the coalition when some of the partners began to complain of marginalisation, especially in the distribution of party patronage. While President Muhammadu Buhari and vice-president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo were both chieftains of the defunct CPC and the ACN, respectively, the duo of Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, who emerged as Senate President and Speaker of House of Representatives, were members of the NPDP. Both Saraki and Dogara clinched the exalted offices in a daring confrontation with the party power brokers. The party had already settled for different candidates for the two positions. Therefore, when President Buhari was forced to remove Mr Babachir Lawal, a former stalwart of the defunct CPC as Secretary to the government of the Federation (SGF) after the corruption allegation made again him, his replacement, a chieftain of the defunct ACN, Boss Mustapha, was seen as part of the measure to address the perceived discrimination against the ACN group of the APC alliance.
Interestingly, barely 24 hours to Comrade Oshiomhole formal declaration, the chairman of the NPDP and a former national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, submitted a petition he jointly signed with Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, erstwhile PDP scribe, to the APC NWC. The petition which detailed the perceived alienation and victimisation of the NPDP reads in part: “At this stage, we would chronicle a few grievances which if addressed will lead to harmonious APC where justice, equity, fairness and peace will reign and enable APC avoid rancour, reinvigorate the pace of national development and face the 2019 General Election as one united party.
“Our grievances include: In the constitution of the Federal Executive Council, (FEC) the New PDP block was generally sidelined as virtually no position was conceded to it. The only member of FEC that belonged to former New PDP block comes from a state that contributed virtually no vote to the APC in the 2015 presidential elections.
“There have been no significant patronage and appointments to executive positions in various governmental agencies such as Chief Executives and Directors of government agencies and parastatals as members of our block of the party continue to helplessly watch as those positions are shared by the erstwhile CPC, ACN, ANPP and even APGA blocks of the party and those who have no party at all.
“In appointments into boards or various government agencies, very few former New PDP members were patronised. These are however not commensurate with our contributions to the growth and Victory of the party.”
In a veiled reference to the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, the NPDP noted that only “a single member of its group has enjoyed patronage under the Buhari administration.”
With the emergence of Oshiomhole as chairman, another power block within the APC will certain join the league of the aggrieved? The present national chairman of the party, Chief Odigie Oyegun; National Auditor, George Moghalu and National Vice Chairman, South-East, Emma Eneukwu are all from the defunct ANPP. They are likely to lose out in the national convention to hold in June.
The ubiquitous governors
The governors have made no pretence about it that Oshiomhole is their anointed candidate for the race, ahead of the convention. Okorocha, restated their stance last Thursday at the venue of the declaration. Okorocha did not mince words in reiterating the usual stance of himself and his colleagues to appropriate the party structures, both in states and national secretariat.
He said: “Another thing I think Oshiomhole will address is that our party has begun to play the same kind of politics like PDP. All of a sudden we have started derailing and playing the PDP kind of politics. This started by some of those people who found themselves in political office especially by appointment, who did not win their booths and wards.
“Adams, your first assignment when you become the national chairman of the party is to ensure that you change that principle of monkey de work, baboon de chop. Because some of these people who are seated here before you won their booths, delivered their wards but those who didn’t win their booths or deliver their wards are holding big jobs in the federal government of Nigeria.
“In this new dispensation, no more monkey dey work, baboon de chop. If you work, you chop, you don’t work, you don’t chop. We have a lot of masqueraders in APC now and you must force them out. And I know Adams Oshiomohle is a no-nonsense man.”
The former Edo State governor has promised to run an inclusive administration and said he would not be a pliable party chairman. How he will manage the overbearing governors lies in the belly of time.
and then