The trial of APC, Oshiomhole

This may not be the best of time for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) following its loss of the governorship seat in Bayesla State to the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, writes KUNLE ODEREMI.

IT may be a matter of time that the crisis of confidence brewing in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) boils over across board. Main stakeholders are conscious of the lurking danger, hence the setting up of a high-powered reconciliation committee, with a former interim national chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, as chairman.

President Muhammadu Buhari is also apparently becoming apprehensive following the increasing misfortunes of the party. Having lost three strategic states like Bauchi, Zamfara and Rivers in different but avoidable circumstances majorly last year, President Buhari met with APC governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, hours after the party recorded another monumental disaster, this time in Bayelsa State. The Bayelsa episode is considered by many party faithful as the most devastating blow to the ego of the APC as it came hours that David Lyon would have been inaugurated as the governor of the oil-rich state. The depth of the anger and frustration of the APC members and sympathisers was evident in their renewed protests at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, during which they said the time had come for the national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to resign. Their belief is that the fortunes of the party have irretrievably nosedived since he succeeded another former governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, as national chairman.  The preponderance of opinions among the party faithful is that the Supreme Court judgment annulling the election of Lyon on the eve of his inauguration has placed the APC on the wrong of the political history of the country. This is because it has set an unenviable precedent in the party organisation.

Obviously confounded by the judgment, Oshiomhole had expressed utter disbelief and that it was possibly another fairy tale. But while sulking over the issue, a lot of other party leaders thought otherwise, with most of them heaping the blame on his style of leadership. For instance, a former Commissioner for Information in Edo State and chieftain of the APC, Chief Charles Idahosa, said he envisaged the current predicament of the APC under its present leadership. His words: “I warned about this development some few weeks ago. I said that Oshiomhole is doing more harm than good for APC. I said he is too combative and thinks he knows more than everybody. This is not labour movement; this is politics. His recklessness is what is leading APC into this problem that is happening now. Why must we win elections and then lose it to the opposition? We lost Zamfara, Rivers and now Bayelsa through carelessness.”

This was how an observer reacted: “One hopes that these Supreme Court judgments will send a strong message to political parties, candidates and INEC to strive  to do things properly: transparent/credible primaries (Zamfara); inviolability of electoral due process (Imo); proper screening/due diligence (Bayelsa).”

According to Idahosa and other concerned APC stalwarts, what makes the Bayelsa loss most painful is that it was totally avoidable under a perceptive and accommodating leadership. They said the Bayelsa scenario was similar to what happened prior to the 2019 elections in Taraba State, where a candidate’s infractions cost the party dearly. In Zamfara State, the structure of the APC remains unstable due to lack of proper guidance of the APC leadership. Though some party stalwarts cited Oyo and Ogun states, where the party also witnessed indiscretion, many of them lamented the Rivers episode, as the party could not even present a candidate during the elections.

Battle for Edo, Ondo

With the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rolling out the timetable for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states this year, the countdown has begun in earnest. The main political gladiators have stepped horse-trading ahead of party primaries and the elections proper.  Therefore, it should be expected that the party, its members and leaders deploy their stored experience to avoid the mistakes of the past. To what extent did the APC demonstrate such tendencies in the past?

Already, there is a gradual rise in the decibel of the drums of war as the party looks forward to the governorship polls in Edo and Ondo  states. There are claims of grand plots to pull the rug off the feet of current governors in their bid to secure a second term in office, with some party bigwigs pointing accusing fingers at the national leadership of the party.

The crisis in Edo State has continued to create anxious moments in the state chapter of the APC. The governor is at daggers drawn with Oshiomhole over the ticket of the party for the next governorship poll in the state.  The APC national chairman is believed to have facilitated the defection of a former governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Pastor OsagieIze-Iyamu, to the APC, ostensibly to challenge Governor Godwin Obaseki in his bid to secure a second term. But some observers and APC supporters alleged a matter involving Ize-Iyamu with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) remained a major riddle. The anti-graft agency filed charges against Ize-Iyamu and four others over financial issues during the 2015 general election. Others involved in the case before the EFCC include the chairman of the Edo State chapter of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih; a former deputy governor of the state, Mr Lucky Imasuen; a former member of the House of Representatives, Mr Tony Azegbemi; and one Efe Anthony. The camp of the APC national chairman is also said to be propping up other aspirants for the governorship ticket, and it is claimed to have had a running battle with them over time, with one of them being his erstwhile deputy governor, Dr. Pius Odubu.

In Ondo, feelers indicate that Governor Akeredolu might be ambushed in his plan to get another four years as governor. A former chairman of the party in the state, Dr Isaac Kekemeke, has thrown his hat into the ring like a number of others. It was against this background that some APC members said the party needs to end the tenure of Oshiomhole now before the party pays another huge price at the next electoral contests. A leader of the party from the North said, “Members of the party are already losing faith because they see it as essentially a one-man-show. The approach of operating like an administrator has not taken us anywhere, at best it has set the party further on the path of perdition.”

There are others who believe that the APC is only following a pattern set by the main opposition PDP under a couple of national chairmen at different times. The party had to pay the price for the discretion. Said of the leaders: “What led to the downfall of the PDP is playing out actively in the APC with the way Oshiomhole is handling the affairs of the party. Once members lose confidence in the leadership of the party, they either be inert or go elsewhere. Our party promised change, now it cannot even manage its own affairs because of the actions and inactions of one man. Many of the APC stalwarts said it was inexplicable that the party could present a candidate with questionable academic credential for the Bayelsa governorship election.

One prominent member said: “It is unforgivable to adopt an individual who presented five certificates with different names and when it was spotted, the party hierarchy failed to take advantage of the window to substitute the candidate. All these flaws flow from absolute disregard for due process. It happened in Taraba, in Zamfara and in Rivers because of the same recourse to subverting established norms.” They accused him of alienating other members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC). A leader of the party claimed that Oshimhole’sactions have betrayed this charge as the party still lost out because of inconsistencies in a candidate’s certificates in the Bayelsa election. With this, it has been established that what Oshiomhole says is different from what he does. On calls that the national chairman should be forced to quit office, one of the leaders from the South-East said: “The time to act is now to save the APC from imminent decomposition. Failure to act now will result in the rapid disintegration of our party. It will be like atomic fission, an endless reaction which no one would be able to stop.”

While the party members debate over the current trial and travail of Oshiohole, some Nigerians perceived the Supreme Court judgment on the Bayelsa poll as instructive because of the seeming impunity among some party leaders. In the words of an observer, “The judiciary is stylishly sanitising our political system, from Zamfara to Rivers, Imo to Bayelsa, they’re telling the politicians, INEC and the political parties that they must be responsible and play by the rules.”