X-raying Oshiomhole’s first steps

Senior Deputy Editor, TAIWO AMODU, examines the very first steps of the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, in his quest to rein in the party’s combatants from the varying battlefields.

Since Oshiomhole’s assumption of office as national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the national secretariat of the party has been a beehive of activities.

Hitherto almost desolate ruling party secretariat that certain top chieftains avoided with scorn has since come alive to the flurry of party engagements.

Adams Oshiomhole, in his acceptance speech on Sunday, June 24, gave indication that he would be resuming for duties on Monday, June 25. But anxious party faithful who had stormed the national secretariat went home disappointed: neither Oshiomhle nor his predecessor, John Odigie-Oyegun, was on ground at the office.

Many who thronged the secretariat that day had expected that Odigie-Oyegun would be presenting his handover notes to his successor and compatriot from Edo State. The brief handover ceremony was, however, conducted on Tuesday, June 25 with Oshiomhole restating his resolve to work for the collective good of all party members.

Findings revealed that the ward and state congresses that preceded the gathering of the highest organ of the party, the national convention, were dogged by crises and litigations in most state chapters, as factions conducted parallel congresses.

His assurance to walk his talk on restoring peace to the fractured party has since been put to the test. First to storm the party in what it described as a solidarity visit was a faction of the party in Adamawa State.

Checks by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that parallel congresses were conducted in the state. Ambassador Tukur Yusuf emerged as chairman of the faction led by Senator Abubakar Yusuf, while the group led by Women Affairs Minister, Aisha Al Hassan, produced Abdulmumin Barki as chairman.

Oshiomhole met with the factions separately and told them to be ready to make compromises if truly they wanted to dislodge the incumbent governor, Darius Ishaku.

He further disclosed that he would call both sides to a meeting, once furnished with the report on Taraba, with an assurance of a win-win situation for both factions. Earlier in his remarks, Senator Yusuf urged Oshiomhole to resolve the impasse facing the state chapter.

 

Enters R-APC

Indications that aggrieved chieftains in the APC who lost out in the power game were not willing to let go easily emerged on July 4 when a factional national leadership of the party, the Reformed APC, (r-APC) emerged under the leadership of Buba Galadima.

Galadima, an estranged ally of President Muhammadu Buhari and former chieftain of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), offered a damning verdict on the performance of the Buhari administration while unveiling the R-APC.

Further checks revealed that the parallel group is made up of aggrieved members of a power block, the New PDP, and certain members of the defunct CPC and the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP). The r-APC has since formed an alliance with the PDP, along with about 30 other political parties.

But while he has been reaching out to the likes of Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the arrow-heads of the dissident group, Oshiomhole has vowed not to have any peace talks with the factional chairman, Buba Galadima, whom he has since dismissed as a mercenary politician with no moral scruples.

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Galadima writes INEC

Buba Galadima has since petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) asking the electoral body not to accord recognition to the APC NWC led by Oshiomhole.

Claiming that the processes that culminated in the national convention where Oshiomhole and other national officers emerged were flawed and undemocratic; the former CPC chieftain detailed 22 states where he claimed parallel congresses were held.

The letter equally quoted the relevant section of APC’s constitution as stating that: “Unless otherwise provided for: All party posts prescribed or implied by this constitution shall be filled by democratically conducted elections at the respective national convention or congress subject, where possible, to consensus, provided that where a candidate has emerged by consensus for an elective position, a vote of ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ by ballot or voice shall be called, to ensure that it was not an imposition which could breed discontent and crisis.”

It further demanded: “…INEC to intervene, following precedents established over the years, to declare invalid and unlawful and not to accord any form of recognition to officers purportedly elected at the APC convention of June 23, 2018.”

Speaking recently on a live television programme, Politics Today on Channels Television, Galadima gave account of himself as a long distance race runner determined to run APC aground.

He said: “I don’t need to talk much in trying to establish my status as a member of the APC. Those who say so (doubt my membership of the APC) might not know because when we were forming the APC, we didn’t see them. They were nowhere. So, how will they know? Let them go to INEC and check who were the signatories? Buba Galadima was the third signatory in the document that merged the parties.

“We had gone through this road before and people were called names. Do you remember Alhaji Bamanga Tukur of the PDP when such issue occurred? He told the nation that the five governors could go; that it would not affect the fortunes of the party, but we know what happened. People should be students of history and nobody can discountenance our contributions. Nobody.”

 

The cheering news

While he confronts the challenge of legitimacy from aggrieved groups, Oshiomhole has cheering news for ordinary party faithful who feel disconnected within the party.

At the end of the party’s national working committee meeting on Monday, he gave indication that the party could adopt direct primary in picking its candidates for elective offices, starting with its primary to pick its standard bearer for Osun State governorship election.

He told newsmen that the adoption of the direct, unlike the indirect, option was in what appears to be a bold move to distribute party patronage and placate aggrieved APC chieftains. Oshiomhole told a gathering of the party chieftains while inaugurating non-national working committee members that he was determined to ensure that chieftains of the erstwhile ruling party, the PDP, still holding sensitive board appointments in federal agencies were removed to accommodate his party members.

He said the move became necessary to inspire a sense of belonging and ensure that those who share the party’s vision and agenda were put in strategic offices to drive it.

“We are aware that even as at today, we still have a lot of PDP people occupying very important positions in federal agencies. We will do everything possible to purge these elements out of the system because we are a party of change. They are the conservative right-wing party. We cannot entrust to conservative forces an agenda for change. Government is not in the Villa. Villa is the head of government. Government is in the agencies – what they do, how they do it, the quality of service delivery and the style of that service delivery.

‘’I believe that we now must work consciously to ensure that in replacing, we replace sinners with believers. Believers are those who are card-carrying members of our party; and before we go outside the party family, we must convince ourselves that the persons we are taking, we are taking them because we do not have that particular expertise within the family. But even so, they must first take the card and demonstrate loyalty, because if you do not believe in a process, you cannot be entrusted with the management of that process. It is not because we are hungry to let our people have jobs, but because I have no confidence that PDP appointees can drive the changes that APC promised. APC’s promises must be kept by APC activists at a managerial level, at board level, and at political level. ’’