Leadership crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC), gives it out as an organization at war with self, with telling effects on the governance of the country.
By Emeka Alex Duru
While hopping out of the country to London the other day, President Muhammadu Buhari was accosted by reporters on the crisis in his All progressives Congress (APC) and the danger of the uncertain developments working against its March 26 national Convention.
Buhari literally dismissed the question, arguing that as the party beat all expectations to triumph over the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, it would swim out of its problems and even become stronger.
Buhari’s optimism stemmed from his headmaster – pupil attitude in relating with the leadership of the party, and his messianic carriage in dealing with even office holders on APC ticket. His pronouncements carry the weight of the law in the party.
But that may not be the case always, as the current crisis in the party suggests. In the last seven years, the president had virtually assumed the position of supreme leader in the party. For fear of being harangued by security agencies or in anticipation of favour, party members and elected officials had deferred to him. He was also seen as not being with any of the various tendencies in the party. But barely a year to his exit from power, Buhari is openly jumping into the ring and taking sides in the confusion in the party.
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Buhari takes a stand
He is now an interested party. In the on-going leadership tussle in the organization, the president has ditched his longtime ally, Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State and Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the party in preference for Governor Sani Bello of Niger State who stepped into the office of the caretaker chairman on Monday, March 7. Buni is currently out of town.
Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, who gave hint on the President’s interest in the crisis, went ahead to boast that Buni’s days as the caretaker committee chairman of the party, are over, adding that Bello is in charge and he has the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari and 19 governors.
“It was the president’s order to us as governors. He (Bello) has the president’s full backing and the backing of at least 19 of the APC governors.
“President Buhari ordered his (Buni) removal and this has been implemented. Governor Bello has taken over and things are moving according to plan”, El-Rufai stated in a television interview.
President becoming dictatorial
Some distraught members of the party, however think that the President may be overreaching himself, apparently without knowing so. A Lagos chieftain of the party, for instance, observed that with the way the president and some of his henchmen are carrying on, a stage is being set for the APC to explode. His anger is that the president is running the party as a private affair with selected cronies.
“What the Kaduna State governor said about the president ordering the removal of Governor Buni as the caretaker committee chairman, is undemocratic. I am not saying that Buni is a saint and should not be asked to step aside if he is found to have gone against the interest of the party. But such decision is not one that only the president and a handful of his cronies should take. We are not in the barracks. APC is a political party and democratic organization. Everything should be done with due process”, he fumed.
March 26 convention as battleground
TheNiche gathered that the March 26 national convention has been slated as a decisive point for the party. Buni is already said to have secured an injunction putting the convention on hold, while the Bello camp, insists that the exercise would take place.
A deadlock, therefore seems imminent if the injunction secured by Buni is not vacated. That would widen the crisis in the party. But it would not come to many as a surprise. In fact, even without its handlers openly admitting it, there is no doubting the fact that APC is immensely embattled, already.
It is not as if the party had particularly come across to Nigerians as one that would lead them to the proverbial Promised Land. On the contrary, even as its supporters had pranced about in excitement at APC formation in February 2013, critics had on account of the fleeting antecedents of some of its facilitators, waved it off as mere congregation of power mongers in dire need of a stronger platform to actualise their agenda.
This was a fact known to many, anyway. But because of what was seen as the person and character traits of Buhari, who was then its flag bearer in the face of serial disappointment by the PDP, Nigerians gave it a chance. But seven years into the administration, the bubble has burst.
At the federal and state levels, leaders of APC have simply given out themselves as lacking what it takes to manage the affairs of the country. Not even Buhari, who is seen in some quarters as the redeeming face of the party, has played the role expected of him, properly speaking. He is rather partisan in its politics.
APC in need of structure
APC, curiously, has no properly constituted Board of Trustees (BoT), an organ that is supposed to offer it the moral compass in the conduct of its affairs. Its National Executive Committee (NEC), is in similar manner, virtually non-existent, meeting perfunctorily and on adhoc basis.
These are the two organs that in hectic times as these, should be bold in pointing to the president and the party leadership the way to go. They are also expected to provide the organisation with robust and strategic guidance on its leadership recruitment processes, if the need arises, ultimately. But they are not doing so because they are not there.
For a ruling party, the situation is piteous. Two scenarios seem likely to play out in the APC in the days ahead – a split or the disgruntled members being forced to live with their anger, sabotaging it, while the party limps on. Whichever way it goes, has some telling effects on the polity. The immediate impact is that what presently seems a silhouette of governance in the party’s leadership of the country will eventually be stymied completely as the fight rages.
