By Emeka Alex Duru
While a section of All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership pranced about on the perceived successful outcome of its national convention, informed minds had quietly nursed the fears of the exercise leading to a chain of events that would eventually undo the party.
In fact, while the party made elaborate advertisement of the Convention scheduled for Saturday, June 23, the outcome was already known, even three weeks, earlier.
Following the controversial withdrawal of the then National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, from going for a re-election, the coast was cleared for Adams Oshiomhole, immediate past Edo State governor, President Muhammadu Buhari’s favourite, to clinch the position.
Oyegun, who pulled out of the race on Friday, June 1, claimed doing so in the interest of the party, stressing that though he would have loved taking another shot at the office, he was opting out so as not to be part of the problems confronting the party.
´´I do not intend to be part of the problem for APC to solve. It is for this reason that I hereby declare that I will not be seeking re-election as the national chairman”, Oyegun remarked.
The action did not come as a surprise to keen followers of the intrigue-infested politics of the ruling party in the last couple of months.
Other members of the National Working Committee (NWC), who had nursed the ambition of return but were not favoured in the high-wire politics in the party, also took the Oyegun option or were eased out of their positions at the end of the day.
On the surface, therefore, the contest looked transparent, free and fair but the question remained what happens to the party after the exercise.
The ‘Broom’ scatters
The concern on what happens to APC began to take shape, barely two weeks after the convention, when some of its chieftains announced their exit from the party.
The group, led by Buba Galadima, announced its exit from the ruling party, on Wednesday, July 4, citing absence of internal democracy, leadership inertia and total departure from the ideals of the party by its leaders at various levels.
Galadima, who articulated the grievances of the group, remarked; “We are sad to report that after more than three years of governance, our hopes have been betrayed, our expectations completely dashed. The APC has run a rudderless, inept and incompetent government that has failed to deliver good governance to the Nigerian people.
“It has rather imposed dictatorship, impunity, abuse of power, complete abdication of constitutional and statutory responsibilities, infidelity to the rule of law and constitutionalism.
“It has failed to ensure the security and welfare of our people and elevated nepotism to unacceptable height.
“The APC has failed to deliver on its key promises to the nation. There is no evidence of any political will to reverse the decline of our party, while leaders who have created these circumstances continue to behave as if Nigerians owe our party votes as a matter of right”.
The statement further alleged that the APC government, has been a monumental disaster, even worse than the government it replaced.
Not willing to continue with the trend, therefore, the group announced the formation of Reformed All Progressives Congress (RAPC).
RAPC unfolded a list of its interim officers, while announcing its readiness for discussions with other political parties in the build-up to the 2019 general elections.
Coming in the heels of primaries of the political parties which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had scheduled to take place between August and December, this year, RAPC, evokes reminiscences of the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), a break-away group that left the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) few months to the 2015 general elections and eventually teamed up with the nascent APC to give it victory at the polls.
Some members of the nPDP, who have been complaining of exclusion in the affairs of the APC, are said to constitute the rump of the RAPC. Speculations have, thus been rife that they may just be plotting a return to their former platform – the PDP.
This insinuation may however, not strictly stand for Galadima, a hitherto, pronounced protégé of President Muhammadu Buhari. If anything, rather, his association with the group, signals a huge crack in the President’s key followership.
Galadima, from Yobe State, had been Buhari’s loyalist since his uncertain days in the then All Peoples Party (APP), that later metamorphosed to All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He actually headed The Buhari Organisation (TBO), the main platform with which Buhari prosecuted failed his presidential ambition in the party.
While the President was forced out of the ANPP by cocktail of intrigues and betrayals, Galadima, was among those that joined him in founding the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
Even in APC, he was among the few that originally bonded with the President, till lately when he began to lament openly on the anti-democracy tendencies in the party and the government at large.
Journey to the unknown
While the likes of Galadima had complained on the poor handling of the APC, other incidences of disquiet had steadily grown in the party, culminating in the Abuja convention that critics alleged, was anything but fair.
Chieftains of RAPC even cited the dubious handling of the convention among the reasons for their exit from APC.
“The last straw was the Congresses and Convention of the APC held recently. The Congresses were intensely disputed as it was conducted with impunity, total disregard for due process, disregard for the party Constitution and naked display of power and practices that have no place in a party we all worked the very hard to put in place”, the group remarked.
Not many were surprised at the claim. Since rescheduling the convention from May 14 to the June 23, APC had been under intense pressure. Part of the pressure was the fear of the exercise widening the gulf in the party.
Developments within its fold, did not, incidentally, allay the fear. If anything, they pointed to likely implosion, ultimately.
Crisis in the States
APC had in May, held Congresses across the States and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, with two sets of Executives emerging in no fewer than 24 states.
The States included Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Kwara, Delta, Rivers, Ondo, Zamfara, Sokoto, Enugu, Kogi, Bayelsa, Oyo, and Ebonyi, Katsina and Abia.
Though the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Bolaji Abdullahi, had denied existence of parallel Congresses, the situation actually exists in many States.
“There is no such thing as parallel Congress. The only recognised Congresses are those organised by the Congress Committees, charged by the party to organise such Congresses”, Abdullahi had said.
Even at that, APC is known to have two executive councils in Kwara, for instance, with one headed by Ishola Balogun Fulani, loyal to Senate President, Bukola Saraki; and an opposing group coordinated by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
Dual Congresses were also held in Kaduna State, with a faction loyal to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, and another to Senators Suleiman Hunkuyi and Shehu Sani.
In Kano State, camps loyal to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kwankwasiyya), held different Congresses and produced two sets of executives.
In Zamfara State, Governor Abdulaziz Yari and Senator Kabiru Marafa produced different set of executives. The trend was replicated in some other places.
Walking on the Mines
The fear before the June 23 exercise was on the various opposing executives storming the convention ground. Though the convention organisers appeared to take note of the likely confusion and made elaborate arrangements to contain the situation, that did not fully address the issues at hand. Rather, the arrogance exhibited by the leadership in dismissing the grievances in the various state chapters, turned out a factor that galvanised those that felt that they had lost out in the party.
In related instance, the allegation of marginalisation by the nPDP had been largely ignored or dismissed out rightly.
The group, had in a memo to APC leadership, raised allegations of being excluded from the affairs of the party, demanding a reversal to the trend, within a specific period.
By Monday, June 4, a continuation of the meeting between the nPDP and the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, to address issues raised in the letter, was scheduled.
But while the matter lingered, the APC constituted its national convention committees, without members of the nPDP featuring in any.
To worsen matters, media reports, had claimed the President, Muhammadu Buhari, vowing not to have any dealing with the group.
nPDP, ANPP, APGA wings lose out
Following the development and the disdain with which Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara had been subjected to in the party affairs, the PDP wing of the party, appeared effectively whittled.
Also, with Oyegun literally forced out of re-election, the ANPP leg of the party, was seriously bruised.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) wing of the party was also not adequately carried along, given what the Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, had gone through in the hands of the APC leadership.
It was thus, essentially the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), represented by Buhari and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), reflected in Osinbajo/Bola Tinubu tendencies that called the shots at the convention.
A Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, Lagos State University (LASU), who had commented on the matter, predicted the fall of APC with the development.
“I see implosion in the party. They are beginning to draw imaginary lines in the party. The party leaders are allowing their 2015 victory get to their heads. What you will see next, is the fall of the party”, he told this reporter.
Like PDP, like APC?
Going by current developments in APC, the Lecturer may not be wrong in his observation, after all. Analysis of faulty moves by PDP in the build-up to the 2015 general elections, which APC is perhaps, unwittingly toeing, lends weight to his remarks.
At the March 24, 2012, National Convention of PDP in Abuja, major positions were parcelled out to favoured candidates of former President Goodluck Jonathan in a consensus arrangement that was considered highly undemocratic.
Incidentally, while preparations for the convention peaked, the party hierarchy had sold impressions of a party that had exited from its past that was characterised by intrigues.
With the advertisement of the new dawn, there were hopes that internal democracy had returned in the party. On that basis, estranged chieftains of the party who were chiselled out of its mainstream by the dictatorial tendencies of the time, began to nurse a dream of the party returning to the ideals of its forebears.
Hopes of a reformed party were however dashed when few hours to the convention, words filtered out that Bamanga Tukur, Aso Rock candidate and erstwhile governor of defunct Gongola State, had been selected as National Chairman of the party.
His position was merely affirmed at the convention ground.
PDP never recovered from the bad blood that trailed that exercise. Subsequent developments saw the then governors of Sokoto (Aliyu Wamakko), Rivers (Rotimi Amaechi), Adamawa (Murtala Nyako), Kwara (Abdulfatah Ahmed) and Kano (Rabiu Kwankwaso), walking out of the party.
The governors and other chieftains of the party, constituted the nPDP that flowed into the APC and boosted its chances in 2015 polls.
The fear is that with the uncertain climate in APC, many estranged members may follow the steps of the Galadima group in the days ahead. That, analysts, say, would mark the commencement of real problem for the ruling party.
Oshiomhole, the National Chairman, has incidentally, dismissed the RAPC, describing the leaders as having no political addresses and lacking the weight to cause him and the APC sleepless nights. He perhaps, derives his confidence from the RAPC, so far, not boasting of any known elected official, especially of the ranks of governors and senators in its fold.
But how far would this optimism go?
