By Emeka Alex Duru
At the conclusion of the special National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday, February 27, 2018, the National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, was clearly the star of the moment – and rightly so.
In what was seen as a surprise to even key members of the party, the chairman and his National Working Committee, received a unanimous confidence vote and one-year tenure extension in running the affairs of the party.
To the chairman and his colleagues, that was a huge breather, in the face of apprehension that had trailed their stay in the office, days before the meeting.
Ever since, Oyegun is said to be referred to by close friends, as the proverbial cat with nine lives. And this is not without reasons.
On three prominent occasions, events in the party had almost suggested that the former Edo governor would be thrown out of office – perhaps, in ignominy.
His sins began to count during the inauguration of the National Assembly (NASS), when the members on the ticket of APC, defied the leadership and selected principal officers that were not those proposed by the party.
Contrary to Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila, who the party leadership had anointed as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively, the legislators settled for Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara for the two chambers.
While a section of the APC leadership, allegedly prodded by former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, had recommended sanctions against the legislators, Oyegun was seen to be too reluctant in moving against them, preferring due process in the exercise.
There were, thus, insinuations that he was tacitly in support of the lawmakers.
Though there were no proofs to back the suspicion, the allegation of betrayal and anti-party activities, were stoked against him, apparently to get him on collision course with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The national chairman however survived the trap but was soon at odds with Tinubu over the 2016 Ondo governorship election.
At the party’s primary, there were allegations that the delegates’ list was doctored to favour Rotimi Akeredolu by some persons, principally, to stop Tinubu’s preferred choice, Segun Abrahams.
Tinubu’s attempts at getting the special appeal panel of the party to upturn the results of the primary and order a rerun, had almost sailed through when the NWC, led by Oyegun, insisted that there were no convincing reasons to repeat the exercise.
Pained that he had been unjustly treated and humiliated by the party he helped into being, Tinubu accused Oyegun of being the mastermind of his fate. He promptly fired a memo, accusing the national chairman of incompetence and demanding his resignation.
Many saw in the move by the former Lagos governor, an attempt to mobilise Buhari against the chairman. But that did not work. If anything, Buhari attended Akeredolu’s rally days to the election, in which he won.
The last encounter between the two was the accusation by Tinubu against Oyegun, of frustrating the efforts of his committee charged with reconciling aggrieved members of the party.
Buhari, had recently, asked Tinubu to lead the consultation, reconciliation and confidence building efforts in APC, in the build-up to the 2019 general elections.
“The assignment will involve resolving disagreements among party members, party leadership and political office holders in some states of the Federation”, the President had directed in a two-paragraph piece, signed by his Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
And in what seemed the seriousness of the agenda, the former Lagos governor, went into action, immediately. His efforts recorded initial successes, or so thy seemed.
But barely a week into the exercise, Tinubu accuse Oyegun of engaging in acts capable of undermining the efforts of the committee.
In an eight-page letter dated February 21, which was copied to the President, Vice-President, Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tinubu accused Oyegun of taking actions aimed at sabotaging his presidential assignment.
Specifically, he accused the National Chairman of not cooperating with him, alleging that some of his (Oyegun)’s actions were capable of worsening the situation in some of the crisis-ridden states.
Oyegun did not go into details in replying the letter, aside pledging co-operation with him and wishing him the best in his assignment.
But coming barely a week to the Convention, there were fears that Buhari would clamp on the chairman. The calculation in some quarters was that the President and other leaders of the party might see in Oyegun, an obstacle to peace that was badly needed in the fold and edge him out.
But in a curious twist, few days to the exercise, news filtered out that the entire 36 state chairmen of the party, including Abuja, had passed a confidence vote on the chairman and had even recommended one-year tenure extension to him and his NWC team.
Incidentally, the South West State chairmen, including their Lagos State counterpart, Henry Ajomale, a core Tinubu loyalist, endorsed the recommendation.
To add it up, at the NWC meeting, the recommendation had a unanimous approval. The tenure of the current leadership, is supposed to expire on June 30. But with the extension, the members will now, hold on to their various positions till June 30, 2019.
The decision, our reporter learnt, instantly threw the Tinubu tendency of the party in mourning mood. Repeated calls to the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the party, Joe Igbokwe, were not answered. Not even his pledge, through Short Message Service (SMS) to get back to our correspondent, was kept.
But at the Secretariat of the party, an obviously flustered official, who did not want to be mentioned, fumed, “It is apparent that Buhari has used and dumped Asiwaju (Tinubu), after using him to get South West votes in 2015. But it is not over yet. Let’s wait and see how things unfold in the next few months.
Precise actions the former Lagos governor or his foot soldiers may take in forcing the party to accord him what he considers his dues, are yet to be seen. There are suggestions of his possibly staying aloof in the affairs of the party, henceforth.
But his critics dismiss that as an option. They, in fact, snigger that this time around, Tinubu is the person that needs Buhari more than the latter had needed him in 2015.
They argue that with the harvest of votes which Kano and other States in the North have assured the President, the Tinubu factor in the 2019 elections, may not really matter.
But how far this will go, will be seen in the weeks and months ahead.