Editor, Politics/Features, EMEKA ALEX DURU, takes a look at the coming national convention of APC, highlighting issues that may come to play at the gathering and their likely impact on the fortunes of the party
General Muhammadu Buhari
The days before and after the June 13 and 14 maiden national convention of All Progressives congress (APC) would go a long way in situating the claim of the party as offering Nigerians an alternative route to meaningful democracy.
APC was formed in February 2013, following alliance by three major opposition parties – Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) – and some elements from All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), essentially to take on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is holding sway at the centre.
The party received approval from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on July 31, 2013 to become a political party. Since its registration, facilitators and foot soldiers of APC have been flaunting it as an alternative platform for Nigerians that are obviously disenchanted with the lackluster performance of the PDP.
Basking on this euphoria, the party, last March, made a move that advertised it as taking a decisive step into issue-oriented politics. In what it presented as a 10-point agenda for a new Nigeria, the party listed areas it would focus on to make life meaningful, if it gets power in 2015.
Highlights of the presentation included job creation, anti-corruption fight, free, relevant quality education, agriculture, housing plan, and healthcare plan for children and adults.
The party also listed social welfare scheme for the less advantaged as well as road, power plant construction, among its priorities, adding that it will strengthen peace, security and foreign policy.
The party also unfolded an elaborate agenda against official and/or private sector corruption. Part of its strategies in this regard would be to strengthen legal provisions to prevent stay of proceedings and other delays in corruption trials. It also vowed to “guarantee the independence of anti-corruption and financial crimes agencies by legislation, charging their budgets directly to the Consolidated Revenue Fund”.
Coming at a time the nation’s scorecard in governance, fight against crime and corruption has not been cheering, the intervention by APC was celebrated by its sympathisers as offering a window of hope for the ordinary Nigerian.
Thus, buoyed by the excitement that trailed the presentation, APC bigwigs embarked on frenzy of sorts. In an encounter with TheNiche, human rights lawyer and chieftain of the party, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, described the document as a set of principles that would guide governance under APC, adding that it focused on the Nigerian citizen and things that affect them.
“There is a lot of emphasis on employment, which is a major problem in the country and also some kind of welfarism,” he said in obvious endorsement of the agenda.
Other members of the party shared in this regime of optimism.
PDP, the party APC plans to dislodge at the national level, however, dismissed the roadmap, describing it as lacking in content and originality. In fact, a statement by PDP national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, dismissed the APC manifesto as “a roadmap to anarchy, which is typical of all anti-democratic coalitions”. According to him, the document lacked character, depth and completely addressed no issue.
No matter the opinions that had been triggered by the roadmap, analyst see the outcome of the June 13 and 14 convention as veritable indicator to the extent the party would go in discharging itself as holding any hope for the citizenry.
It has, for instance, been observed that how the managers of the party handles the convention would determine if it deserves to be trusted or dismissed outright as comprising a bunch of power-thirsty individuals who could not attain their ambition in other parties.
Democracy on trial
What is particularly seen as a likely challenge to the party’s big wigs at the convention is the issue of internal democracy. Incidentally, antecedents of the legacy parties that coalesced into APC do not speak much in this regard. ACN, the leading partner in the coalition, was, for example, hardly known to be democratic in the conduct of its affairs. Its mode of convention had been characterised by mere affirmation of candidates selected by its leaders on criteria that even baffled some members of the party. This ugly trend, incidentally, dated back to the days of Action Congress (AC) and Alliance for Democracy (AD) that evolved to ACN.
In fact, the high-handedness in AD was regarded among the factors that led to the factionalisation of the party into two camps – one loyal to Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa and the one led by former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu. It was the Tinubu group that evolved to AC and later ACN. Up to the formation of APC and thereafter, Tinubu’s image has loomed large in the party.
In ANPP, another merger member of APC, the situation was hardly different. Though imposition in the party was not as glaring as in the then ACN, attainment of certain positions, especially at the national level, had much to do on the perceived disposition of General Muhammadu Buhari, its presidential candidate in the 2003 and 2007 elections.
The touted influence of Buhari, which events later showed to be orchestrated, paved the way for the infiltration of the party by agents suspected to have been planted in it by PDP.
This development forced the former head of state and his supporters to move out of the party to form CPC. Buhari’s exit contributed extensively to the dwindling fortunes of the party. At the CPC where the retired army General pitched his tents, he became the face of the party. In similar vein, his perceived inflexible tendencies were seen by critics as accounting for the party not growing beyond areas considered to be outside his immediate influence.
Crisis in the making?
Bola Ahmed TinubuThe fear among some members of the party and concerned analysts, therefore, is that these undemocratic tendencies may come to play at the convention. Already, there have been insinuations of possible friction between the founding members, described in hushed tones as members of the old brigade, and the governors over choice of officers for key positions.
What appeared to have watered this suspicion was the outcome of the party’s May 23 National Executive Council (NEC) meeting where the Buhari/Tinubu agenda of throwing up Abubakar Baraje, former acting PDP chairman, as chairman of the National Convention Committee, was thwarted by the governors and forces seen to be loyal to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The governors, this weekly learnt, worked for the emergence of one of their own, Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, as the chairman.
In another power game, the former Lagos governor had reportedly indicated interest in the party retaining Bisi Akande, the interim national chairman, as the chairman. But sensing that the kite could not fly, he is said to be rooting for former Edo State governor, John Odigie-Oyegun. The governors are, on the other hand, said to have preference for any of their former colleagues or Tom Ikimi, former External Affairs Minister. By the close of last week, there were fliers on former Bayelsa State governor, Timipre Sylva, being in contention for the race. Sylva was said to have the endorsement of governors that had joined the party from the PDP. Apart from sharing similar background with them, the governors, according to sources, are more comfortable in having a national chairman they can see as one of their own. Besides, they see in him a chairman who would not be susceptible to Tinubu’s manipulations.
What may, however, work against the former Bayelsa governor is the litany of cases he has with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on allegations of corruption. TheNiche learnt that the governors and party chieftains rooting for his chairmanship are being restrained on this ground, given that negative outcome of the cases may have drastic impact on the reputation of the party.
On the other hand, Tinubu’s preference for Odigie-Oyegun is said to have been informed by the former Edo governor’s loyalty to established principles.
Odigie-Oyegun emphasised on this principle while declaring his interest for the job, last week. He said: “I am gunning for the office of the National Chairman of APC in a strong way for the good of the party. The reason is simple: In all my life, I have been a progressive; I have never crossed a line.”
Critics are yet to fault him on this. The governors of the party, however, see him as stock of the old school. The fear among some of them, especially those who crossed from PDP, is that working under him may see them encountering similar tendencies that they experienced under Bamanga Tukur, who was the national chairman in their former party. Principally, the former Edo governor, who is in his 70s, is seen by many of the governors as belonging to a different generation. They also see in him somebody who can easily be browbeaten by Tinubu.
There are also apprehensions of some groups being elbowed out in distribution of other offices. The geographical east, for instance, had, by Thursday last week, not featured in the party’s permutation for allotment of key offices. Keen followers of the party were, in fact, worried that in the unfolding power game, no mention had been made of Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, former ANPP National Chairman, believed to have played salutary roles in the formation of APC. In the same vein, no mention had been made of his zone or any of his followers in determining who gets what.
Somehow, the party, TheNiche gathered, seems aware of the brewing tension and has constituted a sub-committee out of its National Convention Committee to work out an arrangement to zone its national offices ahead of the convention.
Senator Joseph Waku, a member of the convention committee, who made the disclosure on Tuesday, said the committee would continue to fine-tune modalities on how to zone its national offices and ensure there is no rancour in the party.
How far would the party go?
Even with what appears as safety net being put in place by the convention committee, fears of imposition politics rearing its head at the convention are yet to be obliterated. By press time, there were no indications of any of the pronounced tendencies in the party shifting ground on their positions. It was, for example, alleged that Tinubu would not give in to any arrangement that would ultimately deny him his vice presidential ambition. His followers were said to be gravely perturbed at the audacity of the governors from PDP in trying to dictate the course of actions in APC. Their fear was that the former PDP men may have been dispatched by the presidency to infiltrate the party and cause confusion, leading to its collapse.
“The way it is, he is fighting a battle of his life. I frankly do not see him giving in. If you understand Jagaban (Tinubu), you would know that he is a great fighter, especially on matters affecting his political interest. He does not go into political investment without an eye on dividend. He has invested heavily in and on APC. I will be surprised if he would just take the outcome of the convention without making pronounced input. At worst, I see him staging a walk-out with his supporters, if he suspects that he has been outwitted or may not have his way,” a senior Lagos State APC member who pleaded not to be mentioned, told TheNiche.
This, perhaps, lends credence to the apprehension by some, of the convention going awry, if adequate measures are not put in place. This is especially against the backdrop of reported mistrust and frictions during the party’s state congresses which held nationwide on Saturday April 26.
Not in a few states was the congress trailed by controversies. For instance, in Ogun, two parallel executives were elected. The Senator Olugbenga Kaka-led faction accused Governor Ibikunle Amosun of discriminating against his group. He equally complained about the party being run as a one-man show.
He said: “Our party is not a party where a single individual will dictate to every other person in the party. In our party, God and the party must rule, not just a single individual.”
Former Governor Olusegun Osoba had similar complaints.
Amosun had, however, countered: “We must learn to give and take in order to be united. The task to move our party forward in this state is a collective responsibility.”
Despite the appeal, the polarisation of the party in the state seems to be getting wider. Last week, Osoba reportedly ruled out any chances of his faction closing ranks with the governor.
In Lagos, it was a one-way show, as those elected were returned opposed. Many, incidentally, were members of the interim executive council that were merely affirmed to continue with their positions.
The congress would have degenerated into free-for-all in Ondo, but for the quick intervention of the police. In fact, the chairman of the congress committee and former Lagos State Deputy Governor, Femi Pedro, was reportedly ferried out of the rowdy atmosphere by the police, as aggrieved party members attempted to manhandle him.
In Akwa Ibom, the story was hardly different, as former governorship candidate of ANPP in the state, Sam Enwang, condemned the exercise, describing it as a fraud. He maintained that the result did not represent the interest of different segments of the party. The situation was not different in Anambra, where the congress had to be repeated on account of complaints that trailed the initial exercise.
Fear of the convention widening the cleavages in the party, thus, remains potent. Some have even raised the concern that mishandling the convention may work against the existence of the party.
But Wamakko has assured that the exercise would not mar the party, but would make it stronger.
The governor, who made the declaration at the inauguration of his committee, noted that the party leadership carefully selected the members based on their track record of performance in previous tasks.
He said: “This convention, as you are aware, is very unique in many respects, but, most importantly, it is going to be the first convention of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), after the great merger process, to choose officers to manage its affairs as we approach the 2015 general elections.
“Secondly, it is a widely held belief, especially among our detractors, that this convention will make or mar our great party. If you recall, our detractors never gave us a chance to succeed at the merger stage; but to their disappointment, we succeeded.
“Now that they expect us not to succeed, we must prove them wrong. We will present to the Nigerian people a world class convention. And to do this, we must determine to make sacrifices, building on past experiences while placing party interest above self.”
How far APC would go in attaining this obvious tasking feat depends on the actions and dispositions of its leadership, analysts insist.