After disappointing runs in Ekiti and Adamawa, the All Progressives Congress (APC) stages a comeback in political reckoning, with stunning victories in Nasarawa and Osun, Senior Correspondent, ISHAYA IBRAHIM, writes.
Kayode Fayemi
The All Progressives Congress (APC) seems to be getting its groove back after a string of defeats it suffered in Adamawa and Ekiti states in the hands of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The party, for now, appears to have regained a balance with the failed impeachment of its governor, Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State. He was almost ousted by the PDP-dominated House of Assembly, but for the ‘not guilty’ verdict on him by the panel of inquiry that probed him.
Also, the re-election of Rauf Aregnesola, the APC candidate in the August 9 governorship election in Osun State, has added more confidence to the party ahead of the 2015 election.
The APC, which was formed on February 6, 2013, in preparation for the 2015 elections, and specifically to win the presidency, had suffered a gale of disappointments in the last couple of months.
The first was in Ekiti, where its sitting governor, Kayode Fayemi, believed to be reform-minded, got trounced by the PDP candidate, Ayo Fayose, in the June 21 governorship election.
Fayemi’s defeat had sent shock waves to the party that its days in the South West were numbered. Prior to the election in Ekiti, the party had dominated the region’s political affairs, except Ondo State, where the Labour Party (LP) holds sway.
In the election, Fayemi was favoured to win, given his credential as a reformer, even in the standard of the world media. Little wonder The Economist in the United Kingdom was critical of Nigeria’s politics when he failed to get re-elected.
The newspaper had said in its commentary after the election: “In dismissing a forward-thinker, the voters sent out a loud message. After coming to power in 2010, Mr. Fayemi laid new roads, improved the university system, presented a plan to get more young people into jobs, created a social security scheme for the elderly, and cut corrupt wage payments to government workers.
“But such reforms upset people with a vested interest in the old political system. Unqualified teachers, who have been told to take tests as part of Mr. Fayemi’s education reforms, probably voted against him. So did civil servants upset by his more meritocratic hiring practices. Such people plainly prefer the old ‘politics of the belly’, which keeps them comfortably on the state payroll and hands out cash in return for their votes.”
Critics of the British medium, however, accuse it of relying on propaganda from APC information machinery and not being abreast of developments in Ekiti.
A month after Fayemi’s unceremonious defeat, APC suffered another defeat when the then Adamawa governor, Murtala Nyako, got booted out by angry PDP lawmakers in the state. His ‘original’ sin, in addition to his alleged financial recklessness, was his defection from the PDP to the APC.
Nyako is of the APC stock, a party that was neck-to-neck with the PDP in size and influence in November last year when five governors of the ruling PDP defected to the opposition. The governors included Nyako, Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano).
An APC presidential hopeful, Sam Nda-Isaiah, reacting to the impeachment, said: “Nyako was impeached because he is now in the APC. And, of course, all the governors that have been shortlisted for impeachment are all in the APC. But let’s wait and see,” he told TheNiche on July 17, shortly after the Adamawa governor was impeached.
APC juggernauts, apparently jolted by the sack of Nyako, seemed to have worked out plans to forestall further depletion in their ranks.
On July 24, the House of Assembly members directed the Nasarawa Chief Judge, Justice Sulaiman Dikko, to constitute a panel of seven persons to probe a plethora of impeachable allegations against the governor in line with the provisions of section 188 of the 1999 Constitution.
Section 188 (5), provides that: “Within seven days of the passing of a motion under the foregoing provisions of this section, the Chief Judge of the State shall, at the request of the Speaker of the House of Assembly, appoint a panel of seven persons who in his opinion are of unquestionable integrity, not being members of any public service, legislative house or political party, to investigate the allegation as provided in this section.”
The appointment of the panel of seven is at the discretion of the Chief Judge. Lawyers added that the Chief judge determines who he deems to be ‘persons of unquestionable integrity’ to be in the panel.
The Chief Judge named the members of the panel, but the House of Assembly rejected it, saying they were all APC sympathisers. He ignored them and proceeded with the impeachment process.
This was the move that foiled the impeachment of Governor Al-Makura, analysts say.
For Kaduna-based lawyer, Abdulazeez Ibrahim, the lawmakers have been boxed into an impossible corner.
“Don’t forget that Al-Makura’s lawyers have filed an action challenging the service of the impeachment notice to the governor. While in court, they will ask for interlocutory injunction pending the determination of the substantive suit.”
With the failed impeachment of Al-Makura, the battle for the soul of Nasarawa shifted to the streets of Lafia, the state capital. On August 7, supporters of the PDP embarked on what they described as solidarity protest with the House of Assembly members.
The march was led by stalwarts of the PDP, including the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku; the former governor of Nasarawa, Aliyu Doma; and a chieftain of the party, Senator Solomon Ewuga. The three men are believed to be eyeing the governorship of the state.
Shortly after the PDP rally, supporters of the APC, the governor’s party, also staged theirs. The state publicity secretary of the APC, Wuduyamba Sam Agidi, told newsmen that the rally was to sweep away the ‘Ebola viruses’ brought into the town by the PDP.
Even as the governor seemed to have survived this impeachment, what is the next agenda from the Nasarawa government antagonists’ box of tricks? Analysts, however, predict that a hard political battle awaits the governor in 2015 when he will be seeking a second term.