•Intrigues that produced new party officers at convention
All Progressives Congress (APC) top brass and money bags worked hard to disprove detractors at the party’s first national convention at Eagle Square in Abuja on Friday, June 13, where national executive members were elected.
Poor organisation greeted over 6,000 delegates and journalists who covered it.
For the whole of Thursday, June 12, the eve of the convention, delegates and newsmen alike wandered from one part of Abuja to another, looking for where to be accredited. This did not happen until Friday, June 13, the day of the convention.
For party insiders, it was understandable.
Surviving PDP snipers
But many observers saw it as a major shortcoming. Criticism, mainly from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had trailed the APC from inception.
The PDP had predicted that the APC – which Nigerians see as the major opposition to the ruling party in the elections next year – would disintegrate when it comes to choosing those to lead it through a democratic process.
The APC slightly proved the critics wrong when it inaugurated its elected state executives in 34 of the 36 states and Abuja on June 5 without much rancour.
To scale the hurdle of electing the national leaders was not going to be as easy, however. The first problem was how to zone the positions without squabble.
A source disclosed that leaders of the party spent sleepless nights in different parts of the country to brainstorm on how to resolve the issue without the party being torn apart.
This, the source added, was the reason the zoning formula was kept top secret till Wednesday, June 11, two days before the convention. The national caucus met on the night of Tuesday, June 10.
However, another source in the APC denied that a meeting was held to discuss the zoning of the posts of president, vice president, Senate president and House of Representatives speaker.
He said there will be no convention where the zoning of these offices will be determined.
“The current arrangement in the APC gives the Igbo the opportunity to vie for president, vice president, Senate president or speaker of the House of Representatives, depending on their choice.
“Those talking about where the president or vice president or other offices will come from are working for the PDP,” the man who was involved in the APC convention planning disclosed.
Permutations for zoning offices
Regardless, TheNiche learnt from other sources how the posts were zoned.
Permutations for the zoning included the interests of Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, the 16 APC governors, and others, as well as religious and ethnic balancing.
The PDP has accused the interim APC leadership of being tilted heavily towards Muslims.
To address this, former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipriye Sylva, was first touted as National Chairman, but this changed as some fear it would give the PDP and Aso Rock the opportunity to revive the alleged corruption case he has with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Besides, Sylva did not get the endorsement of Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, and was perceived not to have considerable home base to function as APC national chairman.
Another major contender who lost the chairmanship is former Foreign Affairs Minister, Tom Ikimi. His undoing was said to be the role he played as the head of APC merger committee.
After the registration of the party last year, Ikimi reportedly insisted that the merger committee becomes the national leadership of the party. It took a battle by party leaders to stop him.
Added to this is the suspicion that he could still be a willing tool in the hands of the PDP, given his past relationship with the ruling party.
Ikimi’s role as Chairman of PDP national convention in 2003, where Olusegun Obasanjo was chosen Presidential candidate, is also said to have featured.
APC chieftains were locked in high wire negotiations with national chairman aspirants like Ikimi and Sylva to drop their ambition for former Edo State Governor, John Oyegun.
“Sylva has agreed but we are still working on Ikimi. If he (Ikimi) agrees, we will simply have a consensus chairman,” one of the organisers told TheNiche.
Another APC member said on Friday, June 13 that the party was working towards affirmative election.
“If Ikimi agrees with the popular thinking of APC chieftains, our delegates will simply sing halleluyah and go home,” the source added.
It was learnt that there were moves by Tinubu to stage a walk out when he suspected that his candidates had lost out. He was later persuaded to see the new APC executives as representing the true face of a national party.
Ikimi may return to PDP
Ikimi may be on his way back to the PDP, the fall out of his failure to secure the chairmanship of the APC.
The APC leadership is reportedly not comfortable with Ikimi as they see him as a PDP mole in the party.
A source confided in TheNiche that “Ikimi has no business being in the APC. He belongs to the PDP and there is every indication that he will go back.
“He is a planted mole in the APC working for interests that we know. He is being used to distabilise the party, so the only alternative is not to give him the platform but to edge him out.”
Enter Jaja
Sam Jaja’s bid for the APC chairmanship was said not to have garnered support, but the coast was left clear for Oyegun, who, though not a money bag, commands respect in the party.
There were two contenders for the post of national secretary – Tijani Tumsa, who held it on interim basis, and Kashim Immam.
Tumsa has the support of Yobe State Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo. Immam has the backing of former Governor of Borno State, Ali Sheriff.
Sherif is in the good books of most APC leaders, especially Buhari, but is said to be close to the PDP. This led to the suspicion that if things did not go his way at the convention, he would lead a walk out, as PDP members did against Jonathan last year.
Interests of Buhari, Tinubu
When the national convention was in the works, there were reports that Tinubu was plotting to install interim APC National Chairman, Bisi Akande, and interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, in permanent positions.
Akande is from the South West, Mohammed the North Central. Like Tunubu, both are Muslims.
But Tinubu’s interest clashes with that of some governors who prefer a Christian national chairman – chosen from among Ikimi, former Oyegun and former Abia State Governor, Ogbonnaya Orji.
While Akande and Ikimi were trying to outdo each other for the chairmanship, neither of them was endorsed by Buhari.
Buhari, who commands a lot of respect in the APC, refused to endorse any aspirant despite pressure from their backers.
Tinubu wants Akande, a Muslim, to become a permanent Chairman, the governors insist on Ikimi, a Christian.
Buhari’s confidante, Tam David-West, confirmed that the man refused to join the fray.
“If Tinubu wants Akande, it is for obvious reasons. If Ikimi is also interested in the position, it is normal. But Buhari has refused to interfere. He simply wants the best person to emerge as APC chairman,” David-West said.
Quest for religious balance
APC top shots are worried that most Nigerians see it as a Muslim party and the only way to correct that impression is to elect a Christian as chairman before electioneering begins.
Since independence in 1960, the composition of Nigeria’s leaders and their deputies has been sensitive to the two main religions in the country.
Out of the 14 instances of leadership since 1960, it is only on three occasions that the head of state or president and his deputy belong to the same religion.
• January 1966 – July 1966. Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi (Head of State, Christian); Yakubu Gowon (Deputy, Christian).• July 1966 – July 1975. Yakubu Gowon (Head of State, Christian); Olawale Wey (Deputy, Christian).
• December 1983 – August 1985. Muhammadu Buhari (Head of State, Muslim); Tunde Idiagbon (Deputy, Muslim).
If Moshood Abiola, who won the presidential election on June 12, 1993 had been allowed to rule together with his Deputy, Babagana Kingibe, the instances would have increased to four, as both of them were Muslims.
Nigeria’s population is nearly evenly split between dominant Muslims in the North and dominant Christians in the South.
With the upsurge in religious clashes, particularly since the return of democracy in 1999 – and the insurgency mounted by Islamic fundamentalist, Boko Haram, which has escalated since 2002 – the national mood has hardened that both the president and vice president should not be adherents of the same religion.
The religion balancing act also applies to the leader of a major political party and his deputy.
This is part of what some members of the APC are trying to achieve to make the party acceptable nationwide.