With the current friction rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in which the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and the National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore were forced to resign, Deputy Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU writes that stakeholders are worried that party has not been able to get its acts together.
etween 2014 and this year, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has produced five chairmen. It underscored a sort of leadership instability. Four of them are former governors. One is a serving governor.
The Progressive Governors’ Forum is a potent force in the party. The governors are party leaders at the state level. It is a very powerful force that cannot be sidelined in any critical party deliberations and decision-making.
Today, apart from other governors in the Senate, President Bola Tinubu, Vice-President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Secretary to the Government of the Federation are former governors.
Akande
Following the fusion of the legacy parties-the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Democratic Change (CPC), new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) and a faction of the All Progressives Congress Grand Alliance (UPGA)-to form APC, Chief Adebisi Akande, former governor of Osun State, became the Interim National Chairman.
His successors are Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Third Republic governor of Edo State, Comrade Adam Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo State, Mai Mala Buni, governor of Yobe State who served as National Caretaker Chairman and Senator Abdullahi Adamu, former governor of Nasarawa State.
Apart from Akande, the tenures of other chairmen were marred with crises of varying proportions.
The former Osun State Governor vacated the interim leadership after laying the foundation.
Odigie-Oyegun
Despite the objection to Odigie-Oyegun’s bid by the CPC caucus, led by Muhammadu Buhari, apparently due to past disagreements when they were in the ANPP, the leaders of ACN insisted that he should succeed Akande.
Under Odigie-Oyegun, the party was not in one accord. An early sign of discord was the mismanagement of the Kogi crisis. On the eve of the governorship polls, the candidate, former Governor Abubakar Audu, who was coasting home to victory, died. His running mate, James Faleke, was shoved aside. Before some top party leaders could even agree to campaign for the Audu/Faleke ticket, they demanded appearance fees.
The political family battled with predictable constraints and self-inflicted wounds. For four years, the ruling party was beset with leadership failure due to inaction, aloofness, lip service to the cause of unity and personalisation of power by party officers.
Many founding fathers had cried out over the style of the chairman, who they perceived as a divisive factor. There were protests over the obvious exclusion of the founding fathers from party affairs. Many members and followers were taken aback when the party could not hold its mid-term convention four years after.
After winning presidential power, no concrete attempts were made to really embark on party reforms. The gulf among members of the defunct legacy parties was not closed. The chairman was not perceived as a symbol of unity.
Not only did the APC fail the two critical tests of party supremacy and party discipline, after becoming a ruling party, it also failed to lay an example for smaller parties in crisis resolution.
Also, the legislative/executive feud, the governor/senators face-off in some states and the governor/ministers tango in others, further reinforcing the protracted division. Although the APC had the majority in the National Assembly, passage of budgets was a herculean task.
Many party officers also worked at cross-purpose at the national level. The National Executive Council (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC) meetings were not held regularly. So weak were the party organs that they could not resolve the conflict between the presidency and the parliament, although the president and majority of legislators belonged to the ruling party. The APC Board of Trustees (BoT) was not constituted. The party caucus was helpless.
Alarmed at the drift, one of the founding fathers, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is now president, cried out that the Odigie-Oyegun was not ready for the task of reconciling warring chieftains across the troubled chapters.
When former President Buhari later asked the former Lagos governor to take up the assignment, Tinubu also said that Oyegun was trying to frustrate the process.
To analysts, APC’s ratings had nosedived among Nigerians, because the party was in disarray. In lamentation, members started yearning for a credible and formidable alternative. After checkmating a tenure extension bid, the party organised a national convention.
However, Odigie-Oyegun was brought back to head a committee that organised screening for presidential aspirants last year. The goal was to arrive at a consensus candidate. Tinubu objected to the idea, saying that he could only embrace the option if he would become the beneficiary.
Oshiomhole
Three candidates, namely former Governors Sunday Osunbor, Clement Ebri and Adams Oshiomhole were contestants. But, Oshiomhole, who was backed by Tinubu and other governors, was chosen after the other two stepped down.
Oshiomhole came with a mission to reform the platform. But, his supporters-the governors-later turned against him because he stepped on their toes. He was accused of highhandedness.
The former chairman also did not find it easy at home. His governor, Godwin Obaseki, turned the heat against him. The national chairman was suspended by his ward. The crisis reached a peak, following the affirmation of the suspension of the chairman by Justice Danlami Senchi of an Abuja Federal High Court. The court asked Oshionhole to step down, pending the determination of the substantive suit by the Edo State chapter seeking his removal.
Oshiomole succeeded Odigie-Oyegun in July 2018. He inherited a platform where party supremacy and discipline had reached their lowest ebb. Oshiomhole rubbed shoulders with opposition foes and positioned APC as a party to beat. But, he also demystified members who considered themselves demigods.
A good illustration was his fight with the former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, who wanted to impose a relative, Uche Nwosu, as governorship candidate.
A similar drama unfolded in Ogun State when former Governor Ibikunle Amosun wanted to hand over the baton to one of his followers, Adekunle Akinlade.
If Amosun had consented to a democratic primary and mobilised support for his anointed candidate across the three zones as an incumbent, Akinlade would probably have defeated Prince Dapo Abiodun at the primary.
The chairman also made a concerted effort to pacify the Zamfara warlords, but without success. The crisis in Zamfara was a fallout of the rift between former Governor Abdulaziz Yari and Senator Kabir Marafa over party congresses. Oshiomhole’s attempt to resolve the feud only fetched him more animosity.
According to observers, APC enjoyed a certain degree of decorum when Oshiomhole assumed the reins. Although he meant well for the party, he was misunderstood, majorly because as a combative labour leader and fighter, he could not adjust easily to political prevarication, diplomacy and condescension.
To prove that the party was supreme, the former chairman wielded the big stick. He suspended Governors Amosun and Rotimi Akeredolu. It was unprecedented in APC.
Oshiomhole attracted a mixture of commendation and condemnation while steering the affairs of the party. He was firm and assertive, unwilling to be subservient to the governors who loathed his style. He was effective and decisive. But, he was also accused of an overbearing attitude.
Oshiomhole’s confrontational style attracted intra-party enmity and provoked onslaughts by foes. But, his exit in a controversial manner heralded an intra-party logjam.
The ruling of the court that ousted him came ahead of the next NEC meeting, which should be presided over by Oshiomhole. Going by the constitution of the party, which stipulates that the National Deputy Chairman (South), Senator Abiola Ajimobi, should act as national chairman if there is a temporary leadership vacuum, the former governor, whose selection as deputy chairman had been approved was poised to fill in the seat.
But, some members of the party endorsed the National Deputy Secretary, Victor Giadom to occupy the seat. The move sparked a constitutional row.
Buni
The crisis of succession was temporarily resolved through the setting up of a National Caretaker Committee. It was headed by former National Secretary and Yobe State Governor, Buni.
The caretaker committee was mandated to reconcile aggrieved chieftains, conduct a party membership registration, organise a convention and persuade aggrieved chieftains to withdraw their cases in court.
The cardinal decision on the caretaker committee was taken by the NEC, following the President’s proposal at a time the National Caucus was on the sideline. The setting up of the interim leadership may have been a sort of compromise to persuade the warring blocs in the ruling party to sheath their swords.
The Buni-led Caretaker Committee was representative of the six zones. Buni, former national secretary of the party, was picked to head it because he had insight into the challenges confronting the platform. His selection was accepted by governors who wanted to exert their influence as a dominant bloc. Buni became an absentee governor.
Other members of the committee were Osun State Governor Isiaka Oyetola (Southwest), former Senate President Ken Nnamani (Southeast), Stella Okorete (Women Representative), Governor Sani Bello (Northcentral), Dr James Lalu (representing physically challenged), and Senator Abubakar Yusuf (representing the Senate).
Others were Akinyemi Olaide (House of Representatives), former governorship candidate in Bayelsa State David Lyon (Southsouth), Abba Ari (Northwest), Prof. Tahir Mamman (Northeast), Ismail Ahmed (Youth representative) and former Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Akpan Udoedehe, a member of the board of Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), who is Secretary to the committee.
Buni’s committee was given six-month tenure. Two years after it was set up, not all the motives for setting it up were achieved. Besides, the caretaker committee came under attack for nursing a tenure extension agenda.
Adamu
As the days of the caretaker committee were numbered, no fewer than 10 chairmanship aspirants sprang up. They were Senators Tanko Almakura, Sani Musa, Danjuma Goje, Modu Sheriff, George Akume; Abdulaziz Yari, Isa Yuguda, Salihu Mustapha, Sunny Moniedafe and Senator Abdullahi Adamu, who was President Buhari’s choice.
The former President backed Adamu for the job as a reward for supporting him when he (Adamu) was in the Senate. Adamu’s support for Buhari even earned him a suspension from the Senate when Dr Bukola Saraki was Senate President. Once the President indicated his preference, other aspirants were persuaded to step down.
As chairman, he was perceived as a Buhari man. His major task as party leader was to organise the presidential primary of the party. While the preponderance of opinion supported zoning, Adamu hurriedly summoned a meeting on the eve of the exercise to announce that the President had anointed Senate President Ahmed Lawan as a candidate.
However, when governors stormed Aso Villa to verify, the President said he was not a party to the permutation.
Recently, Adamu also objected to the choice of principal officers of the National Assembly endorsed by the party, describing the announcement as a rumour.
Last week, the NEC and NWC refused to accept the auditor’s report, following the scrutiny of party finances in the last year.
Already, Deputy National Chairman Senator Kyari is acting as chairman.
But, who succeeds Adamu? Will he also be an ex-governor? Will the replacement come from Northcentral as Adamu or from another region?