By Omoniyi Salaudeen
There is no gainsaying that all is not well within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Despite the trouble-shooting effort by the reconciliation committee headed by a former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Abudullahi Adamu, peace still remains largely elusive to the fold.
From Lagos to the far flung Adamawa State in the Northeast, Delta and Rivers states in the South-south, Imo and Anambra in the Southeast zone, there has been a cauldron of contentions among different factional leaders of the party since the conduct of its local and state congresses. The big question now is whether or not the party can actually survive the distressing disintegration that has hit its rank and file across the states of the federation.
The most recent episode of the lingering leadership crisis is last week’s defection of some aggrieved members of the APC in Lagos State to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). For some months back, peace of the graveyard had pervaded the state chapter of the party. But this past week, a factional group, Lagos4Lagos, finally put paid to all the speculations by joining forces with the PDP to end the reign of APC in the state.
As in other troubled states, five different groups had conducted parallel congresses to elect new Exco that would run the affairs of the state. In the final analysis, only the faction loyal to the ousted Governor Akinwunmi Ambode known as AMCON (Ambode Campaign Organization) was recognized as authentic by the Buni-led Caretaker committee. However, this has been interpreted as part of the moves to curtail the influence of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in the state. The former Lagos State governor, who is also the APC national leader, is widely believed to be nursing presidential ambition in 2023.
Reacting to the defection of members of the Lagos4Lagos to the PDP, the ruling party described the defection as good riddance to bad rubbish.
In Kano State, the contention is between Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and his predecessor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, now a Senator representing Kano Central Senatorial District. As part of the battle for the control of the APC structure in the state, both Ganduje and Shekarau factions have been entangled in dispute over the outcome of the last state congresses
Last week, a Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja, gave a ruling voiding the ward and state congresses conducted by the Ganduje-led faction which produced Abdullahi Abbas as chairman. Justice Hamzat Muazu, in his judgment, declared that the congress conducted by the faction led by Shekarau and member House of Representatives, Sha’aban Sharadaas, was the authentic exercise.
However, effort is already being made by Tinubu to reconcile the warring factions. How far this can go remains another puzzle.
Also, Bauchi State has equally had its own fair share of the protracted leadership tussles arising from the conduct of parallel congresses. While Sunusi Kundel emerged as a factional chairman, a rival group elected Alhaji Babayo Aliyu Misau as its leader.
Unable to settle their differences, some aggrieved members of the party have already obtained an interim court order restraining the national leadership from inaugurating the newly elected Exco recongised by the Extraordinary Convention Caretaker Committee led by Mai Mala Buni. This was the anti-climax of the power tussle between the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and the Nigerian ambassador to Germany, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar.
Osun and Ekiti states are also in the eyes of the storm even as the governorship elections slated for next year draw nearer. Both supporters of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and his predecessor and Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, have been fiercely embroiled in the battle of wits, despite all entreaties to the two gladiators to bury their differences. While members of The Osun Progressive (TOP), a group loyal to Aregbesola, had their parallel congress at Ogo-Oluwa area in Osogbo, the governor’s faction held its own congress at Osogbo City Stadium where the chairman of the party, Prince Adegboyega Famodun, was re-elected for a second term.
Apart from parallel congresses held to elect their leaders, occasionally skirmishes have also been reported between the two warring groups. Already, the matter has been taken to court. Aregbesola’s loyalists had dragged the leadership of the party to the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo challenging the Chairman of Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Committee of the party over the manner in which the congresses were conducted.
In Ekiti State, a similar muscle-flexing exercise took place, pitching the supporters of Governor Kayode Fayemi against a rival faction loyal to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
A chieftain of the party in the state, Senator Anthony Adeniyi, while speaking with Sunday Sun in a telephone interview, expressed concern that APC might lose the next governorship election unless aggrieved members agree to work together.
“You don’t need science to prove that if we cannot go into election as one, it might be difficult for us to win. If they invite us, we are ready to reconcile, we are ready to tolerate ourselves. But if they arrogantly stay aside, saying they don’t need us, we will stay where we are,” he said.
Ogun State has also not been spared of the power squabbles rocking the APC, as supporters of Governor Dapo Abiodun continue to engage the group loyal to his predecessor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, in a fierce battle for the control of the party’s structure in the state.
More intriguingly, in Oyo State, accusation has been leveled against Ibikunle for allegedly trying to replicate the crisis in the state. One of the rival groups had alleged that Amosun was the one sponsoring members of Unity Forum within Oyo APC, which includes Prof. Adeolu Akande, Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle, Barr. Bayo Shittu, Dr. Ismail Adewusi, among others, to divide the party into fragments.
The recent efforts made to harmonise the emerging executives hit the rocks, as stakeholders disagreed over the list released to the media by former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala-led Elders Advisory Committee and the seven zonal leaders authorised by the CECPC to deliberate on the issue.
For Zamfara State, where Governor Bello Matawalle had early this year dumped the PDP for APC, the story is not so much different from what is happening in other states. Though recognized as the leader of the state, he has been having a running battle with his predecessor, Abdul’aziz Yari Yari. Matawalle and Senator Kabiru Marafa factions conducted parallel congresses. Though Yari’s camp did not participate in the last state congress of the party, it has instituted a legal action challenging the action of the Caretaker Committee which handed over the structure of the party to Matawalle.
Similarly, the protracted crisis in the Imo State chapter of the APC is largely due to the power struggle between the state governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, and his predecessor, Senator Rochas Okorocha. Following the parallel congresses held in the state, the two rival camps have been claiming legitimate executives.
Okorocha in a recent statement described the APC congress in the state as a birthday party and not a congress, saying there was a substantive Appeal Court judgment bordering on the executives of the party in the state.
In the oil-rich Delta State, the internal crisis involves loyalists of the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege and the supporters of the Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo along with some other stalwarts of the party from the state.
In Gombe State, the contention is between the camp of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya and that of a former governor of the state, Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje.
In the same vein, Kwara State crisis borders on the rivalry between Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The battle between Senator Magnus Abe and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, for the control of the structure of the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress is equally not abating. While Senator Abe-led faction inaugurated what it termed the authentic state executive, the Amaechi-led APC which had its congress at the Polo Club, Port Harcourt, elected Emeka Beke as the state party chairman. Also, the party’s state Publicity Secretary, Chris Fynebone was returned to his post.
In Anambra State, Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, and the candidate of the party in the just-concluded governorship election, Senator Andy Uba, are now at daggers drawn over who wields more influence in the party. While the group loyal to Uba supported Mr. Basil Ejidike as the state chairman of the party, some aggrieved members denounced his leadership.
Ngige was believed to have worked against the emergence of Uba as the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the last election. The media and publicity director of the Andy Uba campaign organisation, Hon Afam Ogene, in a statement accused Ngige of attempting to return as the leader of the party, after having worked against its candidate in the last election. “You cannot abandon your troops in wartime and seek a return to lead this same beleaguered people in peacetime,” Ogene said.
These and many more are some of the lingering crises given the Buni-led committee a sleepless night. How the party leadership resolves these issues will surely determine the survival of the APC as a united body ahead of the 2023 general elections.