Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
There is no letup in the crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the Edo State governorship election as former National Auditor, Muhammad Bala Jibrin, has accused the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole of dictatorship in the administration of the party.
Capt. Jibrin, former National Working Committee (NWC) member and governorship aspirant in Bauchi State, also accused Oshiomhole of electoral fraud during the primaries to nominate candidates for the 2019 general elections.
He lamented that the ruling party has not only become a shadow of itself, but also at a crossroad, urging President Muhammadu Buhari and party leaders like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rescue it before it finally crumbles under the weight of Oshiomhole’s impunity.
He accused Oshiomhole of fuelling crisis within the party.
“It is inexplicable that he remains at the centre of all the party’s crisis that has engulfed the state chapters of the party since November 2018. From Zamfara to Ogun, from Imo to Rivers, from Bauchi, Adamawa to now Edo, you can see his hands and his self-centred tendencies visibly.
“Rather than become a unifying factor, Oshiomhole has become the most divisive party chairman in the history of party politics in Nigeria. Because of the flagrant violation of the party’s Constitution by Oshiomhole, the APC has now become a shadow of its former self. Its 2013-2018 format, in which party members feel at home and have a say in the affairs of the party is no more.”
While giving more details on the subtopic he tagged ‘rigging and manipulation of internal party election process’ under Oshiomhome, Capt Bala wrote: “In his bid to continue with illegalities and acts of impunity, which he perpetrated on a large scale during the November 2018 APC primary elections, Oshiomhole, without conscience and sense of fairness and justice, wrote a letter to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that the APC had decided to adopt direct primary for the Edo State APC governorship.
“He did this three day ahead of the meeting of NWC that was supposed to decide on the matter. Under normal circumstance, this immoral action is enough to remove him from office because it is not just an infraction but a desecration of anything just and fair. The NWC members are also culpable on that. It is important to note that the APC constitution did not define or explain the meaning of a direct primary election. Article 20 ii(a) stated that direct primary would be used in the nomination of councillorship election. Therefore, we can say that the contemplation of the drafters of the APC constitution is that direct primary means allowing all card-carrying party members to vote in a primary election. However, there are two issues that unless addressed the whole exercise will be subjected to abuse and manipulation, which is the clear intention of Oshiomhole.
“First, not every party member can vote or be voted for. Article 9.3 (i) states that: “Only fully registered and financially up-to-date members of the party shall have the right to vote and be voted for into any of the elective positions, subject to the provisions made for such elections pursuant to this constitution or other laws or regulations.
Consequently, non-financial members shall not enjoy the above rights.”
How do you verify, under this situation, who is a financial member or not? Given this clear provision, only the NEC can decide on who is a fully registered and financially up-to-date member of the party that is qualified to vote or be voted for, including the mode of the election of candidates during the primary election.
“Therefore, it is only proper for the NWC and Oshiomhole to subject themselves to NEC as the only constitutional body that has the final say on the issue. This means that to ensure checks and balances and roll back the creeping improprieties and his lawlessness, NEC should summon an emergency meeting and thrash out the issues once and for all.
“Second, to conduct a direct primary, the most elementary requirement is an authentic register of party members. Article 9.4 (i) states that: “the party shall update its membership records every six months and remit updated copies to appropriate Secretariats.”
“As we speak, the National Secretariat of the APC has no up-to-date register of members. The last time the register was updated was in 2017, and since then much water has passed under the bridge with the defection of some APC leaders, like Atiku, Kwankwaso, Saraki, Yakubu Dogara, etc. to PDP, and the decamping of some PDP leaders to APC. As lawyers say, you can’t build something on nothing.
“While the absence of up-to-date official register of members is a clear dereliction of duty on the part of the NWC, the insistence on adopting a direct primary without a register of members smacks of sinister motive to cause confusion and violence and manipulate the process to serve the whims and caprices of Adams Oshiomhole.