From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, has blamed godfatherism and some politicians that defected to the APC from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the biggest threats confronting the ruling party.
It also declared that they are also responsible for the spate of crises rocking the party.
National Secretary of the APC Caretaker Committee, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, who expressed the concern in an exclusive chat with Saturday Sun also took a swipe atsome ministers, slamming them for abandoning the party, despite riding on the crest of the wave of President Muhammadu Buhari’s popularity.
He further accused some of the PDP defectors of lacking the kind of patience from millions of founding APC members that never protested despite their neglect in spite of their loyalty to President Buhari from ANPP, CPC to the APC.
The APC chief scribe cited instances of former governors fighting the incumbents over control of the party’s structure in the states.
He lamented that such situations usually degenerate when the incumbent fights back in desperation to retain his seat using the enormous powers at his disposal.
His words: “Most of the complaints from the states are cases of predecessors wanting to be in charge and dividing the state with the governor. They forget that it cannot work because first and foremost, the incumbent governor wants to guarantee his seat and surrendering the party structure to his predecessor when we are not in America where election is very free, may not be pleasant to him.
“Surrendering the party structure to the godfathers is responsible for the rancour facing the party in some states. If you belong to a party platform that gives the governors offer of first refusal, that is where the rancour usually starts. If the governor is comfortable with anyone who wants to negotiate anything with him, good, but if the governor is not comfortable, it becomes a problem.
“Look at the problems created in the case of godfatherism that transpired in Edo State between Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the incumbent governor. It was even more worrisome that Comrade Adams, who destroyed godfatherism ideology in Edo, wanted to be a godfather.
“Most of the godfathers have only the media space but in reality can’t win elections. They go any length to use the name of Mr President, but if they truly love him or close to him as they claim, why can’t they listen to his directive that the party should be built bottom up and that we should allow the people to choose who they want?
“Rather they express discomfort how they have been reduced to nothing or destroyed politically. Many people worry why such persons cannot win election, but they forget that they are products of media hype. Most times they forget and underestimate the fact that people want to choose who they want.”
On whether he was surprised over the volume of crises trailing the recently conducted congresses, he replied: “I am not surprised over the backlash that trailed the exercise. It is a process but the good thing is that we have an experienced chairman, very knowledgeable in party administration. If you love the party as many of them claimed, you ought to know that there are internal resolution mechanism and other avenues to ventilate your anger.
“You must explore the option of appeal not going to the court of public opinion to appeal. Incidentally, many of them did not even go to the appeal before they start shouting. As far as we are concerned, we don’t have any complain.
“So, it is not true that the congress divided the party. Rather it has shown the acceptability of the party from people struggling to join the winning party. It is rather an indication of the good thing to come. People are just fighting for their ego, not the interest of the party.
“Do you know that millions of people that build this party from 2014 have not benefitted from the party? Yet others who joined because of their names became ministers, while the founding members have not protested, just because they love the party.
“Some ministers never identified with the party and they are not using the office the way they are supposed to. They are not complimenting Mr President properly by making out time to come and explain to the party what they are doing like the Minister of Communication did recently. Some of them don’t even come to the party to equip us so that we can defend our government properly.
“Some of them are simply hiding under the popularity of President Buhari. What I want to emphasis is that there are people that have been following President Buhari from CPC and ANPP that have not benefitted anything from the government, yet they have not destroyed the party.
“Most of the people making the loudest noise are some of the new entrants from the PDP because they are not used to waiting patiently. These people are traffics,” he noted.