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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
From all indications, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is gradually acquiring the status of a house of commotion ahead of its proposed March 26, 2022 national convention.
The magnitude of crisis rocking the party came to the head on Monday when the party’s national secretariat practically became a battlefield over which leadership was actually in charge of the structure of the party.
The presence of battle-ready security agents, numbering over 80 that took over the Secretariat, the apprehension of the party becoming a sheep without a shepherd, the legality or otherwise of the inaugurated state Chairmen of the party, the surprising presence of over seven progressive governors and the traumatic look of the secretariat staff, had heightened the tension, anxiety and trepidation that enveloped the party.
With the report that the Caretaker Committee chairman, Governor Mai Mala Buni, has been sacked and replaced with the governor of Niger State, Sani Bello, the situation even became more worrisome with regards to the possibility of holding the proposed national convention.
As if the party has not haemorrhaged enough, the former Director-General, Salihu Lukman, APC Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) had complicated the situation with the allegation that the national leadership has an ulterior motive to scuttle the convention with a court order served it since November last year but deliberately concealed as a last-minute joker.
“In addition, there were other serious allegations against the leadership of Governor Buni, which include the discovery that his group, since November 2022, had obtained a Court injunction against the Convention and are waiting until three or two days to the Convention before serving it on the party to succeed in blocking the March 26 APC Convention from holding.
“The plot is that Governor Buni wants to continue to run the affairs of the party and conduct the party’s primary where candidates for 2023 elections would emerge. Based on that, there are specific allegations that Mai Buni has struck some deals with some presidential aspirants to ensure their emergence as the presidential candidate of APC for the 2023 elections,” he said.
Considering the prevailing circumstances, those carefully monitoring events ahead of the elusive convention would agree that the March 26 date is not yet cast in stone. There is still a 50-50 chance that the convention may still be pushed forward with the development.
Though a comprehensive list of the convention sub-committees has been constituted and published and the much-expected zoning committee headed by the governor of Kwara State, Abdulrazak Abdulrahaman, has also been composed and submitted the report to the party’s national leadership, yet there is still anxiety over the possibility or otherwise of conducting the convention.
Curiously, some of the items contained in the timetable and schedule of activities released by the party last month, especially the arrangements toward the conduct of zonal congresses, which includes sale of nomination forms scheduled between Monday, February 28 to Thursday, March 3, 2022, have not been religiously followed few weeks to the convention date.
More inquisitive signal putting doubts to the convention was the cocktail of controversies surrounding the proposed zoning arrangements for both the national officers and ultimately the ticket of the party for the 2023 presidential election.
An unauthenticated list containing a comprehensive zoning arrangement in circulation since the beginning of this month for the national leadership positions suspected to have emanated from the APC Progressive Governors Forum and submitted to President Buhari, has caused more confusion to the zoning imbroglio.
Already, protests have trailed the zoning arrangement with the South East APC major stakeholders and leaders rejecting the position of Deputy National Chairman of the party instead of their preferred position of National Secretary.
The stakeholders rose from a crucial meeting recently in Abuja and cautioned the leadership of the party against taking away their preferred National Secretary slot from the South East region, stressing: “We are calling on the national leaders of our great party not to marginalise the South East in the composition of the forthcoming National Executive of our great party.
“This call has become very pertinent if we take into cognizance the decision of the high echelon of the party to alternate the offices of the party between the two similar regions, the North and the South. For instance, the incumbent chairman of the Caretaker Committee, Governor Mai Mala Buni, from the North East, was the National Secretary of the party. That presupposes that if the office is to alternate, it must come to the South East as a matter of right,” the communiqué had read.
However, all these tough challenges confronting the conduct of the March 26 convention looks like a child’s play compared to the controversy the recent speculated endorsement of Senator Abdullahi Adamu by President Buhari as the consensus candidate for the national chairmanship position of the party has generated.
Although the position has speculatively been zoned to the North Central geopolitical region tentatively, Senator Adamu’s emergence and endorsement came to many party stakeholders and political watchers as a huge surprise, considering the fact that he was never in the reckoning or permutation for the position ab-initio like other aspirants.
In fact, how he came into the race, relegated other aspirants to the background, outsmarted several competing interests, and purportedly won the admiration and endorsement of President Buhari have continued to be the subject of discussion. In reality, it has proved the saying that in politics, it is the more you look, the less you see.
To lay more credence to such smart manipulation, the pendulum, earlier swinging in favour of the senator representing Niger West in the current Assembly, Senator Musa Sani and the immediate past governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Tanko Al-Makura, and perhaps another chieftain, Mustapha Saliu, had suddenly turned towards Senator Adamu.
In unravelling the circumstances that turned the tide, many sources claimed that Senator Adamu had capitalised on his position as the chairman, APC National Reconciliation Committee, to project himself, scheme out, de-market other aspirants and hijack the position to his advantage.
Another school of thought strongly claimed that he had always been there, scheming silently, while others still believed that he had clinically worked his way into reckoning by soliciting the support of aggrieved party members at the reconciliation table, promising them safe haven when he emerged the national chairman of the party.
However, regardless of the undercurrent that resulted in his emergence, Senator Adamu’s link to the position, which started as a rumour, had gained prominence and continued to spread like wildfire with the recent persistent report that President Buhari rejected the entreaties and protests from the APC governors to withdraw his endorsement of Adamu.
Quoting a source, the report had claimed that the President had bluntly refused to shift ground when the governors advanced their reasons against the serving senator, representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District, becoming the national chairman of the ruling party.
Expectedly, hostilities, rejections and support from many quarters had continued to trail the president’s endorsement of Senator Adamu, with major stakeholders, the aspirants to the position, the youths, and his political allies among other chieftains of the ruling party deploying all manner of strategies to scuttle it.
The APC youth wing had kicked and even staged a protest against the speculated endorsement, but he has continued to match on. Many of the aspirants and other stakeholders had threatened legal action, fire and brimstone, yet what started as a rumour has continued to gather momentum.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja last week, APC National Stakeholders, led by the convener, Aliu Audu, had hinged their rejection of Adamu, among other things, on the supportive role he played during the aborted third term agenda of former president Olusegun Obasanjo in addition to his alleged baggage still with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Frowning at the plans to hand over the party to who they described as PDP element, the stakeholders warned that, “any endorsement of Senator Adamu as the chairman of our party is a very dangerous gamble, one that signals a return of our much beloved progressive party to the hands of the original PDP members.
“As stakeholders, we have always been against imposition in whatever guise, considering our belief that whenever a consensus option is adopted, as long as it is not predated by wide consultation, it would no doubt violate every known democratic ethos and principles.
“The lingering and now widespread speculation as to the plan to bring a former member of the PDP in the person of Senator Adamu as the APC national chairman in the forthcoming convention, where loyal, qualified and competent foundation party members are also in the race, is not only an aberration but a violation of the established principle of APC which respects long term fidelity to the party and frowns at every vestige of injustice,” he argued.
Also expressing reservations against favouring certain aspirants for the position, former party’s spokesperson, Yekini Nabena, had told Daily Sun that the national chairmanship position should not be the birthright of ex-governors, urging his party to try a neutral, sound and focused person with integrity to lead the party.
“Having tried past governors as our chairmen from the inception of the party, I will suggest that the party should change that pattern and try something different instead of the old format of appointing former governors. Most of the former governors have heavy baggage with their cases in the EFCC and/or ICPC, including most of the current aspirants.
“We should rather go for an aspirant with integrity, a sound, focused person, good enough to drive the party to the next level. However, if the party leaders insist on the old style, I will gladly obey as a party man,” he quipped.
Equally ventilating his anger, an APC chairmanship aspirant, Mohammed Saidu Etsu, frowned at not only the report that President Buhari anointed Adamu as consensus candidate but also the claim that other aspirants must withdraw from the race.
“As a solid contender vying for the APC national chairman from the North-Central part of the country, I will be utterly surprised to see this claim come to light. Nobody has communicated me to this effect and if such claims are to hold weight, I strongly believe that the party knows the best channel to reach out to us, as fellow aspirants who are equally qualified for this seat.
“My co-contestants and I have spent a great deal of resources campaigning and rallying around the 36 States of Nigeria for at least a year now. I will categorically state that I am unhesitatingly ready to purchase the party chairmanship nomination form right away, should the sales of forms be rolled out at this point.
“I am therefore calling on the stakeholders to look into the current situation and swiftly react to it because if this is true, we cannot agree to this decision as aspirants. While we are holding back to hear from the party, this decision remains unacceptable and I beseech the stakeholders to disregard and discountenance this claim,” Etsu said in the statement he issued recently.
Another frontline aspirant, Senator Ali-Modu Sheriff (SAS), was however mild in his reactions to the consensus arrangement, promising to sacrifice his ambition for the chairmanship position in obedience to President Buhari endorsing anybody as consensus candidate.
In a speech titled; ‘I stand by President Buhari’s position on the chairmanship of APC, SAS said: “I am totally committed to work with anyone/everyone to reposition our party towards actualising a resounding victory in 2023 general elections and beyond.
“Of late, I have been inundated by insinuations and rumours that President Buhari has zoned and endorsed a candidate for this all important position in our party’s leadership. First and foremost, I am not aware of any official statement or position by Mr. President on endorsement of any particular candidate or/and zoning of the chairmanship position of our great party. Mr. President and indeed the party are yet to release a formal statement on these issues.
“I am in the race for the national chairmanship position of APC because of my strength of character, capacity and competence. My intentions are clear and explicitly for public good rather than self-interest. As a loyal party member, I will abide by the decisions of Mr. President at any time he makes an official one on zoning or endorsement of any particular candidate. I have unequivocal confidence in Mr. President’s capacity to make the right choice for the growth of our party,” he said.
To propel the actualisation of Adamu’s consensus candidacy, over 200,000 stakeholders and youths in his state, Nasarawa and other neighbours in North Central, have already contributed over N10 million to purchase nomination and expression of interest forms for the position on his behalf when the party declares the window open.
Chairman, Council of APC Stakeholders in Nasarawa State, Dr Kassim Muh’d Kassim, an ex-member of Nasarawa State House of Assembly, made the disclosure, announcing that after youths mounted pressure on him, an account was opened where the N10 million was generated in a few days.
“A few days ago, some stakeholders requested that an account be opened that they have decided to task themselves to generate funds to purchase the APC national chairmanship nomination form for Senator Adamu. I thought it was a joke, then suddenly money started coming in and the said account is ringing N10 million and still counting.
“They claimed that it is their little way of showing appreciation to Adamu’s inspiring leadership for decades and to emphasise their support for his tireless work for the progress of Nigeria and his support for President Buhari which culminated in his anointment for the top party job.
“They are delighted to bear the cost because a leader like Adamu who has spent his entire life fighting for democracy in Nigeria should be respected and for establishing educational institutions that gave them sound education. Such gestures should be reciprocated,” Kassim argued.
Regardless of the divide the antagonists and protagonists belong, the cases of endorsement of APC chairman is never a new development in the party. The first interim chairman of the party, Bisi Akande, his predecessor, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and the immediate past chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, were all products of consensus arrangements and not open contestation during the party’s national convention.
However, the dominant argument by critical observers ahead of the convention is that having wrested power from the PDP and consolidated itself for over six years now, APC ought to lead by example in conducting a credible, keenly contested and competitive convention where all the aspirants, numbering over 10, could square up against one another.
But, perhaps, haunted by the apprehension of a possible implosion of the party in a rancorous national convention, the party may have opted for a constitutionally backed consensus mode to ensure that sanity reigns in the party after the exercise.
