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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The hitherto contentious and much awaited national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has finally come and gone, leaving in its trail tales of joy, pain, intimidation and even coercion.
As many party chieftains succinctly captured it, what members of the opposition and some Nigerians thought was impossible, due to the attitude, actions and inactions of the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) eventually turned out a relatively huge success.
Call it national convention of intimidation, coercion, confirmation, consensus, or whatever depending on the side of the coin one belongs, the outcome of the convention has obviously put the ruling party one courageous step forward to kick start activities for the 2023 general elections without fear of being bogged down by any legal technicalities.
As expected, the Eagle Square, Abuja, venue of the convention was a melting point and beehive of activities for thousands of party supporters, faithful, and many Nigerians. In fact, the FCT stood still because of the convention. Vehicular and human movements around the City Centre were restricted; business activities were affected, while many offices were put under lock and key.
It was the day Abuja residents knew that a new sheriff was about to come to town and it was however the day when the good competed with the bad.
At the convention, dangerous weapons from cutlass, horsewhips, and big sticks/planks among others became the visible attack instrument used by both the security agents and some youths apparently under the influence of drugs which they consumed openly in the glare of authorities.
Pickpockets, daring thieves did not only make life unbearable to some of the attendees but also gave the security agents a run for their money, forcing them to deploy all manners of weapon, especially several canisters of teargas, to regulate and force the surging crowd to behave themselves.
Literally, it became easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for the political supporters, party members, leaders and chieftains to access the few entry gates.
Intermittently, in the process of attempting to force the surging crowd to retreat, some people would stumble on one another, resulting in a mild stampede. While some were injured in the process, others struggled to overcome the suffocating effects of teargas.
Hundreds of handsets of people were equally stolen freely with other personal belongings like money, bags, wrist watches, lost to the robbers that unleashed untold hardship on those in attendance. About seven journalists lost their handsets to the thieves while helplessly trying to gain entrance through the gate.
And regardless of their real and latent missions, the attendees contributed in turning the venue into a carnival of sort. Business boomed and the traders hiked the prices of certain items with a bottle of water, for example, going for N300 instead of the usual N100.
Entertainment from renowned old and new breed musical artists was in sufficient supply complemented by the colourful attires, dancing, drumming, and singing from the supporters of the different aspirants. It was indeed a gathering of all the flamboyant, mercurial politicians, chieftains, leaders, and major stakeholders of the ruling party.
The delegates and other attendees came from Borno, Lagos, Enugu, Kano, Rivers, Sokoto, Ogun, Osun, Benue, Taraba, Gombe, Ebonyi, Plateau, Anambra, and other states of the country and the FCT. Call it a mini assemblage and gathering of Nigerians, regardless of tribes and religion.
In attendance include President Muhammadu Buhari, his Vice, Prof Yemi Osibanjo, president of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, all the APC governors, Ministers, party National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, past national chairmen like John Odigie-Oyegun, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, former and serving National Assembly members, statutory delegates, chieftains and members of the ruling party.
At the end of the exercise, 78 national and zonal officers emerged either through coercive consensus or by voting and were sworn-in. Specifically and more instructively, out of the 36 national officers, popularly known as National Working Committee (NWC) only five, according to the electoral committee, emerged through elective ballot.
Flared temper was however tactically checked from escalating especially among the gladiators in some states like Imo where the Governor, Hope Uzodinma and his predecessor, Senator Rochas Okorocha would have held each other by the jugulars, in Anambra State where factions loyal to Senator Andy Uba and supporters of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Nwabueze Ngige would have engaged one another, in Kwara State where there is still no love lost between the governor and the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, and in Osun between supporters of the governor and the Minister of Interior.
The contest was won and lost but to many of them, it was a pyrrhic victory by most of the winners. The agony was unbearable because those forced to sacrifice their ambition reluctantly did so in tears and sorrow. They complained tearfully of the injustice and ill-treatment meted to them and using new joiners from the PDP to victimise them out of the race and relegate them to the background after putting in everything to nurture the ruling party to where it is now without any reward.
They also protested that the same people the party intimidated them to step down for joined the APC few months ago after watching them suffer some level of humiliation in their hands while they were in the opposition party.
Regrettably, the makeup of the zonal and national officers of the APC, according to the complainants, are majorly former members of the PDP than the original and founding members of the APC.
Right on the podium, some stiff-necked aspirants threatened that nothing will stop them from contesting the positions they indicated an interest in before reluctantly buckling under the heavyweight of coercive carrot and stick influence.
“After much pressure from certain privileged leaders of the party, I have decided to step down, not because I am not better than the anointed candidate but because I want to allow peace to reign in the party. However, let me put it on record that the person I am sacrificing this position for only joined APC few months ago against some of us that have weathered all odds suffering with this party. I wish the party well,” an aspirant lamented tearfully before leaving the podium.
However, it was not songs of sorrow as goodwill messages poured in from almost all the very important dignitaries in attendance, ranging from the Chairman Caretaker Committee, Governor Mala Buni, the governors, NASS leaderships, to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and President Buhari.
They all testified and justified the success story of the ruling party, how weaponised the party has become in winning elections with the gratifying 41 million membership strength, and why APC still remains the party to beat.
The speech which left many tongues wagging was the one laced with a message of hope from the chairman Caretaker Committee, Gov Buni. Admitting that the desperation for the 2023 ticket was responsible for the internal wrangling within the party, he announced triumphantly that the phantom geometric progression in the membership will become a voting instrument the party intends to deploy as a winning strategy in the 2023 general elections and beyond.
“Having reconciled substantial stakeholders, members and groups, the committee commenced membership registration and revalidation exercise, being one of the mandates of the CECPC, to establish the party’s numerical strength for proper planning and mobilization. The exercise provided our new members the opportunity to register as legitimate members of APC with equal rights, privileges, and opportunities, as well as, to give back the ownership of the party to the members, using the bottom-top approach.
“I am glad to state with all sense of fulfillment that the membership registration and revalidation exercise, recorded over 41 million members who registered with the details of their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) and passport size photographs. This unprecedented increase in membership from the previous 11 million registered members to over 41 million registered members provides the party with an added advantage of winning elections in Nigeria with landslide victories,” he quipped in his valedictory speech.
Ironically, while many accused President Buhari of imposing the national chairman on other aspirants and on the party, he was quick, in his own speech, to however enjoin the new leadership to, “promote internal democracy, equal opportunities and ensure that party primaries are not influenced by highest bidders going into the 2023 elections.”
“I am glad the party under the Caretaker Committee has bounced back to life with the reconciliation of several keys and critical stakeholders and groups who had hitherto left the party or were on the verge of leaving the party. The reconciliation process gave the aggrieved stakeholders a true sense of belonging and assurance.
“It is gratifying that the party recorded massive and unprecedented defections under the Caretaker Committee administration. APC received three sitting governors, a deputy governor, Senators, members of the House of Representatives and State Assemblies, and other key officials from opposition parties who defected along with millions of their supporters.
“I am impressed to learn that the membership registration and revalidation exercise undertaken by the Caretaker Committee, has recorded over 41 million members. This has proved that we are indeed Nigeria’s leading and largest political party. It also exhibits our numerical strength and the potential to win elections at all given times fairly and squarely,” he announced.
In his acceptance speech, the new national chairman and former governor of Nasarawa State rather claimed that the opposition party, the PDP; “had been hoping and praying to make a fortune out of our misfortunes. They were also hoping and praying to capitalise on assumed failures of our party to reap political benefits.”
Senator Adamu, a former national chairman, and two-time governor under the PDP, suddenly forgot his past, and dwelling on what many described as frivolities, he had the effrontery to proclaim the PDP he was part of, as a failure for the 16 years it was in power.
“As we conclude this very successful convention of our great party, I know that our opponents in PDP and other opposition parties are now sulking, wearing long faces of sadness, bewilderment and dismay. They had been hoping and praying to make a fortune out of our misfortunes. They were also hoping and praying to capitalize on assumed failures of our party to reap political benefits,” he said.
Appraising the onerous task before the new national leadership, a chieftain of the party, Osita Okechukwu, had challenged them to diligently address the rampart abuse of internal democracy, escalating crisis rocking the party and follow Buhari’s roadmap in conducting the forthcoming primaries of the party for the 2023 general elections.
“For me, the NWC should first address the recommendations of the Reconciliation Committee Report so as to engender trust and guarantee genuine peace instead of peace of the graveyard in many states before embarking on the primaries
“All that the NWC needs to do is to set up many primary electoral panels, minimum of three per state for State House of Assembly, Senate and Federal House of Representatives, governorship and presidential. They should be as many as possible for lumping up will slow down the process and create room for the money bags to hijack the process,” he said.
The new Sheriff in town was explicit in setting a roadmap for his team of administrators when he noted: “we accept the onerous responsibility that you have placed on our shoulders and we will work hard to ensure that we fulfill your expectations for the greater good of our great party and of our dear country. For almost seven years now, APC administrations at the federal, state, and local government levels have been battling night and day to enhance the livelihood of Nigerians through various policies, programmes, and projects.
“We need to renew our faith in our party and its leadership at all levels in order to herald a new dawn. We need to commit to the resolution of our crisis within the confines of our party constitution. We must resist the temptation to blow every minor personal disagreement into a major party crisis.
“It is time for us to do things differently. When we quarrel, we open our flanks to our rival political parties that are only too eager to exploit them for their own benefit. I promise you here and now that we shall heal any wounds in our party; we shall effect lasting reconciliation among our members, and we shall go into the next general elections as a strong and united party.
“I offer my hands of friendship to all our members. I want to assure you that my colleagues and myself will run an open door policy to all members of the party,” he promised.
