Follow Us on Google
By Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The weeklong party primaries to elect the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for next year’s general elections have been concluded, leaving in its trail internal dissatisfactions, fractured relationships, cracks, threats of implosion, tears of woes, sorrow and blood.
Expectedly, the primary elections, head or tail, have presented the APC as a party in turmoil, with mounting grievances among party members. Many aspirants disappointingly lost with shattering expectations, while very few won.
In many states, it turned out to be pyrrhic victories secured under duress, intimidation, suppression and manipulations through the dark shadows of adopted consensus and direct mode of primaries. The predictions warning Nigerians and party faithful to expect the worst case scenario came to fruition.
Long term political allies were deeply hurt, relationships were truncated and strained, tested and trusted political structures were dismantled, while the new alignments and realignments left very few beneficiaries smiling and many losers in tears and pains.
Tempers apparently flared, guns and other dangerous weapons of warfare were freely used, loyalists and supporters to major political actors and gladiators engaged each other in endless show of force in the political battlefront.
Blood of the unlucky victims watered the ground like a stream, few died, many were gravely injured and hospitalised due to the deployment of all sorts of dangerous scheming. At the end of the exercise, which culminated in the presidential primary election last weekend, threats and counter threats to destabilise and work against the party were brazenly issued, while violent and peaceful protests from supporters of the defeated, humiliated and badly bruised aspirants were held across the country.
Intense rivalry, anger, bitterness, acrimony, and rancour over truncated ambitions have apparently driven the ruling party, hitherto in combustive state, to the precipice of explosion and implosion. From Imo to Adamawa, Rivers to Ogun, Kwara to Niger, Ebonyi to Yobe, Nasarawa to Zamfara and Benue, Enugu, Kogi, FCT, to Delta and Edo States, the cantankerous hostile uncertainties pervading the air were regrettably the same.
No matter how the ruling party tried to paper the post primary cracks, the exercise has openly exposed APC as a party struggling to balance authority, inclusiveness, discipline and cohesion ahead of the 2027 general election.
Across many states, there have been cases of disputed delegate selection, allegations of extreme religious exclusion, imposition of candidacies, and controversial mode of primary arrangements. The bitterness and deep sited animosity have obviously left a big question mark on whether APC is truly consolidating its strength for another electoral victory or quietly drifting towards fragmentation beneath the surface of official unity.
The casualties of the exercise, particularly the legislative Assembly aspirants, were unimaginably humongous. Apart from the over 47 Senatorial and 14 House of Representatives aspirants the national leadership disqualified in one fell swoop, reports confirmed that over 60 incumbent National Assembly members disgracefully failed to retain their return tickets. Regrettably, the majority are those that won their legislative assembly tickets on the platform of other parties, particularly the Labour Party (LP), but defected to the APC in desperation to secure their positions but ended up in misadventure.
Other News
Although Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Tajudeen Abbas and his deputy, Benjamin Kalu successfully retained their tickets, several other ranking and long serving lawmakers were humiliatingly defeated, exposing strong anti incumbent sentiment and the decisive roles state governors played in the emergence of candidates across the country.
In Ondo, the controversy which engulfed the chapter culminated in the use of guns and other dangerous weapons to disrupt the party’s legislative primary election processes, deepening internal tensions and fracturing relationships among party stakeholders. Aggrieved party members, in a petition to the APC national chairman, Prof Nentawe Yilwatda, accused the governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, of failing to ensure a transparent process. “APC cannot afford to reward impunity and violence with political advantage. Allowing the disputed process to stand could damage the party’s credibility ahead of the 2027 elections,” a group, Ondo State APC Concern, warned.
In Delta state, the duo of former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo Agege and incumbent Senator, Ned Nwoko, are still threatening fire and brimstone over the outcome of the exercise. Issuing threats through his legal adviser, Chris Okobah, Senator Nwoko claimed the primary was marred by manipulations, intimidation, and procedural violations. “The president must be very careful to see that this is not the kind of person you push out. It is even because of Ned that Okowa won re election as governor. If they think they can now sideline him, it would be a recipe for disaster,” he warned.
In Ekiti, the lawmaker representing Ekiti North Federal Constituency II, Kolawole Davidson Akinlayo, described the primary election as a sham and disgrace to democracy. “In some places, there was no election and figures were written. In Usi Ekiti, the Chief of Staff to the Governor came, collected the results and drove away the INEC official. The figures announced were manipulated. This election should be cancelled and a free and fair election conducted. It was a rape of democracy,” Akinlayo lamented.
The situation in Rivers state, which degenerated in the disgraceful withdrawal of the incumbent governor, Sim Fubara, from participating in the primary, more offensively underscored the gravity of the incalculable damage the exercise inflicted on the party.
Expectedly, the National Publicity Secretary of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, mocked the ruling party, saying: “I do not doubt in my mind that the only thing holding the APC together today is power. When you take political power, government power out of APC, you don’t have a political party.”
Despite the stark realities on ground, the leaders and national leadership of the ruling party look unruffled. The party’s national chairman, Yilwatda, recently acknowledged that the party will initiate an “early healing process” to maintain cohesion and prepare for the 2027 campaigns since disappointments and emotional reactions were inevitable after competitive primaries.
His words: “We have our internal conflict resolution mechanism that has prevailed over a period. We have the Presidential Conflict Resolution Committee, we have the Party Conflict Resolution Committee, and the party itself has been working to ensure that we reduce the crisis as much as we can. The sentiments and the ill feelings, sometimes are there, but we will ensure that we have the early healing process so that we can work on the campaign process and emerge victorious across the country in 2027.”
APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, stoutly defending the primary election exercise, claimed the exercises were conducted in compliance with the party’s constitution, guidelines and the Electoral Act. He dismissed criticisms describing the APC primaries as largely undemocratic, arguing that disagreements and protests were common in political contests. While defending the party’s use of consensus arrangements in some states, Morka noted that consensus remained a lawful option recognised under the Electoral Act, querying: “What is wrong with consensus? It is a process that is recognised by law.”
Although the ruling party will bank on the amended Electoral Act to stem the tide of possible defections, measures must be activated to stop the party from drifting into anarchy while managing internal revolts from aggrieved aspirants and their teeming supporters who might adopt anti party activities as payback.
Therefore, the immediate pressing challenge before party stakeholders is to swiftly activate all diplomatic measures to reconcile aggrieved aspirants, restore confidence, unity, and fairness, and prevent them from opting for legal redress that could undermine its 2027 campaign cohesion. The options left for the ruling party include wielding the big stick to sanction aggrieved aspirants and supporters, or dangling the carrot of phantom appointments as a pacifying instrument.
