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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Recent events in the Nigerian political landscape, ranging from the various judicial verdicts on the outcome of the 2023 general elections to the perceived desperate by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to win the recent off-cycle elections in three states, have raised more questions than answers.
In the intriguing struggle to acquire power during both general and off-cycle elections, many actors were brutal and believed that political opponents must be mercilessly crushed like, Robert Greene, recommended in his award-winning book, the 48 Laws of Power.
In fact, incidents have shown that victory at the polls and courtrooms, for an average Nigerian politician, could be likened to Greene’s emphatic warning that political enemies feel nothing but animosity for one another, and desperation to eliminate themselves.
To Nigerian politicians, the only way to have security and peace, according to Law 15 of the 48 Laws of Power, is to do to them what they would have done to you.
From the polls to the courtrooms, it has been a show of force by the political actors who never hesitated to deliver the final blow on getting the upper hand. For those in this category, if the enemy escapes being killed, then neutralise them, at minimum, by totally eliminating their ability to fight back.
This scenario aptly summarised the political situation the country is currently experiencing. Or how else could one describe the survival of the fittest, the rat race, and the winner-takes-all electoral and legal battle raging between the three major political parties in the country, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP).
From Kano, Zamfara, Plateau to many other states where the governorship elections are currently litigated fiercely, there is an increasing show of animosity and bitterness among members of the opposition and ruling parties.
The impartiality or otherwise of the judgments from the election tribunal, Appeal Court, and even the Supreme Court over the outcome of the electoral victory of the party’s candidates have deepened and strained their relationships.
According to various reports, while the courts are affirming the candidates of the APC, the majority of others from the opposition party have suffered setbacks with the judgments against them. There have been more incidences of judgments upturning the opposition parties than favourable verdicts for the ruling party.
Such inauspicious judgments against the opposition abound in Zamfara, Plateau states where PDP has fallen victim, and in Kano where the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) was on the receiving end.
In most court verdicts favourable to the APC in some states so far, many pundits concurred, and certain flimsy technical grounds were played up to justify why the victory ticket should be wrested from the opposition parties.
Whereas in states like Nasarawa, Kaduna, Katsina, and perhaps Kebbi, where it was apparent that the election went in favour of the opposition, the Appeal Court still affirmed what many described as stolen mandates by the ruling party based on technicalities too.
But regardless of the controversies, the Appeal court verdicts may have generated, especially the recent insinuations that the ruling party is planning to turn the country into a one-party state, the leadership of the APC has maintained the posture of operation no mercy for the opposition party.
The actions and inactions of the APC leaders have shown resolute determination to execute, from the polls to the courtrooms, the snatch-and-run mantra postulated during this year’s general elections, in as many states as possible. So far, it has been a situation of if it eludes us through the ballot boxes; we must snatch from the courtrooms.
Defending the claims of the planned one-party state, APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, admitted in a chat with Daily Sun that; “the court cases are making it look like APC is turning Nigeria into a one-party state. Somebody can win a case consistently but it does not mean that they are intentionally procuring that outcome.
“There are separate facts that justify the judgments at the courts for Kano, Zamfara and Plateau for example. In Kano, for instance, the court ruled that ballot papers were not authenticated. In Plateau, the court specifically told the PDP to conduct primaries, but they did not comply.
“When you are in contempt of court, it comes with consequences. It is an entirely different thing to claim that it was a pre-election matter. Once you commit contempt of court, it has nothing to do with pre-election matters. Contempt of court which is a disobedience to court order is a crime by itself. They should wait because Supreme Court will certainly affirm the judgment,” he boasted.
The APC spokesperson warned that; “we should not whip up sentiments in claiming the mood of the country. We should not make it look as if this is a PDP or LP country. There are also APC members in this country.”
However, regardless of the defence the ruling party tries to put up to assuage the apprehension in many Nigerians against its perceived determination to turn Nigeria into a one-party state, it cannot also change the impression that both the judiciary and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have literally become appendages to the party in actualising the plan.
Little wonder it has become a case of what the electorate denied the APC at the polling units must be reclaimed at the law court just as the ruling party seems to have resolved that nobody should snatch the electoral victory tickets it already secured through the ballot boxes.
The APC spokesperson, Morka, was quick to dismiss the negative impression of INEC and judiciary being its appendages according to many Nigerians, when he described it in an unpalatable language during a chat with Daily Sun recently.
In his defence to the feeling that INEC and judiciary have now become appendages of the APC, Morka fumed; “that is ridiculous. It is nonsense to say that INEC is now an arm of APC. Did we say that the electoral commission was an appendage to PDP when the opposition party was in power and controlled almost two-thirds if not more of the states in Nigeria?
“You are implying that every time a ruling party has control of more states and national spread, then the electoral commission becomes its appendage. There would not have been an electoral umpire in the first place. Why conduct an election if somebody cannot win even if it is in all the 36 states? There is such a possibility. Election is like the World Cup, a winner must emerge at the end of the contest,” he defended.
Morka however, claimed that; “we must realise that when a party is in power, somehow, more people gravitate towards it for whatever reason. That party will naturally wield more clouts, dominance, access and success at the poll because key people in different states who influence opinion may have shifted to join it. This idea that the electoral umpire is in our pocket is not true.”
For those feeling that Morka’s defense of the party’s schemes to turn the country into a one-party state was a tactical confirmation, APC national chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, nailed it when he unfolded part of the orchestrated grand plan to capture the three remaining states in the South East geopolitical zone.
Speaking while hosting the Minister of Science and Technology, Uche Geoffrey Nnaji, at the party’s headquarters in Abuja, recently, Ganduje specifically boasted that winning the three remaining South East states is a mission possible, emphasising that it will apply the victory format used in Imo state during the off-cycle governorship election.
He said: “We are celebrating our victory in Imo State with the governor going for a second term. We are going to use Imo State as liberation for South East. Since we already have Ebonyi and Imo states, we are eying takeover of the remaining three states. We want to use Imo as a launch pad, and we need your cooperation to succeed. Enugu is also a very important state for APC.”
Ordinarily, with the harvest of victory both through the ballot boxes and the law courts, things seem to be falling in pleasant places for the ruling party towards actualising its set mission.
Having perfected the grand plans to conquer as many states as possible, the leaders of the ruling party last week shifted attention to perhaps extending its dragnet to the South South geopolitical zone, deploying its scheming strategy to Rivers State as the conquest springboard for the zone.
To kick-start its plan, the APC National Working Committee (NWC) rose after several hours of meeting and announced the dissolution of the executive committee of the state chapter, constituted and inaugurated a caretaker committee to, among other terms of references, midwife the emergence of a new executive of the state chapter.
Announcing the dissolution of the state exco and composition of the caretaker committee, the party’s spokesperson, Morka told newsmen that; “the NWC hereby resolved in accordance with provisions stipulated in Article 13 verse 3a(v), 13.3(b and c) 13.4(xv) of the party’s constitution.
“The NWC, recognising the compelling circumstances in the Rivers state chapter necessitating decisive action in the overriding interests of the party, has engaged in consultations with the pertinent stakeholders in the party, the NWC hereby resolved as follows, dissolution of the executive committees and composition of caretaker committed.”
As if the reasons and constitutional backing for its actions were not enough, the party’s boss, Ganduje, emphasised during the inauguration of the committee that the ruling party was confronted with compelling circumstances to necessitate the decision.
His words: “I am sure you are fully aware that since 2015, APC has been suffering some setbacks, intra-party conflict, litigations and counter litigations that finally resulted in the loss by our great party.
“This new NWC has examined every issue about the party, both at the national level and at individual state levels, and decided to reform the party. This is not possible until we examine the leadership in our respective states. You can see that there is no time to rejig the party, especially the leadership, than now.
“We have confidence in you, and we expect you to involve yourselves because as part of the reform system, we have introduced electronic registration of our members and I want you to spearhead that exercise. We expect you to constitute various committees so that you can get more and more entrance into the party.
“We also expect you to prepare a ground-enabling environment so that congresses could be conducted for the emergence of leadership at the ward level, local government level, state level, and even senatorial level. We expect you to put more life into this party, there is no discrimination… We would like you to make history by building a strong foundation for our party so that during the next governorship election, we will have an APC government in River state.”
To further justify the desirability of reforming the state chapter of the party, the chairman of the newly constituted caretaker committee, Tony Okocha, graciously thanked the party’s leadership for rescuing the party from metamorphosing into a social club.
He said; “the essence of a political party is not to attend burial ceremonies, or attend child dedication, but to field candidates for elections, contest, win the election and hold the reign of government. At a point in our political life and history, APC Rivers State almost metamorphosed into a social club.
“To ensure that APC Rivers State was robust, formidable, and united, you have, in your wisdom and in cahoots with your leadership, isolated these young men and lady from the Rivers APC extraction to midwife a brand new APC in River state.”
Interestingly, taking over Rivers is becoming a mission possible through setting up the necessary machinery and composition of party members majorly loyal to the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
But beyond the machinations and expected show of force between Wike and the hitherto leader of the party in the state, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, the action of the party’s leadership looks like a grand plan to hand over the party in the state to Wike.
Already, the FCT Minister equally seems to have the upper hand in the show of political force by ensuring that both headships of the two major political parties are securely in the hands of his Ikwerre kinsmen.
However, outside the scheming and shenanigans, the makeup of the composition of the committee has underscored the speculations of the grand plan of the party’s leadership to hand over APC structure in the state to Wike and weaken the PDP.
In the perception of a party leader from Rivers state; “events playing out have confirmed the insinuations that the sack of Rivers State governor, Sim Fubara, has been signed, sealed and waiting for delivery. If he escapes the sack through impeachment from the State Assembly, then the law court, either at the Appeal or Supreme levels, will seal his fate.
“From all indications, there may be a fresh election to fill his position. By then, the caretaker committee would have perfected the arrangement for Wike’s loyalists to take over the structure of the party in the state.
“The arrangement would provide opportunities for Wike to field the governorship candidates for both parties as custodians of their structures and ensure the handover of the state to the APC.”
However, no matter how the plans look perfect, the possibility of APC overcoming the hurdle in Rivers may be a herculean task as the party’s major stakeholders in the state are already up in arms against the national leadership of the party.
Shortly after announcing the caretaker committee, the sacked executives brought a motion ex parte before a Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, seeking to stop the inauguration of the state’s caretaker committee of the party.
While the claimant/applicant in the suit is Peter Ohochukwu, who is also representing the members of the state executive committee of APC, the defendants/respondents are: the national chairman, Ganduje, his secretary Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru, caretaker committee chairman and secretary, Tony Okocha and Eric Nwibani, the Nigeria Police Force, Inspector General of Police and INEC.
The motion ex parte seeking; “an order of interim injunction restraining the defendants/respondents by themselves, their men and officers, agents, privies and others, acting for or with them or on their behalf from taking any step whatsoever that is capable of affecting, destroying or distorting the respondents in this matter (which is the performance of the functions and duties of the claimant/applicant as an elected official of the state executive committee of the party, Rivers state chapter), pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”
The lawsuit which also prayed that; “an interim order compelling parties in this suit to maintain status quo, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice,” has set the grand design for a mother of all battle in the state.
Whether Rotimi Amaechi will willingly surrender his political structure to the scheming and new-found love between Wike and the APC leaders will be a matter that will unfold in no distant future.
Curiously, it remains to be seen how the ruling party will navigate the moody waters of Rivers politics, conquer it, and by extension some others in the South-south in its plan to make the country a one-party state before the 2027 general election. Let the game continue.
