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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The turbulent leadership crises that raged consistently for several months in the All Progressives Congress (APC) finally simmered down last week after the party’s National Caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.
The supremacy battle was expectedly very vicious. It was a winner-take-all type in which the victorious gave no room for war semantics of no victor no vanquish. At the end of the storm, it claimed multiple casualties exemplified in the forceful or voluntary resignations of at least four members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
Notable among the active members of NWC that became victims of the crises were the erstwhile National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, the National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore, National Vice Chairman, North West, Salihu Moh Lukman, and the National Legal Adviser, Ahmed El-Marzuk.
And on the flip side, the crisis however conferred several other gladiators with golden crowns of victory. The beneficiaries include those that successfully emerged as replacements for the victims and were saddled with the responsibilities of managing the affairs of the party in acting capacities.
The victors include former governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who was appointed the National Chairman, and Ajibola Basiru, the National Secretary to replace retired Adamu and Omisore respectively.
The fear over possible constitutional crises that may result in the ruling party becoming rudderless in the absence of a substantive chairman and secretary due to the obvious departure of the acting national chairman, Abubakar Kyari, had necessitated the activation of relevant sections of the party’s constitution during the Caucus and NEC meetings for the replacement.
As speculated previously, Ganduje and Ajibola had emerged seamlessly during the meeting. The NEC equally graciously ceded its powers to the Ganduje-led NWC to fill about six other vacancies existing in the party. The yet-to-be filled positions include the National Deputy Chairman (North), Abubakar Kyari, National Women Leader, Beta Edu, both ministerial nominees, the National Welfare Secretary, Friday Nwosu, who died recently, National Vice Chairman (North West), Lukman, Legal Adviser, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yakubu Ajaka, who left the party to contest Kogi governorship election.
But as if the deadly punches that resulted in the resignation of the national officers were not enough, the apex leadership of the party, the NEC, may have again complicated and worsened the situation in the party by approving the resolution to set up an external audit panel to scrutinise the party’s financial dealings while Adamu was in charge.
The party’s finances had become the biggest casualty of the crises. Its findings were stinking to the point of allegedly attracting the attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to wade into the books to confirm allegations of financial recklessness to the tune of over N30 billion.
The preliminary investigation, according to dependable sources, was so petrifying that the party leaders even contemplated sacking all the NWC members and setting up a Caretaker Committee to organise an elective mini-convention next year, as an alternative option.
Wise counsel had prevailed, during the Caucus meeting, against going on with such an arrangement, according to sources, because of the damaging implications it will have on the ruling party, which is already battling a credibility problem.
But, from the visible bold handwriting on the wall, the outcome of the audit panel and the magnitude of the consequences of the financial recklessness seem to be a child’s play to the looming crises from several aggrieved party stakeholders and quarters complaining about the religious insensitivity of filling the positions of chairman and secretary with persons of the same Muslim faith.
To many political watchers, apart from the situation setting another negative religious precedent and laying a foundation for more crises in the party, it will certainly scale up the number of disgruntled party members.
On one side, the North Central stakeholders of the ruling party were still nursing the painful multiple injuries inflicted on them and still angling for a showdown over the draconian decision to short-change the zone with the chairmanship position.
On another, speculations are already rife that embattled erstwhile party’s chairman, Adamu, allegedly resolving not to sink alone, may have dragged other beneficiaries of the financial reckless bazaar in the NWC into the fold with him.
Regardless of what becomes the future of the party going forward, the cheering news that will gladden the hearts of many party members is that Ganduje, backed by the presidency and the APC Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), have actually surmounted the hurdles to emerge the chairman.
Yes, from every indication, Ganduje may have only won the war but he still seems very far from winning the battle. The situation might apparently be calm for now but the ruling party may still be resting on a keg of gunpowder capable of consuming more casualties.
To most political watchers, the storm has already started rising again. The vultures are equally converging under the coloration of opposition against Muslim-Muslim headship for the position of chairman and secretary of the party.
Worse still, the gathering cloud is equally poised to test the integrity strength of the chairman to confirm his appropriateness for the position.
Already a party chieftain warned in a chat with Daily Sun that if the delicate issues are not nipped in the bud or handled with the sensitivity they require, they might certainly escalate and claim more casualties, particularly Ganduje himself.
Apparently underscoring the validity of what awaits the party should concerned authorities decide to scrutinise the party’s financial dealings, he noted that; “we know that the party leaders have a way of surreptitiously handling financial mismanagement as a family secret in the past but it may not be business as usual again with the current APC-led Federal Government battling legitimacy and credibility.
“They would need such an incident to prove doubters contesting the sincerity of their anti-corruption fight wrong. That President Tinubu openly condemned and warned the party’s leadership against reckless financial dealings and even went a step further to approve the composition of an external audit panel means that they are not ready to sweep any atrocity perpetrated by the Adamu-led leadership under the carpet this time around.
“I am sure that the last may not have been heard about this financial dealing allegation. More heads might likely roll by the time the audit panel submits its report,” the chieftain, equally close to the party’s leadership, told our correspondent in confidence.
Perhaps, in a move to reassure party members and Nigerians with negative impressions in minds of his ratings in the integrity perception index, the brand new ruling party boss, Ganduje, had promised a new dawn for the party and to uphold utmost integrity as his watchword.
“Let me assure you that as national chairman, I will lead with integrity, transparency, and a deep sense of responsibility. We are going to work tirelessly for a cohesive APC and a united, peaceful, and prosperous Nigeria. It will be challenging but with dedication, I have confidence that we can achieve a prosperous APC. Thank you for trusting in our party,” he noted.
The former Kano state governor, in his acceptance speech during the NEC meeting, did not also leave anyone in doubt of his mission to turn around the party and right every wrong when he read the riot act to perpetrators of shoddy deals responsible for sabotaging the party’s internal democracy.
“Our main focus will be promoting party unity and defending and increasing the number of executive and legislative seats we currently hold. Under my watch, internal democracy will be strictly adhered to with a deliberate policy to engage in wider consultations and make the party functional throughout the year.
“More reforms will be carried out in the party in alignment with the current political landscape. We all agreed that we must unite our members to achieve support for our government to respond adequately, urgently, and assertively to the challenges that Nigerians confront on a daily basis,” he noted.
Faulting the bogus 40 million figure membership register that could not translate into corresponding tangible results during the 2023 presidential election where the party got only eight million votes, he promised to conduct a more credible scientifically-proven membership register from the wards to the state levels.
Hear him; “We will deploy technology in the registration of our members. The idea that the current figure of the membership of the party is over 40 million but could not reflect the result of the last election, where we got only eight million votes, means that it can no longer be business as usual.
“We are going to carry out a scientific registration of members of our great party. We are going to embark on registration from wards to Local Government and the state,” he promised.
However, despite his promises, indications that fresh crack looms in the party emerged in the early hours of the day for the NEC meeting when some NWC members mildly protested the choice of the same Muslim-Muslim faith for the positions of chairman and secretary.
Speaking to Daily Sun in confidence, one of the NWC members complained that: “it is surprising that the leaders of our party could approve the same Muslim-Muslim faith for both chairman and secretary. The implication is that the ruling party is now parading Muslim President, Vice President, Deputy Senate President, Reps Speaker, party’s chairman, and secretary.
“Yes it was too late to change anything during the NEC meeting but we have to put it on record that the action of the leaders was insensitive and condemnable. They did not obviously learn any lesson from the complaints that trailed the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket and the same religious bias that cost Adamu his position. Despite all that, they still went ahead to impose Muslims on us as chairman and secretary. It is very unfair,” the aggrieved NWC member protested feebly.
However, dismissing any possibility of such a decision translating into crisis, Majority Leader of the 9th House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, claimed in an exclusive interview with Daily Sun that Nigerians should grow above those mundane issues of religion and tribal sentiments.
“I won’t want to comment so much on sensitive issues like religious inclination, especially as it concerns the Nigerian political system. But I think that it is high time Nigeria outgrew that mundane religious affinity controversy.
“Look at the success story of the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket that we have now; it has been very successful, and it was a clean deal. Nobody considered religious affiliation in voting for the APC.
“I think we should begin to graduate and gravitate above those mundane and sentimental issues. Nigerians have experimented and shown that leadership is about someone who is competent with the capacity to deliver regardless of his religious affiliations.
“It does not matter whether a Muslim is the chairman and secretary of our ruling party. If we have a situation where we now have a Christian-Christian joint ticket, we should also allow it to fly,” he argued.
Then on what to expect from Ganduje’s leadership, Doguwa said: “He is not only an administrator per excellence but also a reliable hand that really delivered in Kano State as governor. I want to tell you that he is also a team player. Incidentally, that is something people don’t really know about him.
“Once you have a leader who works with a team, somebody endowed with the spirit of working together, you should definitely expect success. My former governor will deliver APC to greater success. APC will definitely record more successes under Ganduje as the administrator of the ruling party,” he assured.
But, for those still in doubt as to who is pulling the string, a chieftain of the party pointed fingers at the looming shadows of President Tinubu, alleging that he is using collaborators like the Governor Hope Uzodinma-led PGF to display the characteristics of what he called personalist-dictatorship.
“The emergence of Ganduje and Ajibola, both Muslim, is captured in the real meaning of personalist dictatorship. It is a regime in which all of the power lies in the hands of a single individual. It differs from other forms of dictatorships in that the dictator has greater access to key political positions, government’s treasury, and they are more commonly subject to the discretion of the dictator.
“Personalist dictator, in our case, is a leader of our political party but the party never exercises power independently from him. In personalist dictatorship, the elite corps are usually made up of close friends or family members of the dictator, who typically handpicks these individuals to serve their posts.
“These dictatorships often emerge either from loosely organized seizures of power, giving the leader the opportunity to consolidate power, or from democratically elected leaders in countries with weak institutions, giving the leader the opportunity to change the constitution. Personalist dictatorships are more common in Sub-Saharan Africa due to less established institutions in the region.
“Personalist dictators typically favour loyalty over competence in their governments and have a general distrust of intelligentsia. Elites in personalist dictatorships often do not have a professional political career and are unqualified for the positions they are given. A personalist dictator will manage these appointees by segmenting the government so that they cannot collaborate,” the message the chieftain sent to Daily Sun read.
The chieftain further added; “this is exactly the situation the party and Nigerians are currently in and I am sure many more will soon play out in no distant time. Under him, Nigeria soon can only complain of those uniting factors but cannot helplessly do anything or stop them from playing out.”
However, all eyes are now on Ganduje to see how he intends to weather the storm by managing the domineering influence of the Governors’ forum, tendencies of the presidency, his troublesome NWC members, aggrieved secretariat staff and his integrity index currently under trial in Kano State.
