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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The sudden obscurity of the hitherto influential, vocal Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under the current administration of President Bola Tinubu has curiously become a source of concern to many Nigerians that followed its activities in the past eight-year tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The PGF, in every ramification, was then a political octopus, and a powerful force in deciding the political trajectory of the country. Its visibility and dominance were obvious since APC wrested power from the strongholds of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after the 2015 presidential election, which led to the emergence of former president Buhari.
Available historical data have shown that the forum, which was a child of circumstance, came into existence in the wake of the merger of legacy parties that formed the APC. It initially had 11 member governors at inception in August 2013, comprising Borno, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Lagos, Nassarawa, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Yobe, and Zamfara states.
The numerical strength of the membership of the PGF, however, increased later to 16 when five additional governors from then ruling PDP, consisting of Adamawa, Rivers, Sokoto, Kano, and Kwara states, defected to the APC after the crisis that gave rise to a faction known as the new Peoples democratic Party (nPDP).
In retrospect, after recording overwhelming victory in most states during the 2015 governorship elections, the membership strength of the Forum increased to an unprecedented number of 22. Ever since then, the numbers have continued to vary from time to time after every election season.
At inception, the PGF, which gained prominence with its ideological commitment to social democracy, had used laudable tactical manoeuvres, like colloquium, public lectures, round table conferences, workshops on government policies, and visits/donations to victims of disasters and Boko Haram bomb blasts attacks, to gain visibility and dominance.
Since its formation, the forum, in every consideration, has built itself into a very influential and monstrous political force that literally decides where the policies and fortunes of the party will swing.
Over the years, members had become so powerful that they dismantle every possible obstacle to decide who gets what elective and appointive positions. Their supremacy even extended to making inputs on the composition of the party’s leadership from the wards to the national levels and appointment into various boards and parastatals at the national and sub-national levels.
Those conversant with its modus operandi would easily recall that the Forum did not limit its powers and dominance to only nominating persons for appointments as they also spread their tentacles to anointing who would emerge the presidential, governorship, and legislative candidates of the party during every election cycle.
Members of the forum equally called the shots through endorsements of who gets selected or elected to occupy sensitive positions in their various states, such as local government chairmen, councillors, state assembly members, and or other important and not-too-important positions in the state.
From the days of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun as the party’s National Chairman to the recently short-lived regime of Abdullahi Adamu, members of the governors’ forum were strongly and firmly in control of the structures of the ruling party from the grassroots to the national level.
The hegemonies of the Forum were so pertinacious to the point of determining those that should serve as members of the party’s national leadership, the National Working Committee (NWC), during the various stage-managed elective congresses and national conventions.
With their financial war chest to support the ruling party in bankrolling several of its activities, it is understandably not surprising why the forum is continuously dictating the tunes over the fortune and future of the party.
The Governors’ Forum, in the consideration of many Nigerians and political watchers, always wields the big stick to whip into line any party member who tries to display a recalcitrant attitude.
Before now, with just allegations of anti-party activities, the governors could descend and decide the future of any party member and shut the doors behind them.
They have lost only very insignificant battles and have fought with gladiators irrespective of their status.
For example, when they squared up fiercely against the party’s former National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, during the infamous deadly battle with one of their own, Governor Godwin Obaseki, over the Edo governorship ticket, they did not only triumph in supporting their own to ensure he emerged victorious even from another party, but they also ensured that Oshiomhole was booted out of office.
To confirm their influential disposition, the governors boldly and successfully installed their member, Governor Mai Mala-Buni of Yobe State, as the Chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee for two years before reluctantly endorsing Abdullahi Adamu as Buni’s successor.
At the peak of the show of force with former President Buhari, the Forum not only literally declared war but also triumphed in ensuring the dramatic and emergence of their anointed presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, against the then Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, the alleged choice of then President Buhari.
Curiously, the overbearing and overwhelming influences of the forum were not only limited to riding roughshod on the management and control of the party’s structure, but also extended to weighing in on governmental policies.
All the time former President Buhari held way at Aso Rock Villa, the words of the governors were bonds that must be obeyed. They periodically visited the then president to press home their demands.
Surprisingly, all those influences seem to have been whittled down completely since the emergence of the current Tinubu-led administration with little or nothing heard about the activities of the forum in a very long while.
They may have met for only a few times behind closed doors in Abuja under the chairmanship of the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, but the most significant comment on Beta Edu’s scandal was the most tangible take-away from the forum. Otherwise, there have been zero activities since the current administration came on board.
In the reckoning of many political watchers, the forum has become so ineffective to the point that it was unable to issue a statement to commiserate with the family of one their own, Rotimi Akeredelu, after his death last year, let alone pay even a condolence visit to his family.
If the forum could not be heard and seen on such a sensitive issue even as little as reacting formally to the death of their colleague, their silence on major national issues as important as the current face-off between the Federal Government and the state governors over local government autonomy has raised a lot of questions. The development which has resulted in the Federal Government currently prosecuting the matter in the law court, confirms the ineffectiveness of the forum and what has become of it under the current political dispensation.
An APC chieftain, who craved anonymity, while expressing concerns over the present dormant condition of the forum, noted that the only things known about the forum now was usually the introduction of its chairman at events involving President Tinubu.
He told Daily Sun that, “The only thing Nigerians now hear about the once domineering APC Governors’ Forum is seeing the chairman accompanying Mr. President to every function in Abuja, Lagos and other states. If the Forum still exists, why was there no political solution to the legal battle going on between the Federal Government and the governors?
“It is even more worrisome that the party controlling the Federal Government and 20 states could engage in such a show of shame in allowing such an issue to degenerate into the unnecessary litigation currently ongoing at the law court, instead of adopting an amicable political solution to resolve it.”
However, if the party’s chieftain was diplomatically mild in his analysis of the reasons behind the ineffectiveness of the forum, a former member of the ruling party’s national leadership, who equally craved anonymity, attributed the lukewarm situation in the organisation to mutual suspicion among the members.
He opined in a chat with Daily Sun that the presidency might have broken into the ranks of the members to the point that the mutual suspicion among them might not give room for healthy discussion or resolution.
The former member of the national leadership further argued that the fear of a witch-hunt from the presidency by the greater percentage of the new members expecting to seek re-election could have equally contributed to making the forum dormant.
His words: “I strongly believe that the forum has been weakened by many factors. One of them might be that the members may not be too free to air their opinions, relate with each other, and collectively take decisions on many issues. Whether we agree with that line of submission or not, the members of the forum have become so divided now to the point of having mutual suspicion of one another during meetings.
“For instance, none of the governors can boldly oppose President Tinubu’s policy or policies during meetings that governors like Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, and Ondo are in attendance. While some of them are understandably close to the President and presidency, others will be afraid to gamble with their second-term tickets, challenging the presidency during such meetings. In such circumstances, be sure that those close to the President will not only oppose any anti-Tinubu hostility but will also report to the President, those pushing them.
“By extension, a greater percentage of the members are first-timers, who would certainly need the help and support of the presidency to get their re-election tickets. So, in that case, they won’t want to ruffle the feathers by opposing or being confrontational with the presidency.
“Again, don’t also forget that President Tinubu, and by extension, the presidency, has taken almost absolute control of the party’s structure to the point of deciding who emerges as the National Chairman of our party.
“We must understand that it is entirely a different ball game in the circumstances they operated under former President Buhari, where they exercised serious unreserved influence in the running of the party.
“Tinubu, whether we believe it or not, is a thoroughbred politician, and a party man with sound knowledge of party administration, who knows how to put any emerging political threat in check, unlike Buhari with a military background. Whether crookedly or otherwise, Tinubu is a political strategist, who knows how to easily break the ranks of the governors and plant mutual suspicion among them.
“The APC PGF can never be potentially the same as it was under former President Buhari. Their case was even worsened by the calibre of persons that emerged governors across the country and the mistake of two governors under the umbrella of the APC heading the forums.” Similarly, in the assessment of many political watchers, the seed of discord of whatever has become of the relationship between the forum and the presidency was sown early last year during the composition of the national presidential campaign council.
The side-lining, and/or outright rejection of many of the governors and their nominees in the campaign council did not only rattle them but also pushed many of them to threaten to sabotage the presidential candidate in their respective states.
The current members of the forum must have learnt from the treatment meted out to their predecessors facing one form of persecution or the other in the hands of the presidency, either through rejection for appointment consideration or unleashing of anti-graft agencies on them.
However, former National Secretary of the ruling party, Waziri Bulama, has an entirely different perception about what must have been responsible for the ineffectiveness of the forum.
Reacting to what has happened to the previously vociferous PGF in the current administration, Bulama said: “The PGF is still there and functional under the chairmanship of our brother, Hope Uzodimma. It is still in existence just like the other governors’ forums, the Northern Governors Forum under Inua Yahaya of Gombe State, and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum under AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State.
“They are all there, and meeting periodically when necessary to intervene and address certain challenges. They are all still there, but the modus operandi has changed. They were very busy before the 2023 elections; they were very visible, largely because the political situation then left a vacuum.
“Former President Buhari was a statesman who did not get too involved in political issues. So, after the 2019 elections, some of the governors started showing interest in the 2023 elections. The permutation for the 2023 election started as far back as the 2019 elections.
“Former President Buhari was not forthcoming and was not also the kind of person to speculate and discuss the matter. The Governors’ forum saw it as an opportunity to hijack the decision. They moved in, threw away Oshiomhole and myself, took over the control of the APC, and installed the Caretaker Committee.
“They ran the party for like two years and became very active at that time, going into Aso Rock Villa. They filled that political vacuum, managed the whole structure of the party, and midwifed the emergence of Asiwaju as our president now.”
Bulama added: “Right now, the governors’ forum is hibernating because Asiwaju’s leadership is different from that of Buhari. But, I am sure that once they notice the existence of that kind of vacuum again, Nigerians will see them springing up to fill it. But, for now, the Forum is hibernating.”
