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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
For many critical observers, last week’s conferment of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah as the automatic leader of Anambra State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has, once again raised more questions than answers.
Not a few argue that the development was a confirmation that the ruling party leadership may not have learnt that such actions are responsible for the brewing crises in APC across the country previously.
In the estimation of many observers, the implication of conferring such honour as leader of the party in the state on the Senator representing Anambra South is that he is now not only the highest-ranking party man in the state but also more valuable than the founders of the party in the state.
Therefore, regardless of the efforts and or historic inputs made by the likes of former governor and Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, former National Auditor of the ruling party, Dr George Moghalu, a current member of APC National Working Committee (NWC), Nze Chidi Duru, other joiners, leaders, chieftains and major stakeholders like Andy Ubah, Basil Ejidike, Paul Chukwuma, Johnbosco Onunkwo among many others, the new entrant, Ubah, is now the indisputable leader of the party in Anambra State.
To worsen the situation, conferring the honours on him during his formal introduction and reception by the national leadership of the party, the National Working Committee (NWC), last week, the national chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, was blunt in announcing that the future of the party in the state and by extension, the South East, now rests squarely on the head and shoulders of the former Young Progressive Party (YPP) leader.
The ruling party boss even threw caution to the winds when he sarcastically alluded that the party needs Senator Ubah more than other leaders and chieftains of the party in the state to wrest the state from the clutches of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Like his predecessors, Ganduje also bluntly noted that the new Sheriff in town possesses the magic wand, as election swingman, to liberate the South East, perhaps from the shackles of disunity, endless complaints of marginalisation, assuring that he will deploy his election winning strategy to ensure that APC captures the Agu Awka seat of power in the state.
Curiously, the decision to confer automatic leader of the party in the state on Senator Ifeanyi Ubah has no constitutional backing but based on just a previously agreed gentleman convention. This is even as the new entrant who even admitted that he would need more time to adjust to the party’s decorum, has become the eyes and ears of the party in the state.
Hear Ganduje, former Kano state governor; “There is no doubt that today is a day we cannot forget. Since assumption of office, this is the biggest fish I have caught… call it a Shark or Whale or the two together put in one…We will start a revolution (in the South East); already we have two states in the zone and with this timber and calibre, juggernaut, I think we have found the answer. He is the answer to liberate the South East geopolitical zone. We thank you for coming.
“I describe him as a swing politician because wherever he is, that party wins. And we are expecting that this swing will swing throughout the South East, especially to the other three states that don’t belong to APC. You are welcome,” he said.
However, his eulogies were not a new trend in welcoming heavyweight entrants into the party. At best, it has become the template and praise-singing fishing net to massage the egos of the new members and sometimes give them a false sense of hope.
This long-time accepted modus operandi has been successfully applied while welcoming very important new members into the APC family. It has been used to welcome heavyweight defectors from the South East. South South, North West, and North East as could be seen in Imo, Ebonyi, Enugu, Bauchi, Zamfara, and currently in Rivers among other states.
In Imo for instance, the party relegated then Senator Rochas Okorocha, who was a founding member, and other stakeholders of the party to the background when Hope Uzodimma became the governor through the proclamation of the Supreme Court.
The story of what played out in Imo State APC where former governor Okorocha, his in-law, Uche Nwosu, former Deputy Governor, Prince Eze Madumere, and other chieftains of the party in the state were completely relegated to an inconsequential level in the scheme of things in the party is still very fresh in the minds of many pundits.
It was bad that even when many of them were incorporated into the National Campaign Council for the November 11 governorship election in the state, they tactically stayed out.
The situation was almost the same in Ebonyi State. After unleashing crushing political machinery on APC, as the then opposition party in the state, then governor David Umahi, had triumphantly joined the APC and became the leader of the party in the state.
Regrettably, many APC chieftains in Ebonyi State, like former governors Ogbonnaya Onu, and Martin Elechi, among others are yet to recover from the traumatic situation, since the immediate past governor joined from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and became the automatic leader of the party in the state.
It was even a worse-case scenario in Zamfara when APC lured then-incumbent governor, Bello Muhammad Matawalle into the party and crowned him the leader of the party in the state ahead of his predecessors and founding members like Ahmed Sani Yerima, Abdulaziz Yari, and other notable leaders like Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa, and Ali Ndume.
The outcome of the decision was the devastating loss Matawalle suffered in failing to retain his governorship seat even as an incumbent and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) hunting him before he was compensated with a ministerial appointment.
Only recently, a returnee and the 2023 Bauchi State governorship candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Haliru Dauda Jika, was equally conferred the leader of APC Bauchi State ahead of former governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, former Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and the APC 2023 governorship candidate, Sadiq Baba Abubakar among many other party chieftains in the state.
Jika, who dumped the APC immediately after the party’s primary election, which gave Sadiq Abubakar the ticket, because he was not satisfied with the outcome, has now returned to the APC as the current reigning king.
The situation in Rivers State was even more curious as the APC national leadership has indirectly handed over the leader of the party in the state to a non-party member and current Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and backed him to superintend over founders like former Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, former party’s governorship candidates, Dakuku Peterside and Tonye Cole among others.
In Enugu State, the confusion created and the seed of discord sown by the declaration of Ken Nnamani, who joined from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the then leader of the party in the state is still fresh in the state.
Currently, it is still impossible to ascertain the real leader of the party in Enugu among chieftains like the former governor, Sullivan Chime, founders like Emma Eneukwu, Osita Okechukwu, Ugochukwu Agbala, and the 2023 governorship candidate, Uche Nnaji among others.
The Anambra State case is even worrisome because there may not have been a deliberate effort to involve the leaders and chieftains of the party in the state following the conspicuous absence of the state chairman, Ejidike, and even the Minister from the state among others.
Interestingly, in the consideration of many political watchers, the politics of conferring state leaders on new entrants has largely been responsible for the crisis rocking the state chapters of the APC across the country.
Corroborating the assertion, a chieftain of the party in the Enugu State chapter argued in a telephone chat with Daily Sun that the trend has done more harm than good to APC across the states.
“It might shock you that such a resolution with divisive tendencies has no constitutional backing, but just mere convention. It has never produced any positive result in all the states it was pronounced.
“From Imo State where Governor Uzodimma emerged from the blues to assume the leader of the party in the state, eclipsing Okorocha’s political empire to inconsequential level and made Imo APC a house divided against itself to the unfortunate situation in Zamfara state, it has bred more woes to our party than blessings.
“God gave Matawalle victory on a platter of gold when the Supreme Court disqualified all the APC candidates despite winning the election but instead of remaining with the PDP that gave him the victory ticket, they convinced and dragged him to the APC, gave him the party leader ahead of founders like Yari, Yerima, Ndume among others.
“His acceptance of the Greek gift turned out to be a booby trap, judging by the way he regrettably lost the ticket during the March 18 governorship election this year; perhaps the only incumbent that lost his position to a PDP candidate, the party he dumped for the APC.
“As if the party did not learn any lesson from the hindsight of history, what is happening in Rivers State today is a time bomb capable of consuming the party in the state. Look at the kind of treatment the party meted to Amaechi after all he did for the party.
“If our party’s leadership has indirectly started hobnobbing with Wike as a non-party member, what happens when he finally joins the party? What other way can we confirm the romance between our party’s leadership with the FCT Minister than what a faction of the party in the state recently told our national chairman to ignore others and deal with Wike?” the APC chieftain who pleaded anonymity noted.
Incidentally, those new entrants conferred with the crown of glory to lead the party in the state will usually defend their suitability for the position, promising heaven on earth with assurances that they will not only deliver but also not disappoint in the confidence reposed in them.
Bragging about it when then chairman APC Caretaker Committee, Mai Mala-Buni formally received him, Matawalle shocked the party members when he declared; “I have been nursing the ambition of leaving my party PDP for several reasons. I am now the leader of APC in Zamfara State and I am ready to work with each and every one wishing to contribute to the rapid development of the state.
“Based on the provision of the APC, I am now the leader of APC in Zamfara State. I also want to bring to your notice that as of today, the APC Caretaker committees of Zamfara State from the ward to the state level have been dissolved.”
It was the same assurance of a secured future from Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, who while responding to his endorsement as the leader of the party in Anambra State, said; “I want to be sincere, it has always been difficult for the Igbo people to key into the national party because of our sentiments and emotions.
“But since our president emerged, I challenge each Igboman in Nigeria to dispute that 70-80 per cent of them did not drive their wealth from the legacy that the president left in Lagos. Our president is the politician that understands how it hurts and how to console everybody. He has that capacity.
“One other important thing to tell our people is the appointment of Dave Umahi as the Minister of Works for the very first time, irrespective of our very low turnout of votes to him. Our president is rewarding those who didn’t vote for him.
“For that it will be very difficult for any man with conscience not to look at the direction of the centre party. And for that, after consulting widely, I, my family and constituency, I don’t see anyone who will talk against my coming into the APC. I will not disappoint the party.”
As for the former governor of Ebonyi State who hinged his reason for leaving PDP to join the APC on the injustice unleashed on the South East by the PDP, he remained with the APC even when the Igbo equally received worse treatments in the ruling party.
Hear him; “Let me clear the air and state that I never sought the ticket for the PDP presidency and I will not. Whoever said that I moved to APC because they refused to zone the ticket to me is being very mischievous. Because even if PDP promises me, an individual a presidential ticket, how does it work?
“People are being very mischievous but there are a lot of prominent people from South East that can take the slot of PDP. Why am I moving to APC? Some people said I was promised this and that but I tell you, there is no such discussion. APC never gave me any position, they never promised the South East any position, there was no such discussion, however, I offered this movement as a protest to the injustice done to the South East by the PDP since 1998 till date.”
To most pundits, it still baffles most Nigerians why the ruling party continued to progress in error in conferring automatic leader of a state to new entrants even when they don’t know the party’s ideology. They forgot that what did not work in some states where it was tried, like Zamfara, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta among many others may continue to be a source of division to the party.
