APPARENTLY spurred by the Deputy National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lawal Shuaibu’s tirades against his successor as National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, erstwhile party Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, appears to have regained his voice. In a vicious attack on Oshiomhole, Shuaibu had called for the party chieftain’s resignation accusing him of being responsible for the APC’s setbacks in states like Imo, Ogun, Zamfara, Rivers and Bauchi in the 2019 general elections. Oyegun immediately backed the call contending that Oshiomhole lacks the temperament to run a political party. In the unsparing words of Oyegun, his successor “lacks the capacity to manage the different interests and tendencies that constitutes a political party. He engages his mouth before engaging his mind”.
Oyegun joined Shuaibu in putting the blame for the party’s loss of some states in the last election on Oshiomhole. It is, however, obvious that the majority of the party’s leadership as well as rank and file do not share the sentiments of either Shuaibu or Oyegun. The National Working Committee (NWC) of the party has thrown its weight behind their Chairman. In the same vein, the State Chairmen of the APC have sided with the Chairman. Not even those former governors who have cause to be strongly disaffected with Oshiomhole have publicly chided him in the aftermath of the elections. Shuaibu and Oyegun are apparently to be severely on their own.
Were Oyegun to have his way, he would still be sitting pretty today as National Chairman of the APC along with other members of his NWC. The argument of those who wanted tenure extension for the national officers of the party at the time was that the 2019 elections were too close at hand for the party to afford intra –party elections that could prove to be disorderly and divisive. The same logic was extended to those seeking elective offices at all levels. The plot was that they would all be granted automatic re-election tickets at non- elective party congresses and conventions. This would have laid the foundation for the consolidation of the dictatorship of the then incumbent party and elective office holders within the PDP.
In a moment when he showed a suave and sure hand, rising up to his role as the leader of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari said no to the perpetration of any such illegality. He ruled that the constitution of the party must be followed strictly to the letter and intra party elections held for all party and elective state offices. When one considers what eventually happened in Zamfara and Rivers states and the colossal misfortune suffered by the APC as a result of the party not abiding by its own rules in the states, the APC is lucky that President Buhari rose to the demands of statesmanship at that critical time.
What Chief Oyegun is obviously still enamored with is the peace of the graveyard that reigned in the APC during his tenure. He considers his leadership as mature and temperate. Many observers rightly saw it as languid, uninspiring and placid. The Edo chief betrayed the great expectations that accompanied his ascendancy to the leadership of the party. His antecedents aroused high hopes. A graduate of the University of Ibadan, he had a meteoric rise in the Federal Civil Service where he became one of the youngest and most accomplished Permanent Secretaries. He was a one- time Governor of Edo State during military President, General Ibrahim Babangida’s convoluted transition programme. But he just could not appear to muster the requisite leadership dynamism and effectiveness for a nascent political coalition in need of a firm hand as helmsman. The party under his leadership was beholden to powerful vested interests particularly the governors. The APC was in the pockets of contending fractions and factions and the Oyegun leadership seemed helpless to do anything about it.
Under Oyegun’s watch, the party’s national executive watched helplessly as the opposition practically seized control of the National Assembly leadership; a situation that cost the APC administration dearly in terms of harmonious legislative-executive relations and governmental performance in President Buhari’s first term between 2015 and 2019. Several states were rocked by crises that compelled President Muhammadu Buhari to empanel the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to lead an intra-party reconciliation effort. As a result of the reticence and lack of proactive initiative of the party leadership, the so-called cabal moved in to exercise undue influence over the presidency and filling the vacuum created by the party particularly in policy initiation and implementation.
To the shortsighted, the APC would have been better off not holding intra-party elective congresses and conventions and thus going into the 2019 elections with a semblance of harmony, peace and unity. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The somnolence that prevailed within the party under Oyegun was the proverbial funereal peace. It could not last and could have proved a long term and more dangerous portent for the APC. At least bottled up emotions and frustrations have been forced to the surface. Unless a wound is forced into the open and treated, it cannot heal. With Oyegun and his national executive as well as elective office holders getting non-competitive tenure extension, the APC would have hidden gangrenous wounds under misleading garbs of wholesomeness. Now, a whole lot of party members, including party leaders, know that it is futile to challenge the authority of the party. There is a greater sense of party discipline. If the party can play a more effective role in partnering the government in the areas of policy implementation within the parameters of the party manifesto, a more disciplined and focused APC can reverse its electoral reverses in subsequent polls.
Oshiomhole may be bullish and hectoring. He may be used to what many see as a headmaster style. That is perhaps what the party needed given the state in which the Oyegun leadership left it. In any case, unlike 2015, the party now has national assembly leaders of its own choice. Oyegun blames Oshiomhole for giving state chapters the freedom to choose among having direct primaries, indirect delegates primaries or consensus arrangements to pick candidates for elective office. But if the comrade politician had insisted on foisting just one method on the party, he would have been accused of dictatorship. There is no doubt that the way to go henceforth is to have direct primaries in which all party members are given the opportunity to participate in choosing party candidates. This will weaken the hold of the fabled godfathers on the party, minimize the influence of money in a delegates’ election difficult to differentiate from an auctioneering bazaar and return the ownership of the party to the rank and file of members.
All too often, the mistake is made that Oshiomhole’s seemingly dictatorial and hard line style is a function of his experience for decades as a labour leader. Those who reason this way forget that the labour movement in Nigeria, particularly the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) as well as Trade Union Congress (TUC) rank among the most democratic organizations in the country’s civil society. It is simple impossible for any leader sitting at the apex of these organizations to take unilateral decisions on their behalf without consulting all the necessary statutory organs and abiding by stipulated processes. Even then, it is a good sign that Oshiomhole, both in his utterances and actions, is showing greater restraint and collegiality, which demonstrates an ability to learn and mature on the job.
Oyegun’s intervention on the Edo Assembly crisis is unhelpful. He has shown a willingness to jump into the fray and heap all the blame on Oshiomhole whom he accuses without proof of exhibiting traits of ‘godfatherism’ and distracting the governor. He is totally silent on the salient issues of the legality of inaugurating an assemblage of nine out of 24 members and picking legislative leaders from among the minority. This surely is not good for democracy.
The man in the arena
There is no doubt that the new Imo State governor, honourable Emeka Ihedioha, has his job cut out for him.
There is certainly a lot of remolding and reinvention to undertake in Imo following the rather tempestuous tenure of the governor’s predecessor.
Anyone who had observed Emeka carefully over the years would readily know that he would go far in politics. He is a Theodore Roosevelt’s fabled ‘man in the arena’ whose face is marred by blood and sweat and tears.
Politics is Emeka’s passion. He is man perpetually posied in the thick of action. For him, like Awo, politics is the art of selfless service to his people.
I can remember those years back in 1991/1992 when Emeka and I would be in the late Senator Chuba Okadigbo’s hotel room at Nicon Noga Hilton till the wee hours of the morning, savouring the great man’s political wit and wisdom.
While I was more interested in the theoretical aspects of the great Oyi’s postulations, Governor Ihedioha was more practically and pragmatically inclined.
Ever so focused and determined to achieve any goal he sets for himself, I am confident that the governor will make a path-breaking impact in Imo. Here is wishing him best of luck.
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