Of all the activities rolled out for the national convention, the recent inauguration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) state chairmen caught the attention of many stakeholders. The 34 chairmen inaugurated were those from factions loyal to the governors in their respective states. JIDE ORINTUNSIN reports that the event gives an indication of the National Working Committee (NWC) that would be elected during the convention
State governors are in charge of the structures of their respective parties and they do not hesitate to edge out those that they do not favour for the position. Nowhere is this more glaring than in the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), where a sitting governor, Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State is the party’s current national caretaker chairman. The position confers enormous power on him too, along with other governors of the APC, to determine who gets the party’s presidential ticket for next year’s general elections.
Two weeks ago, the party inaugurated state chairmen recently elected on its platform. The event, which took place in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), was a clear demonstration of the power that the governors wield within the party. The 34 chairmen inaugurated were those from factions loyal to the governors in their respective states. It is instructive to note that the chairman of the Kano State chapter was not inaugurated, even though the court had recognised him as the state’s duly elected chairman. This may not be unconnected with the fact that he emerged from the congress of the faction loyal to former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau.
Against this background, it is safe to infer that APC governors are likely to determine the next set of party executives that would emerge during the party’s February 26 national convention. This is because the governors control state delegates that would vote at conventions because they fund them and pick their logistics bills.
In most cases, governors control the ministers from their states because they nominated them for the positions in the first place. They also control the federal lawmakers from their respective states for similar reasons. The party’s governors’ forum, just like that of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), is a powerful lobby and pressure group within the polity.
Of all the activities rolled out for the party’s national convention, the recent inauguration of state chairmen caught the attention of many stakeholders, as the state congresses that produced these chairmen are still subject to serious disagreement in many states. Having been accused several times of complacency over the convocation of the convention, the Mai Mala Buni-led national caretaker committee was determined to go ahead with the inauguration, even when reconciliation was still being perfected in some states.
In spite of the crisis generated in many states over their emergence, the party leadership were accused of bending backwards to lend legitimacy to those elected as chairmen during the nationwide state congresses, which took place three months ago. However, the ceremony is being criticised for lacking legitimacy as the chairmen only collected a “Certificate of Return” without the mandatory oath of office and allegiance that is usually administered to new party executives.
But a highly-placed member said the chairmen will be sworn in before the national convention. The chairmen include Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu (Abia), Ibrahim Bilal (Adamawa), Augustine Enefiok Ekanem (Akwa Ibom), Basil Ejike (Anambra), Babayo Aliyu Misau (Bauchi), Dr. Dennis Otiotio (Bayelsa), Augustine Agada (Benue), Ali Bukar Dalori (Borno) and Alphonsus Orgar Eba (Cross River).
Others are Omeni Sabotie (Delta), Stanley Okoro Emegha (Ebonyi), Col. David Imuse (rtd) (Edo), Omotosho Paul Ayodele (Ekiti), Ogochukwu Agballah (Enugu), Nitte Amangal (Gombe), Dr Macdonald Ebere (Imo), Aminu Sani Gumel (Jigawa), Air Cdre Emmanuel Jekada (rtd) (Kaduna), Muhammed Sani (Katsina), Abubakar Muhammed Kana (Kebbi) and Abdullahi Bello (Kogi).
The remaining ones are Prince Sunday Adeniran Fagbemi, Cornelius Ojelabi (Lagos), John Mamman (Nasarawa), Haliru Zakari Jikantoro (Niger), Yemi Sanusi (Ogun), Ade Adetimehin (Ondo), Prince Adegboyega Famodun (Osun), Isaac Omodewu (Oyo), Rufus Bature (Plateau), Emeka Bekee (Rivers), Ibrahim Tukur El-Sudi (Taraba), Muhammed Gadaka (Yobe), Tukur Umar Danfulani (Zamfara) and Abdulmalik Usman (FCT).
Since June 25, 2020, when the Buni-led National Caretaker Committee was foisted on the party by the National Executive Committee (NEC), the governors elected on the party’s platform, through the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) have continued to demonstrate their grip on the party. They are accused of having hands in any pie being baked by the committee. Secretary of the committee, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe has repeatedly told whoever cares to listen that the governors’ bloc is very vital to the assignment of the committee.
Following the October state congresses, no fewer than 14 states have petitioned the APC national secretariat over the outcome of the exercise. There were varied allegations based on the peculiarity of the affected states. Chief among the allegations was the overbearing role of the state governors to have absolute control of the political structure in their states by installing their surrogates as leaders from ward to the state level.
In the words of Nureni Akinlami, a chieftain of a faction of the party in Osun State loyal to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Rauf Aregbesola: “A cursory look of the list of the states’ chairmen issued with Certificate of Returns last week by the CECPC has revealed that they were the choices of their governors or members of the National Caretaker Committee. In Osun State, for instance, despite our efforts to right the wrong being perpetuated by the governor, his colleagues at the National Caretaker Committee have been shielding him.”
It is on record that the congresses in some states produced parallel leaders. The outcome of the congresses has pitched some governors against ministers and federal lawmakers from their states. The governors were accused of hijacking the process and sidelining the “Abuja politicians”. The aggrieved stakeholders were quick to heap the blame on the Buni-led committee. They alleged that governors used the party’s membership revalidation and registration exercise to shove their perceived “enemies” out of the party. They also alleged that the guidelines for the congresses were skewed in favour of the governors.
The affected camps include those of Aregbesola, Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Festus Keyamo, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the former Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari and Senator Kabiru Marafa.
Also on the losing camp are the embattled former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, former Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Senator Godswill Akpabio, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and Senator Ali Modu Sherrif.
The struggle for control of the party structure explains why parallel congresses were held in many states, including Bauchi, Kwara, Osun, Delta, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Niger, Kano, Oyo, Abia, Enugu, Zamfara and Sokoto. In some states where there were no parallel congresses, some party chieftains and their loyalists boycott the exercise, thereby giving the “favoured” group a free day. Such a scenario played out in Rivers and the Imo states respectively, as groups loyal to Senator Magnus Abe and Senator Okorocha backed out of the exercise. In Zamfara, the Abdulaziz Yari faction tactically withdrew from the congress under the guise of a court action challenging the unilateral dissolution of the party’s state executive council to accommodate Governor Bello Matawalle who defected to the platform from the PDP recently.
Conscious of the crisis in many state chapters, the Buni committee set up a nine-man National Reconciliation Committee (NRC) led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu immediately after the state congress. But, the Adamu committee is still making efforts to reconcile aggrieved members in many of the states. For instance, last week, the principal actors, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Senator Ibrahim Shekarau met to negotiate and reconcile their differences. The same goes for Gombe State, where the Buni committee and the Adamu-led NRC have succeeded to bring Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya and Senator Danjuma Goje to a round table.
At the submission of his interim report on February 3, the NRC chairman failed to give a detailed account of the level of reconciliation recorded; he only requested time to attend to all petitions. Even at that, Buni commended the NRC. Hear him: “Let me express our sincere appreciation to the committee for handling the assignment given to them with a high sense of commitment and responsibility. You have painstakingly visited states where we have challenges and addressed them squarely.
“The great achievements the party has recorded in reconciling the differences among our stakeholders in Gombe, Ogun, Kwara, and many other states have justified the confidence the party has in your individual and collective capacities. You have truly done us proud.”
But, some stakeholders loyal to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed in Kwara State did not hesitate to rubbish and counter the chairman. Addressing a press conference at its secretariat in Ilorin, its Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Sharafadeen described the purported reconciliation as false.
Sharafadeen, who said that the statement credited to the chairman of the national caretaker committee was far from being the truth, added that none of the warring factions and concerned stakeholders sat on a round table for reconciliation during the visit of the national reconciliation committee to the state.
He also said that the statement could result in the continuing ruination of the party and provide an exit clause for those anxious to leave. He said: “It is also proper to conclude that Governor Buni must either be under the pressure of words resulting from not knowing what to say or that he and members of his committee have been wrongly briefed by the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led national reconciliation committee.
“We are still at a loss as to how the chairman concluded that all the aggrieved party members in Kwara State have been reconciled… The claim, therefore, by the Mai Mala Buni-led committee that the protracted crisis in the Kwara APC has been resolved is a lie from the pit of hell, which could be likened to an offensive odour of fart from a lift. It might be true that the crisis in Gombe, Ogun, Osun and other states have been resolved as claimed, but certainly not that of Kwara State.”
One of the aggrieved camps from Zamfara State considers the recent inauguration of state chairmen as one of the illegalities in the ruling party. Faulting the exercise, a chieftain of APC in Senator Kabiru Marafa’s faction, Mikailu Barau said the group will soon head for court. He said: “We consider the inauguration as one of those rights of the government faction to act madly and illegally as we vest our confidence in the legal process with the court cases.”
For Lawal Liman (Gabdon Kaura), chairman of the faction loyal to the former Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari, the issuance of Certificate of Return to Governor Matawalle’s faction, despite the court order that stipulated the maintenance of Status Quo, amounts to contempt of court.
Barring any unforeseen development, the party appears determined to hold its national convention on February 26 to elect new leaders to serve its National Working Committee (NWC). Last week the party communicated its intention to hold the convention to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in compliance with Section 85 of the Electoral Act (2010).
Since January 19 that the caretaker committee announced the date of the convention, there have been consultations; schemings, political manoeuvrings, horse-tradings and negotiations among aspirants for the party’s national chairmanship position. As of the last count, no fewer than 14 aspirants have declared interest in the position. Similarly, other offices of the NWC are also being keenly contested.