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  • With a divided house, Oyo PDP to battle APC

    With a divided house, Oyo PDP to battle APC

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is warming up for the next governorship election in Oyo State. BISI OLADELE takes a look at the aspirants, their pedigree and odds against them.

    The die is cast between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State.

    Prominent PDP chieftains eyeing the governorship have returned to the drawing board. They are reactivating their politicl structures across the local governments.

    However, the strength of the ruling APC is that Governor Abiola Ajimobi has been endorsed as the consensus candidate for the 2015 poll, following his sterling performance. Therefore, the party will not go into the election with acrimony.

    Unlike the APC, the PDP is more divided. Analysts have predicted a hectic primaries. There are other scenarios too. Sources said that the third party, Accord Party (AP) may team up with the PDP to battle the APC.

    The road is rough for the PDP. In the absence of peace in the party, it may find the next election dificult. There are many caucuses in the party. This is also a disadvantage.

    The APC is waxing stronger. The achievement of the governor is a factor. Although he has not declared his second term bid, many beleive that whenever he unfolds his aspiration, Ajimobi will not have any rival. Some aspirants may spring up, but they may later tep down for the governor because he is popular in the party.

    In the AP, former Governor Rashidi Ladoja towers above other chieftains. Sources said that he is interested in bouncing back as the governor. He lost the seat in 2007. However, if he contests again, there is no assurance that he will regain the seat. The odds are against him.

    The PDP has greater number of governorship aspirants.. They include the Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Jumoke Akinjide, former Minister of Power and Steel Elder Wole Oyelese, Alhaji Yekini Adeojo, former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, former Senate Leader Teslim Folarin and a business man, Mr Seyi Makinde.

    There is no strong leadership in the Oyo PDP. There is no leader who has the clout of the late “strongman”, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu. All the aspirants are leaders and no one is ready to bow for another person.

     

    Jumoke Akinjide

     

    A brilliant lawyer, Oloye Akinjide rode to the limelight largely on the fame of her father, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in the Second Republic. She contested for the Senate in the Oyo Central Senatorial District in 2011, but lost to Senator Ayo Adeseun. She was later rewarded with the ministerial appointment by President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Since her declaration of intention, Akinjide has been building her political structure. She has become a philanthropist, particularly to the people in her constituency. Although she spends most of her time in Abuja, the minister maintains regular contacts with her constituency. She oils her political structure, which seems to be expanding at the grassroots.

    Akinjide has also been playing a role in mending fences among feuding party leaders. Many of them have not been able to forge a common ground against other parties, due to strife, rancour and battle for supremacy. The caucuses see her as a uniting force.

    But the odds against her are many. They include the negative gender stereotype, particularly among Muslims. Similarly, interested party elders have pointed out that she is not popular beyond Ibadan, her place of birth. However, she is a serious contender.

     

    Oyelese

     

    A former minister and and party elder, Oyelese is believed to be interested in the exalted office. He signified interest in 2011, but intra-party squabbles prevented him from flying the party’s flag. His faction of the party remains neutral, according to analysts, because members of the faction have not been participating in the primaries since 2011.

    An experienced politician, who enjoys the respect of other party leaders acros the zones, Oyelese may pull some weight, if he is able to leverage on his connections and work with other stakeholders within the party.

    But he would definitely need more leaders and supporters on his side to gather the weight he needs to fly the party’s flag. Oyelese would also need to accommodate younger politicians, who have a different orientation to politics.

     

    Adeojo

     

    Adeojo is a veteran aspirant. He has been nursing the ambition for two decades. But success has eluded him. He is a party leader, who lacks followership among the four factions. He belongs to the old generation of politicians, who have a different orientation in politics.

    Adeojo has a lot of work to do. It appears that the mood of the party will accommodate younger aspirants.

     

    Alao-Akala

     

    Alao-Akala was defeated by Ajimobi in 2011. Many have alleged that the former governor lost power because he promoted violence and did not perform well in ofice. But, others have arguued that these are debatable.

    Alao-Akala still wields a great influence in the party. He commands a large followership, particularly in Ogbomoso, his town of birth, some parts of Oke-Ogun and Ibadan, the state capital.

    He is believed to have a large financial war chest. He is a courageous politician.

    But his alleged poor performance and the N11.5 billion fraud case are not good for his image as an aspirant. He was under attack for the way he also ran the party when he was in power. Sources said that some members are still nursing bitterness against him. Therefore, they are not willing to surrender leadership to him the second time.

    Alao-Akala will also have to contend with some elders, who are also interested in the position. It is doubful, if he can garner support in Ibadanland. Ibadan alone has about 55 percent of voters in the state.

     

    Teslim Folarin

     

    Senator Folarin has been eyeing the governorship, since his days in the Senate. In fact, the murder case he faced at the twilight of the 2011 election was believed to be the ploy by other power blocs within the party to stop him from participating in the primaries.

    Folarin currently controls the party machinery. The party officers were sponsored by him. But, under his leadership, the party is unable to pull a meaningful weight without the support of other factions.

    Besides, Folarin, analysts believe, lacks financial muscle and the political structure that can win a governorship election.

    Makinde

    Makinde, a business mogul, contested for the Senate in the 2007 election. He contested under defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP). But he lost hi deposit. He defected to the PDP in 2011, but could not secure the ticket for the seat.

    Makinde is young and resourceful. He is a serious contender. He has no bargage. He also has the financial strength to pursue his ambition.

    But PDP leaders see him as a man that should wait for his turn. Therefore, he can only make progress, if they sup[port a generational shift. He can only emerge as the candidate, if the leaders dump their ambitions, shun bitterness, and allowa neutral, younger person to ride the ladder.

    Apart from Alao-Akala, other contenders hail from Ibadan. This factor, it is believed, will shape the party primaries.

  • Reconciliation still possible in PDP, says senator

    Reconciliation still possible in PDP, says senator

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP chieftain Senator Danladi Abdullahi Sankara is the Vice Chairman of Senate Committee on Water Resources. He spoke with KOLADE ADEYEMI on the crisis in the party and its effects on the Jigawa State chapter.

    You are a stalwart of the new PDP, whose leadership, including the governors, recently defected to the APC.Which camp do you belong?

    First of all, let me make it categorically clear to you that we have not merged with the All Progressives Congress (APC) as alleged in some quarters.

    When I said “we”, in this case, I am referring to the Governor of Jigawa State, Dr. Sule Lamido, including the people and Government of Jigawa State. We are in the PDP, and we have not decamped to another political party.

    Secondly, contrary to what some people think was a crisis in the PDP, the truth is that in PDP, we are one big family and it is normal for some members, who feel aggrieved about certain issues to make their views known, all in an effort to address the anomalies and effect changes that would unify and strengthen the party for greater and brighter prospects to serve the overall interest of Nigerians for peace, progress and development. Remember that we are in a democracy.

    Therefore, people should have the right to express their views and dissenting opinions on certain issues to draw the attention of the leadership, especially by members of a political party on the necessity to do the right things.

    It is only in the Armed Forces that the commander would issue an order, which no one dares to question. But in politics, particularly in a democratic dispensation, if a leader gives an order, and if that order is objectionable, even his cleaner can oppose it.

    We are in a democratic dispensation, what is wrong if we come out to correct an error? To me, it is normal in politics to raise questions and pin-point areas or raise issues, which require intervention to effect the needed changes for sincere progress.

    Are you scared that four or five governors of the PDP and other staunch members have defected to the opposition?

    You see, this issue is far beyond mere generalisation or sentiment. The truth is that even if a single one card-carrying member of a political party decides to team up with another rival political party, it is a loss. However, the consolation is that consultations are still in progress and you cannot rule out the possibility of reconciliation.

    Some people are peddling an erroneous impression that the issues at stake were personal. Far from it, all the issues are about the Nigerian nation, the survival of democracy and the rule of law.

    It is not possible for everyone to keep quiet and watch while the party is being run aground through some actions that are contrary to the basic tenets of democracy.

    In view of the defection, what is the future of the PDP?

    Like I said, even with the purported decamping of some top members of the party and governors to the opposition party, I am very optimistic that genuine reconciliation can still be achieved.

    It is not possible to under-rate the strength of the PDP even without some Governors and others. PDP is the ruling party and still has majority of states in the federation it kitty.

    As things stand today, the PDP still remains the dominant party with clear majority. This is because no one is yet to officially declare that they have decamped to another political party. What we hear is that some people are merging.

    Besides, I earlier hinted that you cannot foreclose reconciliation. Those who have left can still come back. There is nothing permanent in this world, not even life itself is permanent. What is however permanent is change.

     

  • ‘More professionals will join APC’

    ‘More professionals will join APC’

    The former Rector of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Mr. Olawumi Gasper, has said that more professionals are joining the main opposition party because it has revived ideological politics.

    He said: “The polity now set for a titanic struggle between the progressives and forces of conservatism. Nigerians have a choose between a party that has produced failed governments for 14 years and a party of promise with antecedents of good governance in the APC states.2015 is the year of national liberation by the APC”.

    Gasper, who spoke with our correspondent in Lagos, enjoined the APC leaders to sustain the tempo and woo more like-minded politicians still cohabiting within the PDP.

    He explained that Nigerians have yearned for the alternative route to progress and prosperity, adding that the merger has become the solution.

    Gasper said: ‘The prophecy of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo has come to fulfillment. He had said that the best among the contending forces would come together one day to rescue the country. The onus is now on the APC leaders to forge ahead in the national interest”.

  • New turn in Nigerian politics

    New turn in Nigerian politics

    In the annals of political engagement, only in the rarest of circumstances does it happen that persons elected to high office on the platform of the ruling party and wielding the enormous powers of that office defect in large numbers to the Opposition.

    Nigeria may be the country of “anything goes.” But even there, that kind of migration was inconceivable — until last week, when five PDP governors defected to the APC.

    It is already one for the history books even if the PDP manages to stanch the widely anticipated migration in the weeks ahead of more governors, a raft of senators, and members of the House of Representatives, and of local government councils.

    No admirer of the self-styled largest political party in Africa, I confess to being smitten with schadenfreude. For, even at its least repellent, the PDP was more concerned with sharing the spoils of office than advancing the public welfare. Not even its most devoted followers have ever accused it of being imaginative. It has bred mass discontent and mass disillusionment

    It conducted itself as if it was an extension of the Presidency, wielding the wide powers of that institution without correlative restraint and responsibility. In relating to the rank and file, its senior officials behaved like schoolyard bullies. Having held power by hook or crook virtually unchallenged for 14 years, it had grown supinely complacent and developed an overweening sense of entitlement – the classic symptoms of regime fatigue.

    When key elected officials desert the protective ambience of The Umbrella and risk the petulant vindictiveness of the ruling party and its opulent agent, the Federal Government, for uncertain prospects in the Opposition, you know that a tectonic shift has occurred in the political landscape.

    Where it will lead is yet unclear. The new Opposition is an amalgam of political formations whose orientations span the entire ideological spectrum. Taking the situation in Kwara as an example, the amount of house-cleaning that it will first have to undertake will put it to the severest test.

    There, some two months ago, elements of the old PDP, with the active connivance of the state’s electoral commission, brazenly stole the re-rerun local government election in Offa, the state’s second-largest city and a stronghold of the APC. Several weeks later, it went on to stage state-wide local council elections, despite a subsisting court petition. The APC boycotted the poll, and the old PDP celebrated the outcome as yet another landslide victory.

    What is going to happen, now that those same elements of the old PDP have migrated en mass to the APC as decreed by the former governor and now Senator Bukola Saraki who, as chair of the Nigerian Governors Forum, had unsuccessfully sought the PDP’s presidential ticket?

    Before the grand defection, Dele Belgore, the senior attorney, was widely perceived as Kwara’s governor-in- waiting. As candidate of the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, he made a strong showing in the last gubernatorial election in Kwara. To this day, a substantial body of opinion in the state believes that he was robbed. If he secured the APC’s ticket for the next round, the election would be his to lose.

    Now, that calculus has become more complicated. With Bukola Saraki personally leading the mass migration of PDP members into the APC, and with his hand-picked successor Abdudlfatah Mohammed sure to seek a second term as governor, what awaits Belgore and his associates who had nurtured the ACN/APC and had been persecuted for their exertions?

    The situation in Kwara applies in other states, to a greater or lesser extent. Resolving it without rancour is not beyond the ingenuity of all those who fashioned the new coalition, but it is going to be a severe test.

    I was also concerned about how former Osun State governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the embattled secretary of the PDP and secretary, until its dissolution, of its breakaway faction, the new PDP, would fit into the latest arrangement.

    Apparently sensing the incongruity, he declared that he had not defected to the APC. With the merger, his post as national secretary of the new PDP no longer existed. But he remained national secretary of what is left of the PDP, he said. For his pains, the PDP, ramped up his suspension into expulsion.

    A war of words reminiscent of politics in the Second Republic – and indeed of the election at Eatanswill, recorded for the ages in all its hilarity by Charles Dickens in the Pickwick Papers –has since broken out between Oyinlola and his estranged protégé, Professor Wale Oladipo, who replaced him as PDP national secretary.

    I cannot repeat what Oladipo has said about Oyinlola’s mental state, or what Oyinlola said about Oladipo’s groveling ways without courting a writ of libel, especially from Oyinlola who is a qualified lawyer and has a partiality for litigation. If there are any adults still left in the room, would they kindly arrange an armistice? Where have you been, Tony “The Fixer” Anenih?

    Meanwhile, the grand coalition is gathering momentum. If this grand coalition coheres and endures, and if it is not just a vehicle for wresting power from the PDP and thereafter carrying on business as usual, it has the potential to set Nigeria on the path of real transformation. Even if it does not supplant what remains of the PDP as the ruling party, it will at least have positioned itself as a credible alternative. The enthusiasm with which it has been welcomed in many parts of Nigeria is a good augury.

    The chief architects of the grand coalition, Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, deserve high praise for their vision, leadership, commitment, and tenacity, not forgetting their associates who toiled and are toiling even now behind the cameras and the headlines to hammer out the details of the historic merger.

    It must be accounted a mark of Nigeria’s growing political maturity that the coalescence of the groups making up the Opposition has not been portrayed by the news media as a “gang –up” and that the seven state governors who pitched their tents in the breakaway faction of the PDP were called the G7—the Group of Seven – rather than the Gang of Seven.

    In the Shagari era, the national television and radio networks and the NPN’s client newspapers would have pilloried the defectors and called them the most censorious names. Only Chris Ngige is receiving that treatment at this time, for the atrocious crime of seeking on the platform of the APC to be governor of Anambra State – the state in which he was elected senator under the banner of the ACN, and of which he was once PDP governor.

    Now, in his latest foray, some ethnic warriors enjoying privileged media access are casting him as an “agent” of Fulani/Yoruba elements bent on invading Anambra and lording it over the Igbo in their own homestead, with yet another allusion to the “deportation” of their kinsmen from Lagos as proof, were any still required, of the perfidy of the new coalition.

    In the wake of the “deportation” saga, they berated Yoruba indigenes of Lagos, which they impudently called “no man’s land,” for sticking with their traditional “oro” rites against the demands of “modernity,” and to the great inconvenience of the diverse elements that make up the population.

    The two positions — APC gubernatorial candidate Chris Nigige, an authentic Igbo, as an “agent” of rank outsiders and hence unworthy of election, and the subsistence of “oro” rites in the “no man’s land” called Lagos as an inconvenience to the non-native residents that must be discontinued – are all too emblematic of a political mindset summed up by the phrase: “What is mine is mine but what is yours is ours.”

    They do not bode well for building bridges of understanding and mutual respect.

  • Enugu PDP chief defects to APC

    A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State, Dr. Sam Onyishi, has defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Onyishi, managing director of Peace Mass Transit, was welcomed into APC at a stakeholders’meeting in Enugu on Sunday.

    A source told reporters that Onyishi declared his interest in the governorship on APC’s platform.

    APC’s National Welfare Officer Emma Eneukwu confirmed that Onyishi joined the party.

    “We have welcomed him into our fold. He has defected to a party he feels will serve his interest better. May be he feels that PDP is being run as a cartel and decides to look for a better platform,” Eneukwu, ex-spokesman for the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), said.

    Southeast spokesman for APC Osita Okechukwu said the defection was a signal that PDP was declining in the state.

    According to him, Onyishi, having read the APC manifesto, appreciated the difference between its progressive philosophy and the PDP’s conservative philosophy.

    “APC is the home of social democrats and humanists like Onyishi. He is welcome into our fold. Luckily, coming from Nsukka zone, our party, after consultation, may make him the consensus governorship candidate in 2015,” he said.

    Other APC bigwigs, who received Onyishi at the meeting, included Peter Okonkwo, Okechukwu Ezea and Valentine Nnaedozie.

    Ezea described Onyishi’s defection as a good development, saying he was happy others were realising that PDP do not guarantee people a level-playing field.

     

  • Junaid Mohammed: Giving North a bad name

    A few weeks back, Hardball was hard-put to politely upbraid our octogenarian elder, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark on this page. The piece cautioned against the old man’s hawkish stance against the rebel governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It also sought to discourage the current overflow of intemperance and hate. But, last Sunday, another elder, this time from the North, raised the decibel of hate a notch higher in the current sabre-rattling game between elements from different parts of the country.

    In an interview in Sunday Sun of December 1, Junaid Mohammed, a veteran politician; a member of the House of Representatives in the 2nd Republic let loose what may be described as a barrage of unguided and ill-conceived utterances. Asked whether President Goodluck Jonathan should contest in the 2015 presidential election, he seemed to have lapsed into a rage. Hear him:

    “Quote me, if Jonathan insists on running, there will be bloodshed and those who feel short-changed may take to the warpath and the country may not be the same again. His running will amount to taking about 85 million northerners for a ride and that is half of the country’s total population. So, there will be bloodshed. But we do not pray to get to that level before his ethnic and tribal advisers pull him back.”

    What malevolence, what infantile rage from a highly educated man (he is a medical doctor); a septuagenarian and an elder who ought to be a statesman of the realm. Hardball finds it hard to believe that Dr. Junaid Mohammed actually said these words. When people like him threaten his fatherland with bloodshed, Hardball is quick to ask: whose blood are we talking about? His own? Would he be found anywhere near the barricades when the streets are angry and bellowing with smoke? Would his children and grand-children be out on the violent streets exchanging futile stones for bullets?

    Mohammed’s must be the most irresponsible statement ever uttered in this country in recent times. And Hardball asks him: what was the blood count in the last post-election riots in the North in 2011? How many Nigerian youths got wasted; how many businesses and sources of livelihood went up in smoke; how many were orphaned and how many thousands are today incapacitated living with eternal handicap? I will bet Mohammed does not know and, of course, he does not give a damn. If only he cared, if he looked back, if he took stock of the mayhem, he would not be talking so glibly about bloodshed.

    Muhammed, like ilk, are just power bees; they do not possess the capacity to think deep; they just stick their nose up and trail the nectar of power. They only buzz around the nectar and gorge on the honey. If they have to waste the lives of hapless Nigerians to maintain their hold on power and its trappings, so be it. What is particularly troublous is to see a man like Mohammed, who ought to be one of the guiding lights of the nation sounding worse than those half educated militants. But let it be known that no group or zone has the franchise to violence and bloodshed; every zone would devise a means to defend itself when the chips are down so it is childish and laughable to brandish ‘bloodshed’ as a form of intimidation.

    Mohammed does the North no good when he makes such utterances that show them as if they are obsessed with power; or as if North will cease to exist without the presidency. More worrisome is the suffusion of anger in Mohammed’s heart which elicited personal abuse against the president. Hear this: “…We now have this nincompoop as president.” Love him or hate him he symbolises the nation and in gunning for him, let us be careful not to gun down the country.

     

  • ‘Stop Yero from swearing in nominee’

    A Kaduna High Court has been urged to stop Governor Mukhtar Yero from swearing in Mrs. Comfort Amwe as a commissioner because ‘she is not fit to hold public office.’

    Mrs. Amwe was cleared by the House of Assembly last week.

    A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholder from her local government petitioned the governor and the House of Assembly, alleging that she was ‘indicted’ by a government White Paper for alleged fraud.

    Moses Ada Anche wants the court to restrain the governor from swearing her in, saying she was not fit for such appointment.

    In a statement of claim filed by his counsel, John Mudiaga Omughele, Anche alleged that Mrs. Amwe was ‘indicted’ with others for allegedly defrauding the state of N3.3 million when she was working at the Ministry of Finance, from 1990 to 1993.

    He alleged that “in 1993, the government instituted an investigative panel into loss of government revenue, which made findings on several areas but specifically on the Kafanchan Sub-Treasury, where Amwe worked.”

    The claimant added that the White Paper released in November 1994 recommended that she be sanctioned.

    Anche said she did not leave the Civil Service voluntarily but was relieved of her appointment.

    The plaintiff noted that Mrs. Amwe, who was joined as the third respondent, is unfit for appointment.

    He argued that the first defendant (the governor) could not nominate and appoint a person, who was indicted by the same government as it would contravene Section 15 of the 1999 Constitution.

    The claimant prayed the court for a perpetual injunction restraining the governor from appointing the third defendant as commissioner, pending the determination of the matter.

    Hearing comes up on Thursday.

  • Can APC sustain tempo?

    Can APC sustain tempo?

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) is enlarging its coast. But, there are more hurdles to cross. EMMANUEL OLADESU and LEKE SALAUDEEN examine the challenges that will confront the opposition party, ahead of 2015 general elections.

    The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) thought that it was a joke. When the merger was being mooted, its chieftains predicted doom for the merging parties. Even, when the All Progressives Congress (APC) was registered by the electoral commission, PDP chieftains dismissed it as an empty threat. But, following the defection of five aggrieved PDP governors to the APC, the ruling party became jittery. Now, the stage for a titanic battle for power at the federal and state levels in the next general elections.

    The decision of the defunct parties-the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)-and a section of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to evolve a strong platform was a major breakthrough for the opposition. There is political streamlining, as reflected in the restoration of the two-party system, and the prospects of a one-party state is dimmed.

    “The chance of rigging will be slim in 2015,” said Mr. Olawumi Gasper, former Rector of Lagos State Polytechnic. “It will be a battle of ideas. Nigerians will have clear choice. There will be a ruling party and a strong opposition and the country will make progress,” he added. The National Secretary of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Mr. Ayo Opadokun, supported this argument. He said that a credible alternative platform represents a government-in-waiting. “Democracy will flourish because of the role of the opposition in democracy”, he stressed.

    However, many challenges will confront the main opposition party as it prepares for future polls. The prelude to the 2015 battle will be the governorship elections in Osun and Ekiti states next year.

    The APC Interim National Women Leader, Mrs. Sharom Ikeazor, spoke on the hurdles, shortly before declaring open the Southwest APC Women Wing in Lagos, last week. She admonished the party leadership to intensify the campaign for electoral reforms. “Anambra election was enough lesson for us in the APC. Our candidate was the best, but the electoral commission was compromised. We need to intensify the campaign for the sanctity of the ballot box so that we can have one man one vote”, Okeazor said.

    Adekunle-Ibrahim said the “electoral carnage” may continue to work against the APC, if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not purged of its unpatriotic elements. But, he also emphasised the need for the party to put its house in order. “APC has two elections in Ekiti and Osun. As the party is enlarging its coast, it should also protect its gains. Ekiti and Osun are parts of its strongholds. To the best of my knowledge, the party is united in Osun. In Ekiti, the APC has to unite the party and settle the rift between the camp of the governor and supporters of Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele. It is better for the APC to mend the crack,” he said.

    The APC leaders made enormous sacrifices. Former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu, who explained the vision and mission of the party, to reporters in Lagos, said that it was formed in the national interest. He recalled that the leaders of the merging parties decided to forfeit their platforms, sink their slight differences and make sacrifice for the country. But analysts contend that the leaders must be ready to make more sacrifices, ahead of 2015, to get to the promised land.

    As the APC harmonises the ACN, CPC, ANPP and APGA structures at state, local and ward levels, there is the additional challenge of accommodating the ‘new PDP structures’ in states controlled by the governors that recently defected to the party. The promise made to the governors must also be honoured by the leadership to engender trust and confidence.

    The interim APC leadership reflects the spread of the party across the six geo-political zones. Although the setting up of the structure generated some skirmishes, it was not essentially destabilising. According to observers, what was at work was the internal crisis resolution mechanism and the mutual trust among the founding fathers. It is great lesson in party management. Conflict is part of politics, but it should not be allowed to fester to the level of becoming a threat to the existence of the organisation.

    How to formalise ward, local government, state and national structures is the next assignment during its proposed inaugural national convention. It is to the credit of the party leadership that the APC has, so far, being run as a mass movement. “What we have observed is that ACN, ANPP, and CPC members do not retain their old identities in the new party. Therefore, the APC can’t be polarised by caucuses,” said Adekunle-Ibrahim. “In setting up party leadership structures, not only are the founding fathers expected to make more sacrifices, they should also begin to build a culture of equity, fairness and justice in matters relating to the choice of party officers,” he added.

    When a party is growing in leaps and bounds, party management becomes more challenging. Many believe that it will be counter-productive for the new APC members to relate to the organisation as chieftains of the old ACN, ANPP, CPC and APGA. The interim chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, had allayed this fear. He said that the APC will not recognise any senior and junior partners, adding that members will enjoy equal treatment.

    The events taking place in the APC may ultimately influence the PDP’s response to many critical issues. Eyes are also on the APC as it brainstorms on the choice of its presidential candidate and his running mate. The flag bearer will mirror the platform, its manifestoes, ethos, values and promise. Whoever will emerge is important, but how he emerges is more important. The various positions and approaches germane to choice, selection and shadow election should be harmonised without internal bickering and bitterness. If the party puts its house in order at that level and there is no post-primary crisis, it will be fortified to forge ahead for the most critical battle.

    The task of mobilising for power shift in 2015 is critical. The ruling party may turn the heat on the APC through intimidation, harassment and blackmail. Pockets of dissention among the co-travellers may not be ruled out.

    There are issues of leadership ego that must be handled with care, if the party is to avoid internal crisis in some states. For instance, in Kano State, Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso and his predecessor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, are political foes, who are now in the same camp. Shekarau defeated Kwakwanso in 2003. But Kwakwanso bounced back in 2011. Also, the APC should reconcile former Sokoto State Governor Attahiru Bafarawa and Governor Aliyu Wamakko. The two are political rivals.

    A party source disclosed at the weekend that reconciliation committees for Kano and Sokoto states have swung into action. The source said that former Head of State Gen. Muhammadu Buhari would reconcile Shekarau and Kwankwaso. “The elders are aware of the differences among some frontline members and they are taking necessary steps to bring them together. We are preparing safe landing measures for Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola in Osun State and Chief Segun Oni in Ekiti State, if they eventually join the APC. We want every member to feel free and exercise their rights in a peaceful atmosphere. In our party, there is no joiner, no founder. That’s what Chief Akande said.”

    A university don, Dr David Aworawo, observed that the APC had started well. He said one of the challenges confronting the party is the reconciliation of divergent views and interests. as the immediate challenge of the APC. Aworawo, who teaches at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), noted that political parties are formed by people who share the same ideology and philosophy. With the merger of the new PDP, he said that more work should be done. “The new PDP chieftains now in the PDP have their interest to pursue and achieve. So, the immediate task now is how to reconcile the divergent interest of the conservative PDP and the progressive APC”, he said.

    In Aworawo’s view, the challenge can be surmounted. “What both sides need to do is to shift from left and right to the centre. The reconciliation of extreme positions is possible, especially in the overall interest of the country. General Muhammadu Buhari in the midst of progressives today. Some people considered him as a reactionary and conservative element. But today, Buhari is a leader of the progressives,” he added.

    A lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Dr Tunji Ogunyemi, advised the party to accommodate the five PDP governors without discrimination. The major task before the APC, he said, is grassroots mobilisation. “The party should reach out to the rural areas by sensitising the grassroots people on the new development in the polit,” he said. However, Ogunyemi cautioned the leadership of the party against the fifth columnist. He warned that the PDP may penetrate its ranks by planting spies in the party.

    Civil rights activist Shehu Sani urged the APC to devise a mechanism for checkmating infiltration by PDP lackeys into the party. He said the growing influx of PDP chieftains and their quick embrace by the party is a matter of concern. Sani said that while the APC opens its doors, it should be conscious of plots, mischief and sabotage by infiltrators.

    APC also faces the test of internal democracy. Sani said: “The APC must imbibe the culture of internal democracy. It must provide a level playing ground for all its members and avoid the imposition of candidates, which have in the past contributed to the failures of opposition parties in winning elections.”

    Ogunyemi supported this view. He advised the party to create a level playing ground for aspirants to test their popularity. Through that, he said, members would be involved in the selection process and whoever that emerges will be acceptable to all and sundry.

    The party’s interim National Legal Adviser, Dr Muiz Banire, has assured that there would be no imposition of candidates. “Nobody can tell you who will be the presidential candidate. We will be more transparent in picking the party’s standard bearer than any other party. The APC is a credible alternative to the PDP. We have to demonstrate to the whole world that we are superior to them. There will be no imposition of candidates. This is a new era. People will decide who should be the party’s standard bearer”, he said.

    Banire cited the registration of members as a challenge. “We expect a huge turnout at all registration centres. We are going to provide necessary logistics that would make it easier for people to register without stress. I am sure that committed members of the party will be willing to assist the party in providing some resources to ensure a hitch-free registration. I am sure we will surmount all the challenges that may arise”, he added.

    Sani advised the APC to device credible means of assuaging the fears of Christians in the North and the Igbos in the South, who are complaining about marginalisation by the party. This, he said, can be achieved through equitable representation in the party’s National Executive Committee. “This will help in neutralising the propaganda and misinformation by the adversaries of the party now using religion to smear it”, he said.

  • Good luck for him, bad luck for PDP

    Good luck for him, bad luck for PDP

    Scratch Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the embattled national chairman of the crumbling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and you probably would find, in his DNA, traces of a political undertaker.

    Back in the Second Republic, Alhaji Bamanga, fresh from a high-flying stint as top dog at Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria’s national ruling parties’ cash cow, recorded a landslide to sweep into the Government House of the defunct Gongola State (now Adamawa and Taraba states), as National Party of Nigeria (NPN) gubernatorial candidate.

    Alhaji Bamanga’s landslide was part of the general electoral typhoon that shellacked the opposition; and which Alhaji Umaru Dikko, then President Shehu Shagari’s Transport minister and awesome man Friday, in roguish humour, christened a “moon slide”.

    That “moon slide”, by another election in 1987 the wise Dikko proclaimed, would explode into a “space slide”, by which time Dikko’s beloved NPN would have gobbled up the whole country (opposition be damned!), even if its incompetence was as clear as the moon at night.

    Compare NPN then to PDP now, and it is clear the PDP journey to perdition, under President Goodluck Jonathan, is not novel.

    Incidentally, there was no “1987”. The violently raped 1983 election rigged out the Second Republic. Three-month Governor, Tukur’s landslide mandate vanished under that republic’s rubble.

    Incidentally too, Alhaji Umaru is now chairman of PDP’s disciplinary committee, under the troubled national chairmanship of Alhaji Bamanga. Might the duo be comparing notes, with shared hindsight from the Second Republic crash, that might yet save their crumbling PDP?

    They had better! Otherwise, Alhaji Bamanga would yet earn another stripe as party undertaker – but this time, an hyperactive one. PDP’s crumbling fate is as much a result of past unconscionable impunities as it is Alhaji Bamanga’s reckless power grab, even with his suspect “election” (read presidential imposition) as PDP national chairman, after losing among delegates in his Adamawa base.

    Ironically, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, the much beloved Ebino Topsy of Awoist fame, is busy roaring like a lion in a new jungle, among PDP disciplinarians under Dikko – to underscore the neophyte progressive is in town to fix the conservative (if not reactionary) camp?

    Is he then fulfilling the post-1983 election Awo prophesy that after a political thesis and antithesis, a synthesis would align Nigeria’s political forces, such that those with Awo’s progressive inclination would ascend? Is Ebino then the Khalifa the PDP needs to set things right and yet triumph? Perhaps!

    Still, the Tukur mess is only a culmination of far too many bad calls. To start with, Tukur is only the party face of a dissembling president and a desperate Presidency, whose and which attitude to 2015, like that of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007, is do-or-die.

    So, Tukur was supposed to do the dirty job and take the flak; while the real McCoy, the president breezes in, as prim and proper electoral statesman, to take the glory. It is the classical cant of Goodluck!

    Or why else would Chairman Tukur remain in charge, even if his party must become history? Unfortunately for Tukur and his principal, the “presidential chairman”, like the Achebe thief in A Man of the People, grabbed too much power for the owner not to notice – hence the PDP schism.

    Before the Jonathan-Tukur power show was the Obasanjo pious profanity of repudiating the PDP zoning arrangement – the same principle that propelled him to power – all in the bid to make Jonathan president, so he could be Baba’s poodle (Baba, that craved relevance at all cost), which Jonathan has not exactly been.

    Even before that was Obasanjo’s blatant subversion of party democratic principles, curling PDP round his fingers as first president of the Fourth Republic, ruthlessly purging those who might challenge him; and imposing on the party an unconscionable ethos of dog merrily eating dog; carefully veiled by a gruff military temper.

    And before all that was the grand subversive genesis: the Army Arrangement, (AA, apologies to Fela) that, in illicit concert with the North’s top political elite, imposed Obasanjo as Hobson’s choice, if only to impress upon starry-eyed democracy agitators the reality of Greek philosopher, Parmenides: nothing ever changes – departure from military rule must be a return to military rule, even if the starched khaki gave way to flowing agbada or babariga!

    Of course, there was Election ’99, but only to ratify Selection ’99 of AA and allied power plotters!

    Well, everything worked perfectly, except that Obasanjo proved no poodle of the North, any more than Jonathan has proved his own poodle! Indeed, things have turned full circle: the “North” finds itself at the receiving end of its own plot, and Obasanjo is threatened by the putative irrelevance he so mortally feared!

    This play of power giants has landed the country with an umpteenth mess: a clumsy Jonathan, a clumsier Jonathan Presidency and the meltdown of the federal ruling party in the clumsiest of ways!

    But having served as undertaker to his PDP, no thanks to unbridled desperation to remain president, Jonathan may yet serve as undertaker to his country. If the Anambra poll is anything to go by – and if that was aimed at securing an ally for 2015 – Jonathan may well press to that extent to make something give.

    Now, flash your mind back to 1983 and Umaru Dikko’s “moon slide”. Back then, the Shagari Presidency was the most incompetent in the country’s history. Now, the Jonathan Presidency would appear to have beaten that record. Yet, Jonathan, at all cost, wants an encore!

    So, if Umaru Dikko’s “moon slide” rigged the country out of democracy, a “space slide” by 2015 might just slide Nigeria into worse. For a country touted to kaput by 2015, these are indeed perilous times!

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) will therefore do well to learn from the PDP pitfall. PDP, ab initio, prided itself an all-comers’ affair. So, it can contemptuously thrust its jaw at any charge of harbouring strange bed fellows.

    APC has no such luxury. It has committed itself to a “progressive” ideology. Yet, not every strand in its rainbow coalition is “progressive”. But it can overcome these teething problems by federalising and being task-driven.

    It can do this by submitting itself to local tendencies, while committing to some pan-Nigeria goals. Then, it must rein in party barons, beyond offering leadership to rally members to the party’s cause, and educating fellow Nigerians on the difference the party can make.

    It should also sort out the very peculiar problem of internal democracy, the main driver of the PDP split, from which none of the APC legacy parties was immune.

    But most importantly, it must work out a restructuring agenda for the country. Without proper federalism, the collapse of Nigeria is only a matter of time.

     

  • Anambra supplementary election flops

    Anambra supplementary election flops

    •As apathy mars exercise

    •APGA’s Obiano in the lead

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday went ahead with the controversial supplementary governorship election in 16 local government areas of Anambra State but had to contend with mostly empty polling booths.

    It was not only the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) that boycotted the election as their candidates had warned, a majority of the voters also did.

    However, INEC procee-ded with the collation of the results last night at the close of voting.

    Chief Willie Obiano of APGA who had the entire electoral field to himself was at press time in the lead, according to the Returning Officer, Professor James Epoke, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar.

    Earlier in the day,the restriction of vehicular and human movement ordered by the law enforcement agencies during the election went largely ignored.

    People went about their business as they would on any other day. Markets, shops and stores were opened all day.

    Across Idemili North and South Local Government areas in particular, strongholds of the APC candidate, Dr. Chris Ngige, it was business as usual for the residents.

    Youths spent much of the time playing street football.

    Only a few people turned up to vote in the election with officials and agents of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), having the field to themselves especially in such areas Esther Obiakor Estate in Agu-Awka, Awka South Council Area and Agbaja 1 in Abatete, Idemili North Council Area.

    The state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Ken Emeakayi, acknowledged the poor turnout of voters and wondered why INEC allowed the APGA candidate, Chief Willie Obiano, to participate in the election despite the allegation that he registered more than once in violation of the Electoral Act.

    He told reporters that PDP has already gone to court to challenge that action.

    The Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Aniedi Ikoiwak, who supervised Onitsha North and South during yesterday’s election, decried the low turnout of voters.

    But Emeka Iloduba, who was at Nkpor Uno Isingwu, told The Nation that the apathy was programmed by the Federal Government and INEC to make it easy for the APGA candidate.

    At Ugbenu in Awka North Council Area, accreditation of the voters had not started as at 9.10am as INEC materials had not arrived despite sharing the items Friday evening.

    The 16 local government areas where INEC had scheduled supplementary elections in some units were Aguata, Awka North, Awka South, Anambra East, Anambra West, Ayamelum, Anaocha, Ekwusigo, Idemili North, Idemili South.

    Others were Ihiala, Nnewi South, Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Orumba North and Oyi.

    Anambra State Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Edozie Aroh who was seen with policemen told The Nation that everything was going on well.

    Accreditation began at 8am in some of the centres, while voting started between 12 and 2.15pm.

    The election was originally scheduled for November 16 but ended up being characterised by massive disorganisation and fraud.

    The APC, PDP and LP candidates protested the conduct of the election and called for its cancellation.

    Although INEC admitted irregularities, it said they were not enough to cause the cancellation of the election.

    It said the best it could do was to conduct a supplementary election which took place yesterday.

    According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) voters apathy trailed the supplementary election in some parts of Onitsha metropolis.

    A NAN correspondent who monitored the exercise in polling units in Ward 6 in Onitsha South Local Government Area and a polling unit in Ward 9 in Onitsha North, reported that INEC was fully prepared for the exercise.

    It was gathered that election materials and INEC personnel arrived at the various polling booths as early as 7 a.m. while sensitive electoral materials were also available.

    However, the electorate were not interested as most residents had decided to go to their daily businesses.

    There was a large number of security personnel at each polling booth, which, in some cases, out-numbered the voters who turned out.

    Mr. Chidi Okereke, a resident of Zik Avenue in Fegge, said that the materials, INEC main and ad hoc staff, as well as security agencies were in place as early as 7a.m.

    Okereke, who is a member of Fegge Community Police Public Relations Committee, said that the mass movement of residents out of Fegge hindered the conduct of the polls.

    “Although you cannot blame the people because having sacrificed some days for the election, they did not see reasons for the cancellation (postponement) of the result in the first place,” he said.

    “This is one of the areas in Anambra State where people turn-out en mass to vote during election but this today’s development is unlike this area,” Nwokabia, who is a Chief Orientation and Mobilisation Officer in NOA, said.

    He said that the number of security-men on ground was okay,.

    “Honestly, there is no amount of money spent on security that is ever a waste.”

    Prince Edward Okosi, Chairman of Onitsha North Caretaker Committee, told NAN at the polling booth 4 in Ward 9, that he believed that more people would see the need to turn out for the election.

    “The leaders of thought in the neighbourhood had gone ahead to create the awareness about the exercise among their people,” Okosi said.

    The restriction of movement was not effective in Idemili North Local Government area as residents operated their business activities.

    It was observed that most of the markets opened for business while vehicular movements were visible even with the presence of security personnel on the roads.

    An INEC official, Mr Edo Kelo, said there was poor turnout in the polling units, but he still expected more people before the close of accreditation at 12.00 p.m.

    At Nkpor Uno in Isingwu village, with 3 polling units of 983 registered voters, only 30 were accredited.

    Mr Emeka Ilodiuba, a voter, expressed dissatisfaction at the low turnout of voters, stressing that the withdrawal of some candidates might have caused the situation.

    Mrs Victoria Ibenegbu, another voter, expressed happiness about the peaceful conduct of the exercise.

    The polls are being conducted in 210 polling units in 16 out of 21 local government areas of the state.

    The 16 local government areas where INEC is conducting the supplementary election are Aguata, Awka North, Awka South, Anambra East, Anambra West, Ayamelum, Anaocha, Ekwusigo, Idemili North and Idemili South.

    Others are Ihiala, Nnewi South, Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Orumba North and Oyi.