Last week President Muhammadu Buhari spoke against the extension of tenure for the chairman and NEC members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Emmanuel Oladesu, Political Editor, in this piece takes a look at the implications of the pronouncement.
The battle for the soul of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is on. It is between advocates of tenure elongation and forces against what the party leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, has acknowledged as capable of crippling the crisis-ridden platform before, during and after next year’s elections.
Less than a year to the general elections, the party is enveloped in crisis and anxiety. Instead of preparing for the polls at a time opposition parties are threatening fire and brimstone, APC appears to be in disarray.
On one side is a group of pro-extension crusaders made up of -APC National Legal Adviser Dr. Muiz Banire (SAN), Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, his Ondo State counterpart, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), and other NEC and NWC members. Perhaps, the lone exception is the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Timi Frank, who has rejected the extension and indicated his readiness to resign after the expiration of his term in June.
On the other side are party leaders mounting stiff resistance. They include the president, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu and aggrieved chieftains who have gone to court to challenge the move.
Both sides are definitely working at cross purposes, although they still claim that they are fanatically loyal to the president. Despite the president’s admonition, the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led NEC has insisted that there was no going back from the planned tenure elongation. It is reminiscent of the beginning of the administration when federal legislators defied the president during the election of National Assembly officers. Nothing eventually happened to them. Rather, they subsequently waxed stronger in their opposition to the executive arm.
More questions than answers
There are puzzles: In whose interest is the recourse to the anti-democratic option of tenure renewal without following the laid down constitutional process? Was the president deliberately marked for national disgrace by the adamant chieftains? What motive is driving their defiance? How strong are some of the tenure extension agitators at the home front? Do they actually have the backing of their constituencies? Do these tenure elongation crusaders gauge the pulse of majority of party members?
Many have also asked: why are eminent lawyers in the ruling party trying frantically to mislead the political family? Why the regression to inexplicable legal fireworks outside the courtroom about what is too obvious? Is there no moral limit to the freedom of expression? What do they have to lose, if the constitutional provisions are followed? Are they driven by a hidden agenda?
On February 27, a coup was staged against the party. The tenure of its National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC) was extended by self-serving members of the two organs, contrary to the decision of the party’s national caucus and to the consternation of party members who were warming up for congresses at the wards, local governments and states, and the national convention.
To the president who foiled the tenure extension coup, the proposed elongation had become a bone of contention, which has further polarised the party. While noting that the motion for the extension “was duly carried by a majority of members present at the NEC meeting, President Buhari pointed out that it was conceived in error. He drew attention to the fact that “our party members have since spoken up very vehemently against it” and “others have taken the matter to court.” He said having reflected on the contentious issue and sought legal advice on its resolution; he discovered that the plot to extend the tenure of the party leadership contravened “both our party constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
In his remarks at the resumed NEC meeting, the president highlighted the constitutional impediments against tenure elongation. He said: “While the APC Constitution, in Article 17(1) and 13 (.2(b) limits the tenure of elected officers to four years, renewable once by another election, the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended), in Section 223, also prescribes periodic elections for party executives at regular intervals, which must not exceed four years. Furthermore, Article 31 of our party constitution provides that any principal officer wishing to re-contest or contest for another post must resign from his current post at least one month before the election.”
In President Buhari’s view, what is expected of the ruling party in this circumstance is the conduct of fresh elections, “once the tenure of the current executives approaches its end,” adding that “a caretaker committee cannot remedy this situation, and cannot validly act in place of elected officers.”
The president warned against any intra-party war against the constitution, saying: “If we deviate from the constitutional provisions, we might be endangering the fortunes of our party.”
He stressed: “If the tenure of our party executives can be legally faulted, then, it means that any nominations and primary elections that they may conduct can also be faulted. This is not to talk of the divisions that would arise, and is already arising within the party, when some of our members feel that they are being denied the right to aspire to executive positions, or that internal democracy is not at play within the party.
“I am therefore, of the firm view that it is better to follow strictly the dictates of our party and national constitutions, rather than put the APC and its activities at grave risk.”
After the president’s sharp and logical presentation, members of the expanded NEC and NWC were woken up from their slumber. They were taken aback when Vice President Osinbajo explained that any act of the illegal caretaker NEC and NWC being mooted may jeopardise the fortune of the party in future elections. The Professor of Law citing the example of Kano State where an APC member of the House of Assembly had to forfeit his seat because the Supreme Court ruled that he was nominated by a caretaker committee which was unknown to the law.
The chairman, Odigie-Oyegun, who has presided over the crisis-ridden party for almost four years, was strengthened to pursue the wrong cause, unmindful of the greater damage it may do to the platform in the nearest future. The crisis foisted on the party, following the purported elongation, was ignored. Even, those who legitimately went to the court to challenge it were threatened with expulsion.
The decision had polarised the APC Governors’ Forum. While Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, a self-acclaimed Buhari ally, told reporters that the NEC had granted one year tenure elongation to the Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC, his Zamfara State counterpart and Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Abdulaziz Yari, said the NEC lacked the power to extend the tenure. He explained that the power of the convention to extend the tenure can only be exercised only by way of constitutional amendment.
Yari stressed: “The power of the NEC of our party cannot go beyond doing so by way of constitution amendment. Article 30 of the APC Constitution and the schedules hereto, can be amended only by the national convention of the party.”
Party faithful were anticipating the end of an era as the tenure of the embattled chairman and his team expires in June. Odigie-Oyegun was elected in 2014. Since the expiration of his tenure is imminent, the chairman ought to have put in motion the machinery for the conduct of congresses. The climax should be the national convention, which provides an opportunity for him to either test his popularity by re-contesting or he bows out honourably to allow a fresh blood to take over.
But, according to sources, members of the NEC and NWC rationalised their reluctance to follow the law. To them, the time was too short to prepare for a lawful intra-party election. Also, they pointed out that the party may not overcome the predictable post-congress and post-convention crisis which the exercise may unleash, as if they were to prepare for a failed congress and convention. Besides, some NEC members are gazing at the party nominations, with an intent to use the levers of party power to swing the pendulum of victory to favoured aspirants during primaries. But, generally, it seems that the NEC has a valid and subsisting grievance of poor funding of the party by stakeholders.
The chairman’s undoing
To the majority of party members, Oyegun and his team do not deserve extension for other reasons. The chairman, to them, has not presided well over the affairs of the party. Unlike former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, President Buhari has given the APC chairman a free hand to run the party. Observers contend that the liberty may have been mistaken for a license to run the platform aground. For example, Frank, the National Publicity Secretary, said the NEC and NWC have done more damage to the party than good. He said meetings of the NEC have not been held regularly. The mid-term convention for party assessment was not held. Frank said if President Buhari, who is the national leader of the APC, is trying to avert doom for the party by urging its leadership to stick to the laid down constitutional procedures and a section of the NEC and NWC is raising eyebrow against his wise counsel, it is the height of disrespect and embarrassment.
Also, as crises engulfed the state chapters, including Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Adamawa, Zamfara, Benue, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Gombe, Taraba, Imo, and Rivers, no effort was made to resolve them by the national leadership. In fact, many party stalwarts have been suspecting the NEC, due to the mishandling of the Kogi election logjam, following the death of the governorship candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu. A political solution was rejected, and after returning from the court, no peace move was considered. Since 2015, the chapter has been in turmoil.
Last month, a party stalwart, Asiwaju Tinubu, who was given the task of reconciling aggrieved chieftains nationwide, cried out that Oyegun was frustrating the effort. Instructively, Tinubu was assigned the duty, following the failure of Oyegun to think in that direction. The former governor of Lagos State said the chairman had compounded the challenge of reconciliation by taking “improper unilateral decision” on issues affecting national and state chapters. In Kogi, for example, Tinubu said Oyegun “rushed to the state to unilaterally inaugurate new state officials, parallel to the officials already heading the state chapter of the party. While this may place you in significant affinity with those parallel officials you handpicked, this machination suggests no improvement in the welfare of the party in Kogi or at the national level. This usurpation of authority exacerbates conflict and confusion; it does not resolve them.
“Your dissolution of the duly-constituted state executives and the hurried naming of the above-mentioned caretaker group was not approved by the NWC. This arrogation of power sets you at variance with members of the NWC as evidenced by National Publicity Secretary Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi’s statement condemning your improper and unusual action.”
Also chiding the chairman for his snail-like approach to crisis resolution, Tinubu added: “You had let this situation fester for months on end. Only when I was appointed to help resolve internal disputes and when you realised I might focus early on Kogi, did you stir from your indifference and inaction. You could have wisely and prudently treated the matter beforehand. By waiting to the last moment, your unilateral action was implemented in haste and unbalanced in thought. By creating a parallel body, you not only acted improperly, you grew a second problem from the stem where previously there had sprouted but one.”
However, more worrisome is the impunity of illegal tenure elongation, which opened a new fiesta of conflict. As the move polarised the platform, the channel and machinery for the articulation of grievances became fragile. Thus, aggrieved chieftains who protested setting aside of the constitution went to court to challenge the unpopular decision. The founding fathers of the party were
locked in sober reflection, knowing that the crisis may be cited as justification for defection from the platform by aggrieved members.
Those challenging the tenure elongation in court said the chairman and other NEC members were deliberately given illegal anticipatory tenure elongation to enable them put the national convention in abeyance, without due consideration for the APC constitution and 1999 Constitution. They also believe that a dangerous precedent may have been set by the gross violation of the extant laws on tenure renewal. In their reckoning, the APC ceased to be a model to other parties, having done an incalculable damage to the constitution meant to regulate its affairs. It is an irony that while the president is pursing the cause of the rule of law, his party is violating the due process.
In his suit against the NEC and NWC before the Federal High Court, Lagos Division, an aggrieved chieftain, Dr. Wale Ahmed, said he went to court to protect the image of the ruling party and the sanctity of the constitution. He lamented that the annulment of the constitutional provisions on congresses and convention has tampered with the right of members to aspire to leadership positions in the party at the ward, local government, state and federal levels. He said the APC should, through its convention, create a level playing field for all qualified members of the party who may wish to contest for any party office at the convention when the tenure of the executive committee expires in June.
The view aligned with President Buhari’s admonition, when he pointed out that tenure elongation may further deepen the clear division in the fold as party members may feel that they are being denied of their legal and legitimate right to aspire to party positions.
Following the presidential intervention, the coast should now be clear for a new elective convention, which will affirm the party constitution and widen the opportunities for the democratic scrutiny of the party leadership. The convention will provide the opportunity for the affirmation or rejection of the party leadership, based on its score card.
Time is running out for the ruling party. Elections are fast approaching. But, congresses and the convention can be held before the expiration of the NEC’s tenure. As the time table for the exercise is rolled out and the Convention Planning Committee is set up, the national leadership can also set up simultaneously the crisis-resolution mechanism for tackling post-congress and post-convention grievances.
It is not the first time the president was defied. Unable to put its feet down, the position of the party caucus was truncated during the election of the principal officers of the National Assembly. Rebels struck a partisan collaboration with the opposition to undermine the ruling party that has majority in the Senate and House of Representatives. The rebellion has shaped legislative/executive relations till date. The crisis is still haunting the party.
Will history repeat itself? Will those also defied the president now get away with it? Will reason prevail? Will the constitution stand or be subverted by the APC?
Time will tell.
