One difficult question that appears to lack a definite answer within the All Progressives Congress (APC) circles is whether Adams Oshiomhole, the party’s national chairman can survive his many battles.
Oshiomhole’s battles had begun last year when he deviated from the norm and introduced the direct method in which all registered party members participate for conducting primaries ahead of the just concluded general election unlike the indirect method where only selected delegates vote.
Though some states insisted and adopted the indirect method, there were crises as other factions used the direct approach leading to parallel primaries that has engendered strife in the party before and after the elections.
The direct primaries pitched many governors, ministers and senators who were stripped of powers of selecting delegates that could do their biddings via indirect primary.
Those most affected were then Governors Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State who lost a second term ticket; Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun, whose candidate could not scale through the primaries; Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, whose governorship candidate, Uche Nwosu lost primary election, Abduraziz Yari of Zamafara State whose Senatorial primary and his candidates for other elections were rejected by the Independent National Electoral (INEC) and their victories at the general elections recently overturned by the Supreme Court.
Another scenario was the Rivers State primary elections in which the Rotimi Amaechi, a former minister of Transportation-led faction and that of the Magnus Abe, then senator for Rivers South East, conducted parallel primaries, a development that denied APC in the state the opportunity to field candidates for the 2019 general election.
Also, Oshiomhole was fingered out for allegedly being behind the screening out of Adebayo Shitu, former minister of Communications from the Oyo governorship primary election on account of not participating in the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and Aisha Alhassan, then minister of Women Affairs from the Taraba gubernatorial primary election on the ground of divided party loyalty.
There were also allegations that the APC National Chairman had collected bribes to favour certain candidates in the primary elections, a factor responsible for his alleged arrest by the Department of State Services last year.
Oshiomhole literally triumphed over the pre- election battles but while he was obviously consolidating on his political conquest, there came a judicial thunder strike on the APC when the Supreme Court ruled that all the votes won by APC candidates in Zamfara State were useless, as the party did not conduct valid primaries as required by law and ordered that the party with next highest votes cast should be returned elected.
Consequently, the then APC Governor-elect in Zamfara, Mukhtar Idris, Senator-elect, Governor Yari who was already making moves to become Deputy Senate President in the 9th Assembly, among other National and State Assembly candidates were thrown into the situation of the biblical Moses who actually saw the land of Canaan but could not enter.
As another straw that would break the Carmel’s back, the Zamfara tsunami has exposed Oshiomhole to a fresh political battle first declared by his second-in-command, Lawal Shuaibu, APC deputy national chairman (North), who demanded for nothing less than Oshiomhole’s resignation.
Shuaibu, in a letter dated May 27th, 2019 addressed to the Chairman, noted that in advanced democracies, people who fail to add value or build over and above what they met on assumption of duty show some civilised examples and “they honourably resign”.
He said: “It is my honest opinion that your ability to ensure this party flourishes is deficient as you lack the necessary composure and you also don’t possess the capabilities and the requisite experience to run a political party.
“I write this letter to you with a very deep (sic) heart and high sense of responsibility. I write this letter thinking because I am a critical stakeholder in the APC project.
“I write this letter with my hands shaking, arising from the realising of my involvement in a project that is currently seen as failing, even before achieving the ambition of its founding fathers. I never found myself in any failed project.”
According to Shuaibu, “In advanced democracies, people who fail to add value or build over and above what they met on assumption of duty show some civilised examples, they honourably bow out.
“In that connection, therefore, I want to advise you to take the path of honour, to step aside and allow the party to embark on the onerous task of reconstruction and rehabilitation in those states it was weakened by the effect of the last primary election exercises.
“Or even the task of recreating the party where it is on the path of extinction, arising from the loss of a sitting APC Government, for example in Zamfara State, where you directly, personally created the problem leading to the painful complete loss of APC’s electoral fortunes.”
“From up to down, all these are uncontestable facts. You cannot exonerate yourself from what happened to APC (in) Zamfara State, thereby destroying the hopes and aspirations of 534,541 APC members and supporters,” he said.
Shittu, the immediate past Communications minister had swiftly backed the moves for Oshiomhole’s removal, as according to him, “Oshiomhole’s exit is necessary to avoid the APC going down in 2023”.
He noted that, “this is somebody who met the party having 26 states. By the time he (was through) with shenanigans and destruction, the party is left with barely 20 states or so now. My fear is that if he is not removed before 2023, my fear is that there is a possibility of APC going down.”
Similarly, a group known as APC World Think Tank Committee, WATTAC has risen in support of the calls for the resignation of Oshiomhole,
S.N Nzeh, WATTAC chairman, lending his voice to call for the APC Chairman’s resignation, he said: “Thanks Mr. Oshiomhole, you can now resign. One way to understand any period of history is to see how different historians have written about it”.
Nzeh noted that “remarkably, under Oshiomhole’s watch the political juggernauts of our great party in all corners of the country decamped to other political parties.
“Party conflicts in various states were not equitably and professionally handled in line with the procedure for the hearing and determination of complaints or allegations under Section 21(B) of the APC constitution (as amended 2018). These unsettled scores gave rise to parallel primaries in Imo State, Zamfara and Rivers State respectively.
“When we turn to APC political scene, the first thing we all should emphasis is the continuity of the party now and after 2023. In order to avoid to be a party of ramshackle, inefficiency and munitions of trouble, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole should quietly resign.”
Why Oyegun struck
Despite the hue and cry against Oshiomhole’s alleged balkanisation of the APC, his predecessor, John Odigie-Oyegun, who led the party to the resounding victory in its first electoral outing in 2015, has always maintained a dignified silence even as the house he suffered to build is being pulled down, as it were.
But Oyegun was not indefinite as he was rattled by an allegation from chairmen of the party in his region of laying a poor foundation. A forum of South-south APC chairmen including Amos Lalabunafa (Bayelsa State), Ini Okopido (Akwa Ibom State), John Ochalla (Cross River State), Ojukaye Amachree (Rivers State), Aslem Ojezua (Edo State) and Jones Erue (Delta State) had dragged him (Oyegun) into the matter.
The state chairmen, who disagreed with Shuaibu’s claims that the actions of Oshiomhole were responsible for multiple court cases bedevilling the various state chapters of the party, said the ex-APC leader should be blamed for the party’s woes.
“It was the landmines created by his predecessor (John Odigie-Oyegun) who was bent on destroying the party before departing that fueled the unfortunate situation and wondered why Shuaibu was just raising the issues,” they said.
Oyegun would have none of such name-calling. He fired back at Oshiomhole, whom he said lacked the capacity and temperament to lead a ruling party.
Ray Morphy, a public affairs adviser to the former APC National Chairman said one of Oshiomhole’s mistakes was the comment on “booby trap” and accused him of acting contrary to the decision taken by the APC’s NWC.
“Oshiomhole failed because he lacks the temperament that is required to run a political party. He lacks the capacity to manage the different interests and tendencies that constitute a political party,” Odigie-Oyegun was quoted as saying.
He further said that “He (Oshiomhole) engages his mouth before engaging his mind, so he offends party members. Only a bad carpenter quarrels with his tools. Indeed, Oshiomhole is degrading and demarketing the party. Rather than seek to bring more people on board, he is chasing people out of the party with his ‘agbero’ style of engagement”, he said.
Oshiomhole/APC launch verbal missile on Oyegun
Lanre Issa-Onilu, APC National Publicity Secretary apparently acting on the directives of the National Chairman said the immediate-past National Working Committee led by John Odigie-Oyegun as National Chairman lacked the courage required to confront the pockets of political despots who could not operate by the party’s rules.
He alleged that this resulted in widespread indiscipline across party ranks, lack of respect for party supremacy as witnessed in the 8th National Assembly leadership and its overall inability to align the varying interests of the legacy parties that came together to form the APC in 2014.
“Let me agree that the NWC that led the party into the 2015 elections and continued till June 2018 did nothing different from what you would find in PDP. It was a period the party was seen as a mere vehicle to attain political office. The system accommodated impunity as certain members appeared to be superior to the party. Their interests were far more important than the collective interests of the APC, even when most times such interests are at variance with the ideals the party stands for,” Issa-Onilu said.
“The leadership under Chief Oyegun, with due respect to him, condoned all sorts of acts of indiscipline from certain members. It is not surprising that the current National Working Committee inherited such a huge mess, where the party was struggling to differentiate itself from the delinquent PDP. We all know that PDP was practically dead following the devastating defeat of 2015. The PDP bounced back not because the party has changed its insidious way or did anything different, but because APC did not live up to expectations.
“It goes without saying that when an organisation is unable to enforce its own rules, it would suffer the consequences sooner than later. We should not be ashamed to say that our party’s leadership under Chief Oyegun lacked the courage required to confront the pockets of political despots who could not operate by the party’s rules”, he stated.
APC NWC denies Shuaibu
Issa- Onilu said Lawal Shuaibu assertions in the letter to the National Chairman portrayed the NWC as a bunch of cowards looking for a scapegoat to pass on the blame following undesired results in his home Zamfara State.
“When he [Senator Lawal Shuaib] alleged that the National Chairman is running the party like a sole administrator, does that mean the rest of us are incompetent? I doubt if he would have many members of the NWC supporting him in this.
“The ability to face up to the challenges and to take responsibility for mistakes is important qualities of a leader. If the NWC had taken any action that did not produce the desired result, it would be plain cowardice to look for a scapegoat or pass on the blame to another person,” he said.
According to Issa-Onilu, “Since the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC came to office, we have been doing our best to institutionalise the best ideals of progressive politics. We understand that we must bring everyone under the fold of the party, where all of us would be subject to our party’s rules and conventions. We understand that impunity can provide temporary advantage and even successes. But ultimately, those successes would be short-lived.
Observers say that it is too early to say that Oshiomhole would cave in to pressure and bow out. They however, converged on the view that the crisis rocking the APC could be devastating if it is allowed to fester.
“Anybody who tells you that all is well with the ruling APC is the greatest liar of the 21st Century. Their future really depends on how ferocious they attack the bug eating deep into their root. Oshiomhole surely needs to drop some negative mannerism if he must succeed as the national chairman of the party, going forward,” an analyst, who craved anonymity, said.
James Kwen, Abuja
