Politics is a game of interests, intrigues, trade-offs, and sometimes very costly sacrifices. In the ongoing reconciliation moves in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2019 elections, John Odigie-Oyegun, the party’s national chairman, appears to be one of those costly sacrifices that must be made. He is the sacrificial lamb that must be slain, the scapegoat that must bear the sins of others.
The story of how Odigie-Oyegun, a former governor of Edo State, emerged as the APC national chairman on June 13, 2014 has been told and retold.
Even though Odigie-Oyegun, who succeeded Bisi Akande as national chairman of APC, had said in an interview that “everybody assisted me to this position and I’m grateful to all of them… I don’t believe one particular person solely assisted me to this position”, the popular story out there is that it was Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos, and Adams Oshiomhole, then governor of Edo State, who unilaterally installed Odigie-Oyegun as APC national chairman – of course, by getting the delegates at the party’s first National Convention at the Eagles Square, Abuja, to ratify his nomination.
We glean much of this from an August 2014 statement by Tom Ikimi, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and then top contender for the national chairmanship position with Odigie-Oyegun.
Ikimi, a member of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which merged with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and a section of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to form the APC, had played host to the meetings of the Joint Inter-Party Merger Committee that supervised the merger in his Abuja home and aspired to become the party’s first national chairman. But that was never to be.
Ikimi, who boycotted the convention that produced Odigie-Oyegun, later announced his withdrawal from the APC, describing the convention as a charade and accusing Tinubu of hijacking the party.
He also accused the party’s governors of colluding with Tinubu to truncate democratic process in the national convention by agreeing on “a zoning process that was limited only to party offices as well as the choice of individuals to fill them” and which was followed by “most undemocratic and bizarre procedures”.
Also in a letter to Odigie-Oyegun in which he shunned the national chairman’s invitation to attend the APC National Caucus and the APC Board of Trustees meetings, Ikimi reiterated these points.
While their interests tallied, Tinubu and Odigie-Oyegun remained best of friends. They worked together during the APC presidential primaries where Candidate Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the party’s flagbearer. Buhari went ahead to win the 2015 presidential election, upstaging an incumbent government for the first time in Nigeria’s political history.
But all has not been rosy between the two APC leaders since the party’s victory in the 2015 election. Odigie-Oyegun has been severally accused by the Tinubu camp of sidelining their leader in the party affairs.
The first sore point between the two men was the election of principal officers of both houses of the National Assembly on June 9, 2015, where Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara emerged as Senate president and House of Representatives speaker, respectively, as against the party’s preferred candidates Ahmad Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila.
Amid the ensuing crisis, Odigie-Oyegun had expressed his support for the leadership of the National Assembly, a decision which pitched him against some leaders of the party who accused him of condoning indiscipline in the party.
The Kogi State governorship election crisis which propped up Yahaya Bello, who apparently had Odigie-Oyegun’s imprimatur, as against James Faleke, who was said to have had Tinubu’s support, was another point of disagreement. Even though Bello was said to have been picked on the advice of Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, many in the APC believed that Faleke, who was running-mate to Abubakar Audu who died before the election results were fully announced, was better positioned to fly the party flag.
But it was the Ondo State governorship election of November 2016 that clearly defined the deep-seated battle of supremacy between the two gladiators. While Tinubu rooted for Segun Abraham as his preferred candidate for governorship, Odigie-Oyegun had other plans. Eventually Rotimi Akeredolu, who did not have Tinubu’s support, emerged as the APC governorship candidate in Ondo.
Following this, Tinubu kicked against the primary election process that saw the emergence of Akeredolu and launched a scathing attack on Odigie-Oyegun. He would eventually shun all APC campaign rallies in Ondo organised to muster support for Akeredolu.
“Oyegun’s comportment regarding the Ondo State primary will become the textbook definition of political treachery and malfeasance of the basest order. Oyegun and his fellows seem to be on a different wave length. They are the cohort of Unchange,” Tinubu wrote.
Tinubu, who was later accused of anti-party activities for allegedly showing covert support for Olusola Oke, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate who had left APC after he lost the party’s ticket to Akeredolu, demanded Odigie-Oyegun’s resignation.
Even though both Tinubu and Odigie-Oyegun had after the election appealed to all aggrieved party members to sheathe their swords “for the good of our party and its progressive ideals”, it was clear that the battle was far from over.
Amid deepening crisis in the APC, President Buhari in February appointed Tinubu to head a committee to reconcile all warring factions in the party.
Shortly after, Tinubu wrote a letter to Odigie-Oyegun and copied President Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Saraki and House of Reps Speaker Dogara.
In the letter, Tinubu accused Odigie-Oyegun of undermining his (Tinubu’s) efforts to reconcile aggrieved party members as assigned to him by the president.
He said that “instead of being a bulwark of support as promised”, Odigie-Oyegun positioned himself “in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of APC”.
He alleged that the national chairman was making efforts “to undermine my mandate by engaging in dilatory tactics for the most part” and breached the spirit of their discussion by taking it as a personal ambition “to thwart my presidential assignment” in the key states of Kaduna, Kano, Adamawa, and Kogi – where Odigie-Oyegun had inaugurated officials “parallel to the officials already heading the state chapter of the party”.
In his reply, Odigie-Oyegun tactically avoided responding to any of the issues raised in Tinubu’s letter but merely expressed gratitude to Tinubu for wishing him well and wished Tinubu the same.
All this time, Odigie-Oyegun basked in the euphoria of President Buhari’s support, even as his party’s NEC passed a vote of confidence on him.
As it stands, however, the APC national chairman is fighting the battle of his life to retain his position as the ruling party gets set for its national convention on May 14. Odigie-Oyegun, who has always supported Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid, saying once that he would pray and fast for Buhari to be re-elected as president, recently sought to extend his tenure by 12 months as the four-year tenure of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) expires in June.
The party’s NEC had on February 27 taken a decision to grant one year extension to party executives at all levels. But purportedly acting on the legal advice he received from the Ministry of Justice and citing a breach of relevant sections of the party’s constitution as well as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Buhari, during the 5th National Executive Council meeting of the APC in Abuja, opposed tenure elongation for the NWC members and advised NWC members wishing to retain their positions or aspire for another position to resign and re-contest in line with the party’s constitution.
“I think if we deviate from the constitution and provisions, we might be endangering the fortunes of our party. If the tenure of our party executive can be legally faulted, then, it means any nomination and primary election that they will conduct can also be faulted,” Buhari reasoned.
He said he was of the firm belief that “it is better to follow strictly the dictates of our party and the constitutions rather than put the APC and its activities at risk”.
Speaking also, Tinubu commended Buhari, saying that the president’s action “saves the party from a serious legal turmoil”.
“The president has spoken. Today is a good day for those who cherish democracy and legality. His action will also strengthen the party by allowing party members, including present incumbents, to seek to contribute to the party by vying for executive offices as they see fit,” Tinubu said.
For now, it is unsure whether Odigie-Oyegun would go ahead to re-contest for the party’s national chairmanship position, but it is clear that Buhari, Tinubu, APC state governors and other key party figures are united in support of Adams Oshiomhole’s candidature. Political analysts say Odigie-Oyegun, who has survived many banana peels on his path since he emerged as APC chairman in 2014, will certainly not survive the current onslaught. He is, unfortunately, the sacrificial lamb.
Analysts’ reading of the scenario is that Buhari may have considered his chances in 2019 and seen that he needs Tinubu more than he needs Odigie-Oyegun. He is, therefore, trading off Odigie-Oyegun in order to court Tinubu.
This would appear to be the apogee of Buhari’s fence-mending moves towards Tinubu ahead of 2019. The duo seem to perfectly agree on one thing for the first time since APC’s electoral victory in 2015 – that Odigie-Oyegun must go. Unfortunately for Odigie-Oyegun, he has become the pedestal on which Pontius Pilate and Herod will stand to reconcile their differences.
CHUKS OLUIGBO
