APC: In the grasp of PDP

The All Progressives Congress, after its massive victory in the 2015 general elections and less than one month as a ruling party, is embroiled in internal battles, writes LEKE BAIYEWU Twice, some members of the All Progressives Congress have rebelled against the party since it came into power on May 29. The APC is only less than two years old as a political party and just one month old as the ruling party. The dream of the party, as expressed by the founding fathers during its formation, was to provide for Nigerians a better alternative to the Peoples Democratic Party, which ruled the country for 16 years. But with the latest developments in the APC, the electorate are in doubt. The APC defeated the then President Goodluck Jonathan and became the majority in the National Assembly — both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Not done, the party went ahead to snatch more state governorship seats from the PDP, controlling about a two-third of the 36 states in the country. Of the 29 states where governorship election was held on April 11, APC won 20 states, while PDP won nine. Ever since the APC recorded victory in the polls at various levels, the party has been having issues on how to manage its successes. Soon after, ambitions began to clash with interests in the party. The power brokers and stakeholders in the APC are bickering on the sharing formula for the spoils from the ruling party’s victory. Those who are watching the internal crisis in the APC believe the signs that the party is a congregation of strange bedfellows are coming out. They hinge their conviction on the fact that several parties and individuals that moved into the party during its formation seem to have interests different from that of the proponents of the party’s creation. Those who are rebelling against the leadership of the APC and the interests of the party, as some analysts have observed, have something in common – most of them cut their political teeth in the PDP. These analysts have called attention to the formation of the ruling party and how those who would not share in the party’s “change” vision ‘sneaked’ into the system. Four major parties had merged to form the APC. They were the Action Congress of Nigeria; the Congress for Progressive Change; the All Nigeria Peoples Party; and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance. A breakaway faction of some aggrieved PDP leaders known as the New PDP had also merged into the party. In the New PDP were five serving governors — Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rabiu Kwankwanso (Kano) and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara). Prominent individuals in this group were former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former PDP National Chairman, Abubakar Baraje; former Governor of Kwara State and ex-Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and several others. This group, some of whose members founded the PDP, had rebelled against the then ruling party, citing alleged injustices meted out on them. For several months, the New PDP ran a parallel executive with the PDP. This faction rivalled the mainstream of the party until it eventually joined the APC. Apart from the five major blocks (ACN, ANPP, CPC, APGA and New PDP), several politicians had also defected from the PDP to the APC en masse before and after the 2013 registration of the party. Several defections to the APC were also recorded towards the 2015 general elections. These groups, analysts said, have formed caucuses in the APC and are pursuing different political goals rather than melt into the party to have a unified vision. Some of those who left the PDP for the APC, either with the New PDP or as individuals, are now lawmakers in the National Assembly. Members of the New PDP caucus had been protesting against alleged unfavourable sharing formula adopted by the leadership of the APC for slots. These slots include those for elective offices in the 2015 elections and political appointments after the polls. The ruling party had said it would not adopt zoning formula, which was propounded by the PDP to share government positions among the six geopolitical zones of the country. Consequently, certain appointments and positions will not automatically go to certain zones, making the process unpredictable. Based on its policy, the APC refused to zone the slots for the National Assembly leadership. Amid growing tension in the party over the presidency of the Senate and speakership of the House of Representatives, it conducted mock elections for aspirants on June 6. Thereafter, the APC announced Ahmad Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila as winners of the primary and its sole candidates for Senate presidency and House speakership, respectively. But in what many analysts have described as a political coup, Saraki and YakubuDogara, who were eyeing the Senate presidency and House speakership seats, respectively, opposed their party and its choice candidates. They went ahead to form alliance with members of the opposition in the upper and lower chambers to defeat the choice candidates of their own party (the APC) in the National Assembly leadership elections held on June 9. More dramatic was the election in the upper chamber of the legislature, where Saraki emerged President of the Senate. While his fellow senators in the APC converged on the International Conference Centre, Abuja, for a meeting with the party leadership, the eighth National Assembly was inaugurated and he was elected unopposed as the Senate President in the election that followed. Not done, Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP was made the Deputy Senate President, the office he occupied in the seventh Senate. The development shocked the national leadership of the APC, which rejected the election and leadership of Saraki and Lawan, threatening to sanction the duo and their supporters in due course. The National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on June 12, said the party had accepted Saraki as the President of the Senate, saying, “He has been duly elected by his colleagues. We have a reality and we must live with it.” Even though the APC had said it would work with Saraki, President Buhari and senior officials of APC are reportedly peeved with what the Senate President did in company with his supporters. Apparently a move to pacify those aggrieved, Saraki had paid a well-publicised visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo allegedly to seek the intervention of the ex-PDP Board of Trustees chairman in the crisis. Sources said Saraki wanted Obasanjo to pacify the APC leaders on his behalf but the ex-President’s intervention failed to yield the desired results. Some observers believe Saraki must have chosen Obasanjo due to the advisory roles the latter has been playing in the APC. Despite the ongoing peace moves, Saraki again, moved against his party by installing principal officers in the National Assembly other than those pencilled by the party. On Thursday, Saraki gave the APC another shocker when he reeled out names of principal officers of the Senate, as chosen using his prescribed modality. While the Senate President wanted the geopolitical zone caucuses to make nominations, the party had insisted on making the choices. Saraki, as plenary resumed, read out the letters addressed to him by the APC Senate caucuses from the North-East, North-West and South- South. He said the North-East nominated Senator Ali Ndume as the Majority Leader; North-West adopted Senator BalaIbnNa’Allah as Deputy Leader; South-South adopted Senator France Alimikhena as Deputy Chief Whip. The office of the Chief Whip remains vacant as the South-West caucus expected to nominate its candidate is said to have pitched its tent with the party’s leadership. Notwithstanding the protests from the pro-Lawan group, three of the four principal officers assumed office. Saraki asked the Sergeant–at– Arms to lead the three principal officers to their respective seats and assume office immediately. The pro-Saraki group in the Senate had vowed to resist moves by the APC leaders to impose occupants of the remaining principal officers in the Senate from the pro-Lawan senators under the auspices of the Senate Unity Forum. The Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee had met with the pro-Saraki and pro- Lawan groups on Monday, the first time the two factions would meet face to face, which observers saw as the first real opportunity for the leaders of the two opposing groups to reach a truce. Unfortunately, the meeting was deadlocked. The arrowheads in the battle attended the meeting but none of the two sides was ready to shift grounds. On Tuesday, an argument between two APC lawmakers, Senators Kabiru Marafa and Tayo Alasoadura degenerated into fisticuffs, which stalemated a last-minute attempt by the party’s caucus in the Senate to select the principal officers. Saraki had convened the meeting to unite the Like Minds Senators and the Senate Unity Forum. Apparently to forestall the Thursday stalemate, Odigie-Oyegun had written Saraki and Dogara on Tuesday to present the party’s choices for the principal offices in the Senate and the House. In the letter to Dogara, the party presented Gbajabiamila (South-West) as the House Leader; Ado Doguwa (North-West) as Deputy Leader; Mohammed Monguno (North-East) as Chief Whip; and Pally Iriase as Deputy Chief Whip. In the letter to Saraki, the party presented Lawan (North-East) as Majority Leader; George Akume (North-Central) as Deputy Majority Leader; Prof. Sola Adeyeye (South-West) as Chief Whip; and Abu Ibrahim (North-West) as Deputy Chief Whip. The Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr. Yusuf Lasun (Osun State), who moved against his party to get the position, and Gbajabiamila, who was later chosen by the party for Majority Leader after he lost the speakership seat, are both from the South-West. There had been reports that the move to have occupants of two principal offices from the same zone was opposed by some lawmakers backing Gbajabiamila from the North. But a member of the House of Representatives, Nasiru Daura, who represents Zango/Baure Federal Constituency of Katsina State, on Thursday, after the exchange of blows in the lower chamber, described the claim as “absolute rubbish.” He said, “Precedents were set in the 6th and 7th Assemblies where a single zone, the North-West, produced two and three Principal Officers, respectively.” The APC governors had also waded into the crisis. Eight of them — Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Tanko al-Makura (Nasarawa), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Abubakar Sani-Bello (Niger), Senator Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa) — had stormed the party’s national secretariat on Tuesday to meet with the national chairman of the party over the crisis. Later on Tuesday, APC governors met with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, where they expressed their concern over the ongoing leadership crisis in the National Assembly. They decided to invite senators from their respective states and prevail on them on the need to respect party supremacy on any matter. However, Saraki and Dogara had played a fast one on the governors before they could make such moves. As Nigerians await President Buhari to begin the country’s reconstruction work in earnest, political pundits have said the prolonged APC crisis, especially in the National Assembly, may become the clog in the wheel of the new administration if not properly handled. The situation became more worrisome when indications emerged that two power blocs within the APC are now engaged in a fierce battle for the soul of the party. One bloc is reportedly being led by Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu; the other is being led by Atiku. The power tussle, it was learnt, led to the crisis in the National Assembly. Latest developments have shown that the crisis may divide the APC governors anytime soon. Both Atiku and Tinubu are said to desire maximum control over the party’s structure. The duo are also said to have pushed for their candidates to emerge principal officers of the National Assembly, since that would automatically qualify their candidates to become members of the party’s National Executive Committee, which is the highest decision arm of the party. The current NWC of the APC is allegedly loyal to Tinubu. Meanwhile, Atiku has exonerated himself from those hatching the plan to hijack the party and the National Assembly for their political ambitions in the 2019 elections. In a veiled reference to a section of the APC, the former vice-president said it was dangerous for any individual or group within the ruling party to turn into an opposition, even before the constitution of Buhari’s government. According to him, in politics, it is a mistake to expect fixed outcomes. This statement, analysts believe, has indicated where he stands on the unexpected outcome of the National Assembly leadership polls. In a press statement released by his media office in Abuja last Sunday, he noted that the recent outcomes of the National Assembly leadership election, contrary to insinuations, were products of “interplay of politics which is itself in constant motion.” The situation is likely to become messier in the nearest future. A reliable source in the PDP, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, had told SUNDAY PUNCH that some prominent politicians in the APC had begun talks with the PDP in view of the 2019 presidential election. “In the APC, we have people who have signified their interest in the 2019 presidential election. They will come when the time is appropriate and we will accommodate them,” the source said. Advising the APC on what to do on its present predicament, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Abuja, Professor Dauda Saleh, said the APC must learn to uphold the supremacy of the party and have “a rallying ideology” that would bring all its members together. He said, “The way it is now, it is like a salad bowl, with every group insisting on maintaining its colour. It is not yet a melting pot for the different groups that joined the party. There is the need to create an enabling ideology that members will rally round and see themselves as one family. Failure to do so, the party will be in disarray. “To be frank, the first rallying point was for them to capture political power. And now that they have captured political power, they are finding it difficult to hold on. They should appreciate that unless there is party discipline; unless there is fairness and equity, things will not go well. “Reading between the lines, one will see that there are people in the APC that want to dominate the party and, from all indications, people are revolting against that perceived attempt by the individuals to hijack the party by planting their loyalists in strategic positions.” The political scientist pointed out that these issues explained why the APC was facing internal crisis so early. He also admitted that it would be difficult, at this time, for the ruling party to persuade those who joined it for personal political goals into accepting the manifesto of the party. The electorate seem to be bearing the brunt of the APC crisis. For instance, the national chairman of the party, on June 15, hinted that the ongoing crisis in the National Assembly may be partly responsible for the delay in the presentation of Buhari’s ministerial list to the legislature. The President has yet to form his cabinet after about one month of his administration. This development, some Nigerians believe, is not in the best interest of the electorate who are waiting for the new administration to deliver its campaign promises. Odigie-Oyegun said, “All other things will have to wait. This is because, if for instance, the President says he wants to present his list of ministerial nominees to the Senate, we don’t want a situation whereby the Senate will be divided. We are trying to sort that out; it is our number one priority. We are happy that we are arriving at amicable settlement of the situation; this one cannot wait for long. It has to be immediate.” Due to the rage that followed the Saraki ‘coup’ on June 9, the Senate President had asked the National Assembly to go on recess till Tuesday (June 23), apparently as a way of managing the brouhaha over the new leadership. Similarly on Thursday, after the fracas in the House of Representatives, the Assembly proceeded on another recess till July 21, perhaps to allow the tension to cool down and for fence mending. Political analysts have drawn a correlation between the dramatis personae of the schism in the National Assembly and their political antecedents. In December 2013, 37 members of the House dumped the PDP for the APC. Most prominent among them were chairmen of various committees like Zakari Mohammed from Kwara State (House Committee on Media and Public Affairs); Dakuku Peterside, Rivers (Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream)); Ali Ahmad, Kwara (Committee on Justice); Aminu Shagari, Sokoto (Committee on Judiciary); and Yakubu Dogara, Bauchi (Committee on House Services). In January 2014, just a month after, Saraki, representingKwara-Central Senatorial District, led 10 other senators to defect from the PDP to the APC. With him were Umaru Dahiru, Sokoto-South; Magnus Abe, Rivers-South-East; Wilson Ake, Rivers-West; Bindawa Jibrilla, Adamawa-North; Mohammed Danjuma-Goje, Gombe-Central; Aisha al-Hassan, Taraba-North; Mohammed Ali- Ndume, Borno-South; Mohammed Lafiaji, Kwara- North; Abdulahi Adamu, Nasarawa-West; Ibrahim Gobir, Sokoto-East. Ndume had served two terms in the House of Representatives on the platform of the ANPP from 2003 to 2011 to represent Chibok/Damboa/ Gwoza Federal Constituency of Borno State. He was the Minority Leader of the House. He later dumped the ANPP for the PDP in 2010 and was elected to the Senate on its platform in 2011 to represent Borno-South. In January 2014, he defected from the PDP to the APC, on which platform he was re-elected senator in 2015. Dogara, who represents Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa- Balewa Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, was a PDP member of the House since 2007 until he was re-elected on the platform of the APC in 2015. In the case of Dino Melaye, prior to the 2011 elections, he dumped the PDP for the ANPP in protest against the party’s choice of candidate for the Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency of Kogi State for the House of Representatives. He later became a lawmaker in the ANPP, which metamorphosed into APC. Obviously, the PDP has benefitted from the imbroglio in the APC – with its member, Ekweremadu becoming the number two man in an APC-dominated Senate. The opposition party is poised to taking more opportunities from the ruling party’s problems. The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Abdullahi Jalo, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the PDP succeeded in governing the country for 16 years because it had leaders that could tell members “don’t do it and they will not do it; do it and they will do it.” He said such control was not obtainable in the APC. He said, “APC has a lot of ambitious people; people like (former Governor of Kano State, Rabi’u) Kwankwaso and the rest. Where a party is an amalgamation of so many parties, each party will come with its own way of doing things. Where a party is formed by an amalgamation of parties, it does not take long before it will collapse. Everybody is a know-all; everybody claims that ‘yes, I am independent.’ “Already, the advantage has started (to come). It is from the crisis we were able to get the Deputy Senate President. The law says you (lawmakers) can elect your leader not on the basis of party. The law does not say the majority must lead the Assembly. Anybody can lead. So, we have started reaping our benefits.” Copyright PUNCH.