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THE new executive of the ruling All Progressives Congress is in the saddle to take the party to the 2019 election, but the job of the new leadership under Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman, will not be easy amidst daunting problems facing the party

 

By Olu Ojewale

The euphoria, which greeted the election of the new national executive for the All Progressives Congress, APC, is petering out. The new national working committee, NWC, of the ruling party led by Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman, is expected, as a matter of urgency get down to work to resolve plethora of issues threatening the unity of the APC ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Indeed, Oshiomhole, the arrow head of the new NWC of the APC, knows that he has a lot of work to do to unite the party behind President Muhammadu Buhari who facilitated his election as the party’s national chairman. He, arguably, knows that the ruling party is currently under attack for doing, perhaps, next to nothing to stop the herdsmen killings in some parts of the country.

The recent killings in Benue and Plateau states not only caused tongues wagging, it has become a serious campaign issue on which basis the APC government will be judged whether or not, in the estimation of voting Nigerians, should be returned to power.

The latest herdsmen attack in Plateau State left more than 100 persons dead, and several others injured. It has also attracted condolence visits of prominent Nigerians including Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Bukola Saraki, Senate president, and planned visit of APC governors among others.

But what Nigerians need is a permanent solution to the incessant killings of innocent persons by lawless herdsmen who have been on rampage on the excuse that their cattle are being killed or that their pastures are being prevented from grazing.

Apparently irked by the current development, Shehu Sani, a senator from Kaduna, posted on his facebook: “We need a graveyard in the three arms zones of Abuja, so that victims of the mindless killings in the country can be buried close to the seat of power. Then the executive, legislators and the judiciary can feel the pains of the helpless widows and orphans we failed to protect.”

This is, no doubt, why the Oshiomhole-led NWC needs to act quickly and persuade the ruling party to find a lasting and an amicable solution that will stop the mindless killing forthwith. Doing that would lessen the general impression among Nigerians that the Presidency is in support of the herdsmen.

The Adams Oshiomhole administration of the ruling party may not necessarily be blamed for the carnage that has been spearheaded by the Fulani herdsmen in many parts of the country, but the party leadership is not likely to escape criticism should it fail to reconcile aggrieved members ahead of 2019 elections.

The burden is now on the party’s NWC to rally round members and work for genuine reconciliation in the party. Oshiomhole needs to bring bear all his negotiating power and experience as labour leader to bring back to the fold all aggrieved members where parallel congresses were held to bury their hatchets and work for unity and success of the troubled party. Reports indicated that there were parallel congresses in Delta, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Kogi, Imo, Lagos, Oyo, Rivers and Zamfara states. In places such as Lagos, Rivers and Kaduna states, courts have been asked to intervene.

Some side attractions which took place at the party convention on Saturday, June 23, must have shown the new party leadership the kind of hostility going on in some states. On the day, there were arguments among some states delegates over sitting arrangements. For instance, it took almost one hour to normalise things as fight broke out among Imo State delegates. Reports alleged that the fight broke out when supporters of Ifeanyi Ararume, a former senator and governorship aspirant, resisted an attempt by delegates loyal to Governor Rochas Okorocha to upstage them. Consequently, supporters of the governor were dispersed. Security agents at the venue later managed to restore order.

Not only that, perhaps, in another manner of protesting, a number of prominent personalities of the party simply did not attend the convention. Conspicuously absent were Shehu Sani, a senator from Kaduna State; Rabiu Kwankwaso, a senator and former governor of Kaduna State and Dino Melaye, a senator from Kogi. They all have an axe to grind with the party leadership in their respective states.

Kwankwaso said that he avoided attending the convention in order not to cause distraction and conflict between his supporters and that of the Kano governor. Besides, he said he did not recognise the congresses held in the state.

But the state government through Mohammed Garba, the Kano State commissioner for Information, on Monday, June 25, in Kano, lambasted Kwankwaso, describing reasons for his absence at the convention as false.

Garba, however, said the Kano congresses were adjudged the best recently conducted in the country as there was no case of parallel congress in the state. He said the senator should have used the convention to reconcile his differences with Governor Abdullahi Ganduje on the APC leadership crisis in Kano and that failure to do, Kwankwaso had nailed his political career.

Apart from reconciling members of the party, the first acid test for the new APC leadership is the two critical governorship elections holding this year in Ekiti and Osun states. Ekiti will go to polls on July 14.  Hence, Oshiomhole will have to be in the state with some his new executive to campaign for Kayode Fayemi, the APC candidate and former minister of Solid Minerals Development in the election.

Shortly after that, it would also be incumbent on the Oshiomhole executive to ensure the APC success in the Osun State gubernatorial election slated for September 22. The guber primaries of Osun State will hold July 7. Reports have it that, aspirants in the state are already at war as party elders are working assiduously to ensure credible primary to elect flag bearer.

Will the APC wrestle power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ekiti State? Will the party also retain its dominance in Osun State? The answer to these questions will definitely serve as a lesson to the party new hierarchy and give it a peep on what it should expect in certain areas at the next general election. It would likewise serve as a measure of achievement or otherwise for the Oshimhole executive.

Perhaps, another major headache for the ruling party is the issue of restructuring. Although the APC has accepted in principle that the country needs to restructure to meet the yearning of the citizenry, machinery to carry out the process is yet to be in place.

Nigerians are still greatly expectant that the Buhari government would put to rest separatist agitations of the past three years for the Republic of Biafra, Niger Delta Republic and Oduduwa Republic by starting the process of restructuring as being recommended by the party.

The APC under the leadership of John Odigie-Oyegun had set up a 23-man committee to look into the agitation for restructuring when the demand for it became so ferocious across the country. The committee headed by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State eventually submitted its report to the immediate past national chairman of party on January 25, this year, making some far reaching recommendations.

El-Rufai said the committee recommendations were based on the group’s interactions with members of the public. Among others, the committee recommended devolution of power to states and the scrapping of local governments as a tier of government.

Similarly, it recommended resource control, state police, independent candidacy and merger of states.

Despite assurances from the Buhari administration that a process would be put in place for the implementation of the recommendations, nothing has been heard from the government.

The new leadership of the APC under Oshiomhole will need to address this to probably restore confidence of Nigerians in the Buhari administration.

More so, because it was the agitation for the Republic of Biafra that led to the now proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, which earned it the full wrath of the government. The government also designated the group as a terrorist organisation and proscribed it from existence in September 2017. Leaders and members of the group are now persona non granta in any part of the country.

“It is this obvious lopsided distribution of commonwealth and leadership style of President Buhari that led to his quick proscription of the separatist, but non-violent and unarmed group, Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, tagging it a terrorist organisation, while Fulani herdsmen that have been killing, maiming and raping Nigerians are treated with kid glove, for instance. Many have indeed, argued that in the present dispensation, the life of cows seem to be more important than that of some Nigerians,” Rose Moses, a columnist said.

In an obvious retaliatory move, the Arewa Youths Coalition issued a notice to Ndigbo to leave the North by October 1, 2017, thereby inflaming another political tension across the country. Mercifully, the tension did not blow over.

But that notwithstanding, it is incumbent on the Oshiomhole group to help the Buhari to set the ball rolling for the implementation of the el-Rufai committee report on restructuring.

Since he has the backing of Buhari and other influential party stalwarts for his new assignment, veteran union leader and two-time governor Edo State, is believed to have all the ingredients required to be successful as the APC leader.

Speaking in an interview, Ibrahim Modibbo, an APC stalwart, told Realnews that Oshimhole has all it takes to put the party back on the right track. “He (Oshiomhole) is the best thing to happen to the APC. Look at his antecedents, he has been a national president of the NLC, a two-time governor of Edo State. He is an accomplished negotiator and highly respected by the Nigerian masses. We are very fortunate to have him as the national chairman of our great party. I believe, he will do well and help the fortune of the party and Nigerians as a whole,” Modibbo said.

Similarly, he expressed confidence in the leadership of the new chairman of the APC to reconcile all the warring parties in the party across the country. He said the crisis in the party was actually caused by the mismanagement of the Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC. But assured that Oshiomhole would restore back the glory of the party. “It is a familiar terrain for him. He is a great negotiator and someone who has interests of Nigerians at heart,” he said.

He said given the Muslim and Christian background of the former president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Modibbo expressed confidence that Oshiomhole would be able to help the Buhari administration in tacking the herdsmen/farmers crisis across the country.

Similarly, Osita Okechukwu, the director-general of Voice of Nigeria, VON, described Oshiomhole as a dynamic leader who would endow his seat with credibility. He said he had no doubt that he would be able to reconcile members of the party especially with Bola Tinubu, national leader of the APC.

According to Okechukwu, “Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Reconciliation Committee is at work. Asiwaju has gone far in the process. Nobody can take it from Asiwaju. You cannot bribe him during the reconciliation process. He is a veteran. He is a man of means. He has the capacity to talk to any of the factions anywhere. We will move on to progress.

“We also have a consensus presidential candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari. If we have two contenders for president, it will be difficult. Ninety percent of the membership and leadership of the APC say he should continue. So, there will be no division. The president has authority. Immediately he said he preferred Oshiomhole as chairman, everybody agreed; those who wanted to contest stepped down.”

Besides, Okechukwu in a newspaper interview,  expressed confidence that: “Oshiomhole is going to be dynamic and purposeful. He will be successful. He has passed through the mills as a union leader. As a union leader, he is pro-people. He is the darling of the working people. He has been governor for eight years. He is witty. He communicates. He is an organiser.”

While congratulating Oshiomhole, Rotimi Amaechi, Transport minister, described the new chairman of the APC as a workaholic and dynamic leader. He said: “He was governor for eight years. He didn’t do badly. He did well. He will be a good leader as the chairman of the party and we will give him all our support. He has over 6,000 delegates behind him. It was a huge crowd. He has to be dexterous in managing a huge crowd and manage their differences.

“He should build on the achievements of his predecessor. We need that, going forward. I don’t think he has bad temperament as some people think. There are principles and Oshiomhole is a man of solid principles.”

Indeed, that is what Smart Adeyemi, a former member of the National Assembly, said in an interview with The Nation, describing Oshiomhole as “an action leader” and a threat to the opposition, predicting that next year’s presidential election campaign would be hot because the new party chief would be involved.

Adeyemi, a senator, who represented Kogi West District in the Senate between 2007 and 2015, said: “APC has made a wise choice. Oshiomhole will be tough for the opposition. In fact, he will dwarf the opposition in 2019. I knew him as a member of the NLC when he was the president and I was the NUJ chairman. The opposition is in problem. He will fight them.”

But Agho Omena, a Biniman resident in Lagos, said in an interview that Oshiomhole should not be regarded as a saint. Omena said: “He who comes into equity must come with clean hands.’ Tell Oshiomhole to explain to Edo State people and Nigerians the commissioning of empty N20bn hospital. Three years after not even a patient has been treated and the same hospital is locked up.”

In the same breath, S. Olabisi, a public commentator, said Oshiomhole should never be taken seriously. “If he wants us to take him seriously, let him be courageous to ask his present boss to account for his stewardship at PTF where billions of Naira were spent outside of federal budgetary system – a euphemism for accountability shrouded in mystery,” he said.

That notwithstanding, the PDP has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, not recognise Oshimhole as the national chairman of the APC. He said his election by affirmation was against the direct voting required by delegates.

Kola Ologbondiyan, national publicity secretary of the PDP, who gave the charge in Abuja, on Wednesday, June 27, at the party’s national secretariat also asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to start investigation into the reports that the 24 elected governors on the platform of the APC allegedly diverted N150 million each, amounting to N3.6 billion from their states to fund the APC convention.

Ologbondiyan recalled that when the PDP used the same method to elect some of its national officers some years ago, the electoral body nullified their elections by refusing to recognise them.

He said: “Party (APC) members were openly harassed, beaten, humiliated and forced to withdraw at gunpoint. After that, they used a prepared list from where they announced the names of their national officers through voice vote to affirm the illegality at the Eagle Square.”

That notwithstanding, the election of Oshiomhole looks unlikely to be annulled by anyone except by a court of competence authority. The APC seems to have a man that it believes can lead the party  to the next general elections successfully.

 

– Jun. 29, 2018 @ 14:49 GMT |

Tags: Challenges before Oshiomhole-led APC Executive