All Progressives Congress (APC) has been dealing with internal battles in the states, a situation which has raised concerns from various stakeholders that all may not be well with the party that came to power through the massive support of the people, ANDREW ESSIEN writes.
Over the past few months, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has not been having a smooth sail at the state and national levels.
Even in states where they governing, the party has either had to grapple with a battle for supremacy between a former governor and the incumbent, usually a successor, or the fact that ‘goodies’ that ought to be enjoyed by all seems to be cornered by a few within the party at that level.
are at loggerheads with each other, causing serious concerns from all who genuinely care for project Nigeria, just as accusations and counter accusations have become the other of the day, with each other spreading their dirty linen in public.
From Kaduna to Anambra, the issues are sticking out like a sore thumb, begging for answers and daily sapping the strength and fighting power of the party.
Evidently, for analysts, the evolving battle over who becomes what in the 2019 general elections appears to be at the center of uproars.
At the national level, the deputy national publicity secretary of APC, Comrade Timi Frank had subtly dropped a bombshell in his usual ‘frank’ and blunt manner, revealing that there is crisis within the party at various levels. Granting a press conference, he said that all is not well with the party that rode on the crest of the people’s popular support to power.
To drive home his point, he said “If anybody should tell you there’s no division at the national level, they’re telling lies. I can tell you there are issues, there are very critical issues. The issue of the senate president is still lingering, nobody is saying anything at the national level but I tell you, any Nigerian that knows, will tell you very clearly that with the body language of our party as at today, if we are not careful, we are going to lose our popularity. It will be a very big disgrace that we have hands that are not competent at the centre to harmonise the aggrieved persons and help us to move forward.
“So there is crisis in the party. If anybody says there is no crisis, we have too many divisions right now within the party so I won’t be scared to speak. That is my personal opinion and I’ve spoken again and I will continue to speak out.”
The conference had barely ended than the APC, through the national secretary, Mai Mala Buni responded by refuting Comrade Frank’s assertion, describing the allegations as “bogus and misleading” which was an unnecessary distraction to the party’s resolve to support President Buhari’s Administration as he delivers on the dividends of democracy.
The statement said: “The attention of the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been drawn to a statement ascribed to the party’s deputy national publicity secretary, Comrade Timi Frank where he alleged that the “APC is now divided” amongst other bogus allegations.”
“The bogus and misleading allegations are unnecessary distractions to the party’s resolve to fully support the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to deliver on the motley promises made by our great party to the electorate.
“The APC national leadership remains united and solidly committed to the task of bringing cohesion to the party at all levels.
“Recently, the APC held its National Caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC). The meetings were positive and far-reaching decisions were collectively taken by the party’s leadership to drive the party forward.
“The party will not deny anybody or interest the right to seek justice where he feels this has been denied him. However, we sincerely appeal that we all play by the rules in our engagements and be guarded in our utterances.
“The public is advised not to misinterpret or confuse Comrade Timi Frank’s personal opinions to be the official position of the party or the true reflection of what is happening inside the party. For the umpteenth time, only the APC national chairman and the national secretary are authorised to officially speak for the party.”
What’s more, the leadership of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) has been another sore point for the party.
There are insinuations that the chairmanship position of the advisory body has been shelved following concerns that the power play by gladiators within the party might spiral out of hand. It was however gathered that party leadership, concerned that it might not be able to contain an inevitable backlash adopted a council of elders arrangement rather than the BoT. Still, the ripples are far from over.
The issues plaguing the party at the national level is cascading down to various state chapters of the ruling party, giving credence to the popular saying, “if the head is sick, the body is also sick”.
For instance, in Kogi State, where everyone thought would be concerned with bringing dividends of democracy that is badly needed by the citizens of the state, has had to grapple with unfortunate crisis since the shocking death of Prince Abubakar Audu and the emergence of Yahaya Bello, who completed the former’s victory to be governor of the state.
The ripples created by Bello’s emergence is yet to settle even though the Supreme Court last week Tuesday validated his mandate as governor.
Hon James Faleke, the embittered running mate of Audu, is yet to forgive what he considers an injustice meted to him by the party who refused to allow him assume the candidacy following the untimely demise of his boss to be.
Having lost his legal protest over the Bello’s emergence at the highest court in the country, Faleke had, in his reaction to outcome of the judgement, expressed a disposition that is far from conciliatory.
Although APC at the national leadership has called on party stakeholders to forge a common front it is yet to be seen whether such advise would be heeded.
The Bayelsa chapter of the party, is not different. The party in the state is locked in a bitter crisis of supremacy between the state chairman of the party, Chief Timipa Orunimighe and the leader of the party in the state, Chief Timipre Sylva.
In Bayelsa it appears caution has been thrown to the wind between the leadership at the state level led by Chief Timipa Orunimighe and the gubernatorial candidate in the last election, Chief Timipre Sylva, a political volcanic eruption threatening to consume the party.
On the one hand, the leadership alleged that Sylva is selling slots meant for the party and also submitting names of people who are not members of the party. In a press conference, Orunimighe reeled out the issues plaguing the APC in Bayelsa and fingered the minister of state for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobori as a beneficiary of the cash-for-slot arrangement.
Orunimighe said: “The issue why we are standing here before you today is because of the appointments that we feel that were supposed to be given to those of us of the APC in Bayelsa. It’s a pity to stand before you and say that for somebody like Timipre Sylva who was supposed to be the leader of the party, today, turned against the party, to sell our party slots for whatever he feels may be money or whatever he feels that our party slots can be sold.”
“As its chairman and very strong exco, we’ve spoken with him and we told him that we will stand against that as a people. If we can stand against Jonathan as a president, if we can stand against the former governor who is still the governor of Bayelsa State, Serieke Dickson to tell him we don’t like his antecedent as governor, we can also tell our leader that we don’t like these antecedents. We are not ready as a people to sell any slot of appointment to be given to Bayelsans.”
“APC in Bayelsa will stand to defend that if it comes. As a people, and as a party, we are here to tell the world, most especially Nigerians and Bayelsans that we, as a party do stand to defend that.
“We also want to call on our president who is very loved by Nigerians, judging from his election, judging from his fight against corruption, judging from the gains he made in the anti-insurgency, judging from all the policies and programmes of the government that he should stand against such a situation where somebody would hide under any disguise to forward people’s names where he has collected monies or whatever and bring people from nowhere to fill the spaces that are supposed to be for the APC members. And we are here as a people to stand against that, we will not tolerate nor accept that.
“The other issue we want to inform you members of the press about is that, if it comes to losing our right hands just as we have done, some of us have been arrested before for what we believe in. We have been put into cells for what we believed in and we will stand also to defend what we have believed in and so, we want to call on Mr. President, the national leadership of our party, APC to be aware of this that as state leadership, we will accept this, but we are not into war with anybody.
“We want a very peaceful atmosphere where we can dialogue and bring quality and qualified Bayelsans, APC members to serve in those places. The government of Nigeria would deem it fit for Bayelsa and as such we want to let the Bayelsa and the Nigerian public know that the APC Bayelsans would stand against anything contrary.”
Chief Sylva, on the same day fired back, alleging that the chairman wanted to be minister but lacked the requisite credentials and experience for the job.
In a release, Sylva said: “They felt that they are the ones that started the party and therefore we should not deal with anybody who is coming late into the party. When the ministerial slot came, the chairman told me he wanted to be minister and he is not qualified to be minister. His only experience in Nigeria is that he has been a local government chairman and I made him local government chairman. He was local government chairman under me.”
That is his only experience in life and he said he wants to be minister and I told him, you can’t be minister because this is a serious election. I also told them that concerning the people who are joining us, we need to give them a sense of belonging and so, Heineken was nominated. We also looked at the spread in the state. I was contesting for governor from the east, he, as the chairman, is from the central and Heineken is from the west and so, I felt we should take somebody from the west to be minister and Heineken became minister. Heineken became minister in November or so.”
“Why is it that it is today that he remembers? Why didn’t he make that noise then? After we lost election, this same person went ahead to take money from Dickson. I was told and yesterday (Tuesday, March 29, 2016) I confronted him. He has been collecting money from Dickson and I didn’t want to start problem in the party because I felt that we have entered it already. But he thinks this is the only way to destabilise the party and I don’t think he will succeed. That is the problem, but it is not an issue. If is a complete non-issue.”
This is just as the imbroglio in the Kano APC is unfolding further between the state governor and his predecessor.
The commercial nerve center of the North, is having its own issues that is shaking the soul of the party in the state. The political struggle between current governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje and his predecessor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso is taking various dimensions with members of the party in the state, pitching their tents with either of them, thus rocking the delicate balance.”
There are also issues in Kaduna, Cross River and Niger State chapters of the party and the overall picture is gloomy.
Analysts posit that should the APC go into an election with the way the party is at the moment, it may not gain the political fortune it garnered in the last general elections, necessitating the call from stakeholders that urgent steps must and should be taken to ameliorate this downward trend.
Interestingly, the NEC meeting which was held some weeks back promised to look into the situation with a view to finding lasting solutions to them.
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