Their collective effort massively won them the general elections, but now they are in disarray. This is the story of a ruling political party in search of peace after the elections of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives of the 8th National Assembly respectively.
It is a baptism of fire. It is happening early. No one anticipated it. They tried to cover it but it leaked out. They also tried to manage it, but it is escalating. And now, there is palpable aggression and deep seated animosity within.
The development has divided APC leaders. And the blame game continues. Was it really a marriage of convenience that bought the APC leaders together in the first place? These are questions popping up now amid the crisis rocking the APC.
Make no mistakes about it, all is not well for the APC. Not at the moment. The reason is simple. The party lost the National Assembly leadership elections. Did I say the party? It is not really the party but some powerful persons in the party? How did this happen?
Soon after the party emerged victorious at the last general elections, the clamour on who become the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives began. Names started dropping and horse trading became intense. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, from Bauchi State, who is now the Speaker of the House of Representatives; his closest rival in the election, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, from Lagos; Hon. Mohammed Monguno, from Borno State; Abudulmuni Jubril; Pally Iraise, from Edo State and Yusuf Lasun, from Osun, were among the early seekers of the office of the House Speaker.
Similarly, at the Senate, the names of Senator Bukola Saraki, from Kwara State, who later got lucky and was voted the Senate President; George Akume, from Benue; Ahmed Lawan, from Yobe, among others, came up for the presidency of the Senate.
With the various interests, the National Working Committee, NWC, of the APC met twice to streamline the interests, but the meetings were stalemated. This led to the party’s leadership meeting at the Rivers State Governorship Lodge in Abuja, held on April 22.
FILE PHOTO: APC Joint Leadership Meeting: From left, APC National Leader Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu discussing with. Muhammadu Buhari and National Chairman of APC Chief John Oyegun during APC Joint Leadership Meeting held in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.
Everyone that mattered in the APC, including President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, were at the meeting.
There, the party subtly ceded the Senate presidency to the North Central zone and Speakership to North East. Members had no qualms with the North Central having the presidency of the Senate. But tempers flared when South-West suddenly showed interest in the Speakership of the House after North East had been penciled down for the office.
Consequent upon the shouting match, a two-man committee was set up. The two men were Buhari and the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun. Their mandate was to think out the best way to accommodate the interests.
But there were doubts that the committee ever met to harmonize the interests. To lend credence to this, Buhari repeatedly sounded a caution when his name was dropped that he was backing a candidate for the top National Assembly position. He washed his hands off the allegation and later advocated free hand in the elections of the parliament leaders.
Now, when it became obvious that Akume’s candidacy would not fly for the Senate presidency in the emerging force of Saraki, a powerful man in the party opted for Lawan from the North East in a calculated attempt to dislodge Dogara who was waxing stronger from the zone.
In Dogara’s stead, Gbajabimila was prepared for the House speakership. Contenders tried to woo lawmakers from the APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Election day upstage
On June 9, day of the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly, APC, having tried unsuccessfully to stop the participation of Saraki and Dogara in the contest after producing Lawan and Gbajabiamila as their consensus candidates in a straw poll on June 6 in Abuja, scheduled a meeting with all their National Assembly members-elect. But that was their greatest undoing.
While the party leaders and other incoming lawmakers were at the International Conference Centre, ICC, venue of the meeting, the Senate conducted its election and voted Saraki as president. That was not all. The red chamber went ahead and elected opposition senator PDP Ike Ekwerenmadu as the Deputy Senate President.
Also, at the House, with the participation of APC’s favorite candidates, Dogara was voted as the Speaker. Then the party began to boil. First, it declared the outcome of the elections unacceptable and disowned Saraki and Lawan as Senator and House Speaker. Second, it threatened to impose sanctions on them. But then, Saraki and Dogara had already acquired new designation, apparently irreversible now.
Anger
The duos elections later dovetailed into controversy. Of course, the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who largely supported Lawan and Gbajabimila, became sad, extremely sad. His sadness was further fueled by Saraki’s visit to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, another chieftain of the party, immediately after his election. Those in Tinubu’s camp felt that there was a “coup” against their principal’s interest in the APC. To make matters worse, Buhari and Atiku issued separate statements congratulating the new National Assembly leaders and pledged their readiness to work with them. But then, Tinubu’s anger continued to grow.
Oyegun, Mohammed torn between camps
Obviously, the crisis has sprawled to offices of the APC National Chairman, Oyegun, and the National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. At the moment, both men are battling to save their jobs. Why? The bottled anger of many APC national leaders had exploded against them.
To many of the leaders, the mock election, which cost the party the Deputy Senate President, is chiefly Oyegun’s sin. He was also accused of not being man enough to resist overtures by powerful forces to conduct the mock election against the wish of the majority.
Mohammed is also not left out in the the bashing. He is accused of belittling Buhari and his office by saying that the President is not the leader of the party.
To everyone’s surprise, this claim emanated from no other person than Mohammad’s deputy, Comrade Timi Frank, who also called for Oyegun’s resignation.
Frank’s words: “If my party could not keep to the promise of change, then we must correct them to keep to that. I have no fear or favour than to say that the current leadership of the party has practically failed.
“With this incident alone, the Chairman should resign from his position after taking a position against the people and the people’s position has finally come to stay. In the Western world, by today, the party’s National Chairman would have resigned honourably.
“Not just the National Chairman but also the entire leadership that took this decision of conducting mock election against the outcry of the larger members of the party. Against the bigger picture of Nigerians, a handful of the party leadership came to take a decision, and, by today, the people have shown that the voice of the people is the voice of God.
“You could see the way the party, including the National Chairman, was speaking before the NASS leadership elections. It showed clearly that the Chairman had totally taken sides which wasn’t meant to be. I understand, he took some of those decisions based on pressure. In this century, APC, as a party, does not need a Chairman that will be under pressure. “ And the party’s National Chairman caused it because times without number, some of leaders told him to come up with a zoning formula from the beginning. He was as ked to take a decision and let people follow, but he didn’t do that.”
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary went on: “They were playing hide and seek with the issue until the last minute when they saw the danger, and they wanted to play hanky-panky, which led us to lose one position at the Senate.
“Let’s go back and ask Lai Mohammed who the leader of the party is if he does not recognize the President as the leader. In my own view, If Lai Mohammed that is my direct boss could come up to tell Nigerians that the President is only a product of the party and not the national leader of the party, then he should have been able to tell us who the leader of the party is.
“We have seen that even in, the then PDP. Former President Goodluck Jonathan was the leader of the party. If in our own case the President cannot be the leader of the party, he should tell us who the leader is then.
“Those that are calling for the Deputy Senate President to resign are anti-people, and I will campaign against it. I will continue to support Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu and every progressive Nigerian should support this mission as it will take Nigeria to the next phase because failure to do this will disrupt democracy”.
Scapegoats
But speaking to Sunday Vanguard on Frank’s call for his resignation, Oyegun said: “It is neither here nor there. That’s his opinion. And I suppose he’s entitled to it. But I read the statement. He’s not a member of the National Working Committee (NWC). He’s a member of NEC alright. But not of the National Working Committee. So, it is neither here not there.
“When things happen, people look for scapegoats and it is a pity that he told the press instead of coming to say, `look, Chairman, what happened? How did things go the way they did?’ He might have just benefited from the education.
“I was not under any pressure in the sense that he’s taking it, but a party Chairman is constantly under pressure, especially when the time comes for dividing the spoils of office between people of different interests. It is for the National Chairman to moderate all these interests. And usually not everybody will be pleased. One way or the other, whatever decision you take, somebody is bound to be unhappy. That’s the way things run.”
Lai Mohammed also reacted this way: “Just ignore him. I said it in the context that Buhari is the leader of the whole of Nigeria, not just of my party. That is why I said I don’t want to react to Timi Frank. I don’t even want to answer him at all”.
Disappearance of Tinubu’s banners
Anyone who had visited the national secretariat of the APC since the party’s polls victory would attest to the fact that Tinubu’s banners, alongside those of Buhari and Vice President Osibanjo, littered the place. Tinubu’s were conspicuously displayed but, surprisingly, the banners had all gone as at Thursday. Who removed them and why? These are questions only the authorities could answer.
The escape route
At the moment, Oyegun and Mohammed are in a fix. They are torn between the camps of the majority party members controlled apparently by Atiku and the President Buhari, unsure of which camp to join.
For instance, Sunday Vanguard learnt that Oyegun, last weekend, had a meeting with Atiku where he pleaded that Gbajabimila should be made the Majority Leader of the House. But that request was a bitter pill to swallow by many northern elements in the APC who argued that the South West has got the Vice President and the Deputy Speaker.
Also, Oyegun presided over the meeting of the NWC on Thursday and Friday. The meeting had semblance of peaceful resolution of the crisis in the party.
A statement issued by the party Chairman after the meeting on Friday said that peace was underway in the APC, even as he defended Mohammed’s actions in the crisis.
He said: “The party has reached out to all interested parties, and when the National Assembly resumes next week, Nigerians will see one harmonious, happy APC family.
“We owe it to our party, our teeming members and supporters and indeed all Nigerians who reposed so much confidence in us by voting us into office to quickly put the unfortunate incidents of the recent past behind us and forge ahead.
“The party is aware that its National Publicity Secretary has been grossly misunderstood by virtually everyone, especially in his state, just because he carried out his duty by signing the said statement by the party.
“At a personal risk and putting the party’s interest above his own, he issued that statement which reflected the position of the party at that particular time. The party is solidly behind him, and it will be wrong for anyone to interpret the statement as representing his personal opinion”.
Last line
From all indications, it is obvious that personal aggrandizements were responsible for the crisis in APC. But now that the party leaders have realized their mistakes, it is only necessary to allow peace reign for the party to deliver on its campaign promises to Nigerians. But would they? The answer lies in the passage of time.
