August 14, (THEWILL) – The leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) has started making efforts to reconcile aggrieved members in the North-West and the South-East geopolitical zones.
The National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said the party has waded into the leadership crisis in its Abia State chapter and urged the aggrieved members to reconcile and deliver the state for the party in 2023 rather than losing out and coming to Abuja to whine.
In order to achieve lasting peace in the Abia chapter, the National Working Committee (NWC) appointed a reconciliation committee for the state, just as Adamu said he would not entertain excuses for electoral failure.
The Chairman of the Abia APC Reconciliation Committee is Senator Chris Adighije, while the Deputy Chief Whip, House of Representatives, Nkeiruka Onyejiocha, will serve as Secretary of the committee.
Other members of the committee include a former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chief Emeka Wogu; Martin Azubuike; APC National Welfare Secretary, Hon. Friday Nwosu; Hon. Emeka Atuma and the APC governorship candidate in Abia, Ikechi Emenike.
Speaking on the reconciliation effort, Adamu said, “We had a very comprehensive meeting, composed of leaders of Abia APC who are involved in the negotiations. We have a series of meetings with the National Working Committee during the primaries and since the primaries. I hope that with what we have done today, the entire world will witness peace and we hope this is the very last step. We are not going to hold reconciliation meetings again.
“We will now leave it to the leaders of Abia to go and play their politics in the state. Abuja is not about Abia. Go to Abia, play politics there, do the needful, lobby and reconcile there because all politics is local. Abuja is not Abia locality, Abuja is the Federal Capital Territory. We converge here from various states. Let Abians go and sit together.
“All the national elections – House of Representatives, Senate, governorship, likely the presidential election, we will not be satisfied with just the 25 per cent of votes cast. No half way about it. If we are to win, we must try to win every state. We have to do some work to avoid and forget some of the prejudices and stand together. We don’t want anybody to come here after the election and start crying and laying blame for our failures. I will not listen to that. This is the time to unite, this is the time to work for unity. If we do, God will be with us”.
On his part, Senator Adighije pledged to bring all parties to the dispute.
“We are on our way back to Abia to play the local politics, reconcile all our members and ensure that we go straight for the low hanging fruits, which can be lost if we don’t come together. I know that by the grace of God and with the team we are going to do the needful and ensure victory for our party.
“That is why the committee is there. If there is no challenge, there will be no committee and we have a good committee and I believe we will do the needful God being our help,” he stated.
Also in the North-West, the National Vice-Chairman (North-West) of the party, Malam Salihu Lukman, said that efforts were ongoing to reconcile the aggrieved party members and stop the gale of defections reported in Kaduna and Kebbi States.
Lukman noted that stakeholders and party leaders in the North-West had met to review and take a decision to douse the tension at the zonal level.
The APC vice-chairman made the clarification after a meeting of the North-West APC leaders at the Katsina Governor’s Lodge in Abuja.
It would be recalled that at least 15 chieftains of the APC in Kaduna State have dumped the party, citing lack of internal democracy.
Those who have dumped the ruling party included Mallam Audu Bode, Shuabu Ahmed, Habila Latu, Boniface Ubandoma, Mr. Yakubu Simon, Jashua Peter, Camio Bitrus and Patrick Paul (Pato)
Others were Samuel Wyah, Zaka Makoshi, Jonathan Fedelix, Barnabas Samuel (Barry), Shua’ibu Yusuf, Alexander Danladi (Lulu), Samuel Ibrahim
In Kebbi, hundreds of APC members also dumped the party for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in Argungu Local Government Area of the state.
The horde of aggrieved party supporters who defected were led by Mansur Yargyra, a former House of Reps hopeful in the ruling APC.
It was in order to forestall more defections from the party that the North-West leaders of the party met to ensure reconciliation.
Lukman announced that they had resolved to set up state level committees to address the alleged imposition of candidates and other abuse of privileges with a view to reconcile all aggrieved members.
According to him, politics is all about contest, adding that it is normal to have disagreement during negotiation among party members.
Although the North-West APC chair disclosed that he was yet to have all the details of what led to the gale of defections, he was optimistic that the recent facts-finding tour being conducted would address the grey areas next week.
He said, “We should not be seen or appear as passing judgment that nothing can happen. First, politics is all about contest. Disagreement is part of politics. You can’t have political contest without disagreement. As a party, what we are trying to do is to ensure the business of reconciliation is permanent.
“I don’t know the details, but we will go back and look at it. Kaduna and Katsina are the only outstanding states that we are yet to visit in the ongoing facts-finding tour we are conducting..
“We met today to review the situation in the party at the zonal level. The main issue is to really step forward the business of reconciling aggrieved members in each state. What we agreed to do, moving forward, is to have state level committees that will meet with all party leaders and aggrieved party members with a view to reconcile all stakeholders. That will be done before the commencement of the campaign for the 2023 general election.”
Speaking with THEWILL on the development, a chieftain of the party in Abia State, Barrister Azubuko Udah, said the leadership of APC should handle the grievances and crisis that emanated from its presidential primary and in fact, all other primaries in all the states of the federation, with an open mind and sincerity of purpose.
He warned that failure on the part of the party’s leadership to tackle the problem with open minds might aggravated it.
“Take for example, the Abia chapter of the party is in disarray. I am from Abia State. That is why I am talking about this. But it is the same situation in most states of the country. We should resolve these crises on time and hit the ground running for the preparation towards next year’s election.
“Many members are confused and they are moving to other political parties. We should not allow this to continue. The leadership should do something urgently and sincerely too.
“Different crises arose as a result of the last primaries. We had parallel primaries in some states. Those of us who entered politics and want to practice politics with sincerity are very pained with what is happening in our party especially in Abia State. This is a party that is in government at the centre, so we can’t afford to be in disarray.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has done his best. The National Working Committee, NWC should work with sincerity of purpose. The National Chairman should do something to keep the party united. I am not contesting for any elective position, but eminent personalities including senators are leaving the APC. I know my contribution towards building the party in Abia State and I will not want the party to be in disunity.
The president cannot be intervening in the local crises in various states when the party has the national chairman and other committee members”.
Also speaking with THEWILL, a public affairs commentator based in Abuja, Mr. Paul David, commended the move by the APC leadership, saying it was long overdue.
“It is a welcome development; it is better late than never. The reconciliation should have started earlier because the party has lost many aggrieved members to other political parties. But it is a necessary step for the party to secure victory in the elections coming up next year”, David said.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
