October 31, (THEWILL) – The crack within the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) is deepening everyday as efforts made to reconcile aggrieved members and to put an end to divisions arising from the party’s congresses organised by the various factions within is not yielding positive results.
Appeal panels set up by the party’s Caretaker and Extra- Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) to look into complaints arising from the state congresses, which were held on October 16, 2021 are being shunned by aggrieved members.
For instance, the APC State Congress Appeal Committee for Osun State, which had upheld the election and victory of Gboyega Famodun, who emerged from the Congress organised by Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s group as the authentic chairman of the party in the state, said it did not receive any petition from any factional group.
The five-man appeal panel also affirmed the victory of other state officers elected at the congress, which was held in Osogbo on Saturday, October 16, 2021.
Chairman of the committee, Obed Wadzani, disclosed that despite reports that a parallel state congress held in Osun, the panel did not receive any petition or appeal since its inauguration by the leadership of the party at the National Secretariat, Abuja.
Wadzani said the decision of the panel to affirm the results of the state congress conducted and supervised by the Gbenga Elegbeleye-led state congress committee was therefore taken in the absence of any petition or appeal.
The Appeals Committee for Ogun State, led by Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, also claimed that it was yet to receive any petition since the Congress held on Saturday October 16, 2021.
The five-man Committee is mandated to receive and address petitions from aggrieved members of the party over the recent state congresses in order to ensure equity, justice and guarantee the integrity of the congress.
The members of the committee include Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon as Chairman and Barrister C.J Chinwuba as Secretary.
Others are Hon. Muazu Bawa Rajua, Mr Aboge-Isaac Felix and Hon Jubrin Akowe.
The Appeal Committee set up for Ekiti State and led by former Oyo State Deputy Governor, Chief Iyiola Oladokun, has also said it did not receive any petition.
“We commenced operations at the party secretariat, but we didn’t see anybody to present any petition before us.
“Before we left Abuja, no petition or document of complaints was given to us. We were even here at the secretariat on Tuesday, but we received none.
“We learnt all the officials emerged through consensus at the state congress. Despite that, there was still voice affirmation in electing the 36-member executives. Based on this, we are preparing our report to be submitted at the national headquarters of our party.
“No group by the name SWAGA submitted any petition before us. No petition from any group or individual was received in the course of our stay here,” he said.
It would be recalled that a group known as the South-West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA) had set up parallel executives at the ward and local governments levels in Ekiti State. The group has already dragged the APC National Headquarters to an Ado Ekiti High Court over the conduct of the Ward and Councils’ congresses.
The chairperson, State Congress Appeal Committee for Lagos State, Fatima Umar, had to appeal at a special meeting with party chieftains to resolve all fallouts from its October 16 state congress at the party’s secretariat on Acme Road, Ikeja, Lagos last Monday.
The splinter groups within the Lagos APC held parallel ward, LGA and state congresses between July 31, September 4 and October 16, respectively, thereby producing separate lists of party executives.
Speaking, the leader of one of the factional groups, Mr Fouad Oki, said that if nothing is done about the grievances and fallouts from the various state congresses, they might affect the outcome of the 2023 general elections in the state.
Mr Oki expressed hope that the committee chairperson would keep her promise to look at the process, the law guiding the process and the party’s constitution.
He said all aggrieved groups were trying to exhaust all conflict resolution mechanisms before taking the next action.
Also, Jimi Shobayo of the Conscience Forum, another aggrieved group within the party, told the committee that there were contending factions in the state chapter of the party and he called for fairness, equity and justice.
Mr Shobayo lamented that various aggrieved groups within the party had not received the results of the ward and local government congresses set up by the national headquarters of the party.
“Let justice and equity be the watchword. What we are contending for is that there must be inclusiveness in the Lagos APC.
“The APC in Lagos is one big family and what we are seeing today are minor issues and I believe they can be resolved. We are open to reconciliation,” he said.
Also speaking, Sunday Ajayi, of the Lagos4Lagos Movement, another splinter group in the party, expressed doubt that the members would get fair treatment.
He said his group was not pleased with the constitution of groups invited for the meeting by the committee.
“We want the committee to sit tight and have a rethink. We have presented our petitions,” Ajayi said.
Analysts see the silence of the aggrieved members in various states and their non submission of petitions to the appeal committees as a way of showing their lack of confidence in the committees.
On his part, a former Legal Adviser of the APC, Dr Muiz Banire, speaking on a Television programme, said mass defections were imminent in the party.
Banire hinted that the factions that were not recognised by the national leadership of the APC might be forced to exit the party.
Speaking on Sunday Politics, a current affairs programme broadcast on Channels Television, Banire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, recalled predicting the present development in the APC.
Banire said, “The implication is simple: That is factionalisation of the party all over. It started from the ward congresses, through the local government (area congresses) to the state (congresses). It is unlikely or unexpected that, even at the national convention, you are likely to have the same thing. If you recall vividly, a few months ago, I predicted it that it would happen. Certainly, the implosion, in my very strong view, is inevitable.”
According to him, most of the people that are already outside or declared to be outside by the party will “find their way elsewhere…to another platform.”
Also speaking, the former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, has hinted that a former APC governor and some bigwigs will soon defect from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party.
Saraki, who made this known last Tuesday in an interview on Arise Television, said many members of the APC had concluded plans to defect to the Peoples Democratic Party, ahead of the 2023 general election. Former Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State on Thursday defected from the Labour Party to the PDP.
He also hinted that there would be a gale of defections this week. He said, “We have the potential to turn the country around and that is why I believe that with the right leadership, things can change in the country. I often say that no one can give whatever he does not have. In 2023, we have to get it right and to do that, we need the right kind of leadership.
“There were some governors who already knew that they would leave. We were not surprised that they defected to the APC. Since then, we have had some bigwigs that joined us. This week, there is a former governor that is going to join our party, the PDP.
“Aside from that, we know that some of the leaders of the ruling party will not defect early. They will do it late. You saw that during the 2015 election. So, keep watching. Nigerians will not be surprised when they begin to see some defections from the ruling party to the PDP.”
It would also be recalled that before the state congresses were held on October 16, 2021, grievances arising from the ward and local government congresses had earlier widened cracks within the APC, which is already grappling with a leadership crisis at the national level.
The parallel state congresses led to the emergence of two different party chairmen and executive committees in some state chapters of the APC.
The states where parallel congresses were held included Enugu, Ogun, Osun, Kwara, Akwa Ibom, Kano, Niger, Lagos and Abia.
In Enugu, parallel congresses were the outcome of a lingering supremacy battle between the foundation APC members led by the state chairman, Ben Nwoye and the Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, Mr Osita Okechukwu, and the newcomers, led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and a former Senate President, Ken Nnamani. A former governor of Enugu State Sullivan Chime is also in the camp of the newcomers.
The foundation members have been resisting attempts by the newcomers, most of who defected from the PDP, to take over the APC in Enugu State.
The minister’s camp held its state congress at the Bush House Event Centre in Enugu, where Ugo Agballah was announced as the new state chairman.
But a different state chairman emerged from the congress conducted by the Nwoye’s camp.
The parallel congresses in Ogun State were organised by the two factions – the group led by former Governor Ibikunle Amosun and another by his successor, Dapo Abiodun.
While Abiodun’s camp held its congress at the MKO Abiola Stadium, where Yemi Sanusi was declared the new APC state chairman, Amosun’s faction held its congress at Ake Palace Ground.
The Amosun camp announced Derin Adebiyi as the new Ogun State APC chairman.
The parallel congresses in Akwa Ibom State was the result of an ongoing struggle for supremacy and control between the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio and the National Secretary of the APC Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, (CECPC), Akpan Udoedehe.
Akpabio’s loyalists held a congress at Kara Event Centre, where a new state APC executive committee was elected.
Another Akwa Ibom State APC executive committee emerged at the congress held by Udoedehe’s camp at Sheer Grace Centre in Uyo.
Osun State also witnessed a parallel state congress. Loyalists of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, otherwise known as Ileri Oluwa Group, elected a new state party executive led by Gboyega Famodun as Chairman.
The faction loyal to Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola known as The Osun Progressives, TOP also conducted its own congress, where a different party executive was elected.
Two APC factions in Abia State held parallel congresses in Umuahia, the state capital, where two different state party executive committees and chairmen emerged. The factions are separately led by a former governorship candidate, Ikechi Emenike and the Abia State APC Caretaker Committee Chairman, Donatus Nwankpa.
In Kwara State, the Minister of Infromation, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Governor Abdulrahaman Abdulrazaq staged parallel state congresses in Ilorin, the state capital. Both parallel congresses produced two different executives.
Whilst Sunday Fagbemi was announced as the new Chairman of APC in Kwara State at the congress conducted by the governor’s camp, Bashir Bolarinwa emerged the new chairman of the party in Kwara State from Lai Mohammed’s camp.
The parallel congresses recorded in the October 16 APC state congresses is seen by political analysts as a direct consequence of cracks already existing within the party.
Genesis Of The Crisis
At the national level, the APC is led by a caretaker committee – the Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) – which was set up in the absence of an elected party executive committee after the sack of Adams Oshiomhole – led National Working Committee in 2020.
The CECPC is headed by Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State.
Mai Mala Buni’s dual role as governor and caretaker chairman is at the root of the APC national leadership crisis.
Watchers of political developments in the country are aware that the APC is currently grappling with a national leadership crisis that is centred on the constitutionality of Buni’s dual role as state governor and chairman of the party’s caretaker committee.
The Supreme Court had on July 28, 2021, while delivering judgment in the petition filed by the PDP candidate in last year’s Ondo State governorship election, Eyitayo Jegede, against the election of Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu of the APC, noted that Buni’s position as party chairman was not in compliance with the provisions of Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution stated: “The governor shall not, during the period when he holds office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever.”
It would also be recalled that a group known as Concerned APC Stakeholders, who believed that the Supreme Court pronouncement rendered Buni’s leadership illegal, had called for the dissolution of the APC caretaker committee.
The group also asked for the nullification of ward congresses earlier organised by the caretaker committee on July 31.
But governors elected on the platform of the party, under the aegis of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), backed the Buni-led CECPC and endorsed the ward congresses organised by the caretaker committee.
In September, a Delta State High Court sitting in Asaba restrained Buni from acting or parading as chairman of the caretaker committee until the determination of a substantive suit before the court.
The court, presided over by Justice Onome Umukoro, also stopped the APC Local Government Congress in Delta State scheduled for September 4, 2021.
Buni has, however, continued to function as the APC caretaker chairman, despite all the hue and cry by some members.
Aside the Appeal Committees set up to look into the crisis in the various state chapters of the APC had on October 11 2021 inaugurated a National Reconciliation Committee.
The members of the committee include the Minister of Special Duties and former governor of Benue State, George Akume; former governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon.Yakubu Dogara and a former governor of Jigawa State, Saad Birnin Kudu.
Will the reconciliation team be able to bring peace to the party and save it from the looming implosion?
Speaking with THEWILL, a public affairs analyst based in Abuja, Paul James, described the task before the reconciliation committee as herculean.
“It will be difficult to achieve peace. The crisis is all over. You are talking of crisis in almost 10 states or more. Most of the problems are local. Implosion is imminent unless serious reconciliation takes place at all levels and strata of the party”, he said.
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.
