Like the proverbial lizard that fell from the iroko, he would also beat his chest in self-adulation as he recounts his achievements as national chairman of the ruling party. He would say, “If for no other thing, my tenure witnessed massive influx of quality politicians into the APC, and I led the party to victory in 2015 when we made history as the first political party in Nigeria to defeat an incumbent president.”
The story is, however, different for his successor, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, whose barely-one-month-old tenure as national chairman of the ruling party has witnessed exodus of tsunamic proportions, with many more defections projected to be on the way. Maybe it is too early in the day to conclude, but there are some who believe that much of what APC laboured to achieve in the past few years may have been rolled back already, and by the time Oshiomhole’s tenure is over, nothing would be left of the ruling party.
That these defections may have been conceived long before Oshiomhole took over the mantle as APC national chairman is not in doubt. As Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha put it in a statement issued by his chief press secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, a few days back, “What is happening in the party now could not have been planned and executed within these few weeks Oshiomhole took over as the national chairman of the party.”
Some political pundits, however, say they had expected that the former Edo State governor would have used his much-touted negotiating skills to halt the mass exodus. Rather, he was said to have dashed the hopes of many that he would reconcile the various factions across the states who felt short-changed by their governors at the party congresses. That these defections occurred in spite of Oshiomhole being in charge is, therefore, seen by many as a failure on the part of the new national chairman.
The reasons are not far-fetched. Among the justifications given for President Muhammadu Buhari’s preference for Oshiomhole for the position of APC national chairman include his wealth of knowledge and political experience.
Oshiomhole, one of the founding members of APC who contributed to the merger process, was seen by his keen supporters as “a hard-nosed, pragmatic, hands-on campaigner who talks a good game and who can rally support for an incumbent who will need all the support he can get ahead of a major election season”.
So, ahead of the APC national convention, not only President Buhari but also Bola Tinubu, national leader of the party, APC state governors and many party heavyweights had thrown their collective weight behind Oshiomhole, putting immense pressure on the other contestants, former Cross River State Governor Clement Ebiri and former Edo State Governor Oserheimen Osunbor, to shelve their ambition.
Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu had said Oshiomhole was “experienced in various aspects of national life” and had had “collective experience in the recent past as governor of Edo State, one of the most successful leaders of trade union, and a democratic activist all his life”.
“These qualities will be brought to bear in achieving the ideals of the APC. So, we believe he will be a leader, he will be the embodiment of the spirit of the party and the experience will help him to make the party grow,” Bagudu had said.
On his part, Governor Okorocha had affirmed that the former labour leader had the credentials to lead the party to success in 2019.
“I have no doubts in my mind that Oshiomhole when elected will show the way. Oshiomhole’s coming in as national chairman of APC is bad news to other political parties. Adams Oshiomhole is a dogged fighter, a man who can face challenges, and I have no doubt that you will strengthen APC when elected,” Okorocha had said in a goodwill message delivered when Oshiomhole formally declared his interest to contest for the party chairmanship.
“Today, our party is going through some challenges and I must commend those who helped fight for this party even before this time; they have done well, but the fight ahead, the challenges ahead, are greater and we need great men like Adams Oshiomole to do this job,” he had said.
Some others had also pointed to Oshiomhole’s persuasive powers and negotiating skills which, they said, would be indispensible in resolving the long-drawn internal crisis as well as the fractured relations that had characterised the party after its congresses.
“He is a tested administrator. He had led what could pass as the strongest union in the country, the NLC, through challenging times and he was able to make his mark as a good leader,” Chris Oguoma, then a factional chairman of APC in Imo State, had said.
“As the governor of Edo State, he also left a solid imprint. Without mincing words, he is the best man to lead our party at this point in its history. We need his experience to bring the party together again, to heal the party and position it for greater successes in the future,” Oguoma had said.
Oshiomhole himself had also referred to his ability to listen, manage divergences, and exercise persuasive powers and negotiating skills, all of which he said he learnt as a labour union leader.
He had also promised, among other things, to work for the unity of the party, “reposition the party for a united Nigeria”, “ensure proper management of the party”, and “provide leadership that will be firm, fair, just, transparent, faithful, and loyal to the members of the party”.
But now the time has come to put those skills to the test, Oshiomhole seems to have been found wanting. Rather, he is now being seen as a tactless, impatient, and undiplomatic leader, an attack-dog, and an undertaker who has come to nail the coffin of APC.
When an aggrieved faction of the APC, made up of mostly former PDP chieftains who had joined the party in 2014 under the auspices of the nPDP, formed the Reformed APC (R-APC) and threatened to leave the ruling party, Oshiomhole described them as mercenaries, said he was not threatened by them and would not lose sleep over their threats, and that he had been engaging the “real stakeholders” in trying to resolve the crisis in the party.
Following the first batch of defections in the National Assembly on July 24, in which the APC lost a total of 15 senators (one later went back home) and 37 members of the House of Representatives, Oshiomhole bragged that he would not lose sleep over the incident.
Speaking after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Oshiomhole said the defecting lawmakers were masquerades with little or no electoral value to the party and that their defection would not affect President Buhari’s chances in the 2019 elections.
Reacting to Oshiomhole’s comment, Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State and one of the defecting senators, told the APC chairman not to conclude in a hurry as 2019 would tell.
“Let me remind him on how Kwankwaso nearly emerged the APC presidential flag-bearer in 2015, which clearly shows how popular Kwankwaso is. It is not a fiction that Kwankwaso in 2015 APC primaries in Lagos came second to Buhari which shows clearly in Nigerian politics he is a force to be reckoned with,” said Kwankwaso, who spoke through his aide, Binta Sipikin.
“Let me say clearly that by 2019, we will show to the whole world that Kwankwaso is truly a force to reckon with when it comes to Nigerian politics,” he said.
But before the dust would settle on the first set of defections, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, who had been on a back-and-forth over his fate in the APC, finally left the ruling for the PDP carrying with him some members of the state assembly, commissioners, and local government chairmen.
Despite his grandstanding, Oshiomhole’s response to Ortom’s exit from the APC did not show a man who was not losing sleep over the defections from his party. The same man who had only a few days earlier rained encomiums on Ortom made an automatic volte-face and said Ortom was the worst thing to have happened to the Benue people.
Just last week, another gale of earth-shaking defections hit the ruling party and by the time it was over, APC big-wigs like Senate President Bukola Saraki, Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Nigerian Ambassador to South Africa Ahmed Ibeto, APC National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi, along with with their coterie of supporters and loyalists were in the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Again, Oshiomhole’s reaction has shown a man whose sleep has been cut short even if he pretends not to be aware of it. Just a few days back, he called on Saraki to vacate his seat as Senate president since he was no longer in the APC. He even said there was no difference between a senator, a president, a journalist and any other person since it is one man, one vote on election day – as if oblivious of the crowd a top-ranking politician can control in a country like Nigeria.
But not only Oshiomhole, the ruling party has gone into overdrive holding several frantic meetings behind closed doors. Even some agencies under the control of the APC-led Federal Government have been unleashed to hound some of the defectors, including being brazenly used in failed impeachment attempts.
But assuming that Oshiomhole is truly not losing sleep, perhaps, it is time for him to really forget about sleep at all and spend his nights working out how to gather up what is left of the APC. If not, he may wake up from his slumber someday soon to realise that the party he was elected its national chairman on June 24, 2018 has become a crumbled pack of cards.
CHUKS OLUIGBO
