|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is now confirmed to be suffering from immense internal paralysis arising from its failure to resolve its contradictions. The party is in desperate search of measures to redeem itself and reassure Nigerians that it is still the party to beat in 2019 election.
The APC has hardly grappled with the fallouts of its shambolic and violent ward congresses on Saturday May 6, and barely two weeks after,it organized another spiteful state congresses in some of the states, which haveprobably set the party on highway to political Golgotha.
Apart from few instances of peaceful and harmonious congresses in Edo, Enugu,Katsinaand Borno states,the news across the states depicts a picture of a proliferation of parallel state congresses that produced parallel executives in about 10 states, deepening the confusion in the party.
In Ondo State, the battle of wits between the StateGovernor, RotimiAkeredolu and his detractors set perhaps the most visible theater of the absurd. The Ondo State debacle was shaped by the division between Governor RotimiAkeredolu and some National Assembly members and other stakeholders, which escalated to violence that led to the beating of as several journalists, politicians and observers by thugs.
A member of the House of Representatives, BamideleBaderinwa, was allegedly stripped naked and attacked with machetes by the thugs at a rival congress. Even Osun State Commissioner for Regional Integration, Bola Ilori, who is from the state, was not spared as the thugsinflicted injuries on him.
The Lagos chapter of the congress attended by Vice President YemiOsinbajo, National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor AkinwunmiAmbode and all National Assembly and state legislators elected a new state executive with AlhajiBabatundeBalogun emerging as Chairman. However, aggrieved members of the party have allegedly rejected the outcome.
The absurdity then eclipsed Imo as Governor RochasOkorocha, the acclaimed kingpin of the APC in the South East,got battered by his opponents, who allegedly trounced him totally. The anti- Okorocha group led by his deputy UcheMadumere, had ignored a last-minute court order to elect a new executive for the state chapter of the party.
A furious Okorocha is reportedly confused and is said to be running from pillar to post to seek salvation for his political fortunes in the state while in neighboring Ebonyi, parallel congresses were held with loyalists of the Minister of Science and Technology, OgbonnayaOnu, and those of Senator Julius Ucha meeting in two different locations.
The Delta and Rivers states episodes were full of intrigues as the OlorogunOtegaEmerhorled group in Delta was defeated after his one-time ally, Jones Erue, was returned as Chairman in a congress organized by the Great Ogboru/OvieOmo-Agege group despite announcements that the congress had been postponed.
The drama extended to Oyo state where the bickering between state governor AbiolaAjimobiand Minister of Communications, Adebayo produced yet another parallel congresses. Governor Ajimobi led his loyalist to state congress at the Lekan Salami Stadium , Adamasingba, Ibadan, where he was joined by supporters from the national secretariat, were former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, former Senate leader, Senator TeslimFolarin, Senator FataiBuhar, Chief AdeniyiAkintola(SAN), Prince AkeemAdeyemi reportedly held a parallel congress.
Shittu, on the other hand took his loyalists to the popular Liberty Stadium, where he was joined by Senator MonsuratSunmonu, BusariAdebisi, AdeoluAkande, and Ismail Adebayo Adewusi, among others. In Kwara another parallel congress also emerged just as Adamawa state witnessed its own confusion as elements loyal to Governor Mohammed Jibrilla and his predecessor, MurtalaNyakomheld parallel congresses.
The National leadership of the party had come up with a veiled threat saying that it will not accept the results of those it did not commissioned to carry out the exercise. But analysts believe that this development will disorganize the party and may lead to implosion and massive exodus from the party.
Speaking to BusinessDay, on why the APC is fracturing over some discrepancies, a director of Organisation and Operation at the Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM), KhairatAnimasheun, said “what made APC become APC was the merger and in the merger all the parties submitted their individual certificates and lost their identities.
“But before doing that the APC did not sit down to agree on who does what and the terms of execution of their manifesto. So they have been strange bedfellows in the same cocoon and that is the reason they have not been able to work together and that has affected the governance in Nigeria.”
The Director of the Centre for China Studies, Charles Onunaiju, who is also, a political affairs analyst, said “What is happening in APC today is not surprising, judging by its formation. What crystalized the party is not common ideology but the enthusiasm to capture power and appropriate national resources. Some of them have felt left out and that is why the grievances and desperation are manifesting in different ways.”
A chieftain of the party who does not want his name on print blamed President MuhammaduBuhari for allegedly creating disaffection in the party with the way he runs party and national affairs. He said “if only President Buhari had not shown overt favoritism and clannishness, the party might have been saved from these multiple crises.”
So this was the level into which the party had degenerated and signs are that the party’s national convention scheduled for June is already primed to fail because the party from inception had no sound ideology and philosophical framework upon which it united for purposeful leadership.
