The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has faced many travails just as it made some triumphs during the one year reign of Adams Oshiomhole in the saddle as the party’s National Chairman.
Oshiomhole was declared National Chairman of APC on June 24, 2018 by Abubakar Badaru, governor of Jigawa State and chairman of the 2018 national convention in which the former Edo State governor was the only person contesting for the position.
Badaru had declared that, “Adams Oshiomhole has been returned unopposed for the position of national chairman, there will be no election. So, I will ask you if you affirm him as chairman, you answer ‘affirm’ or say ‘aye’ when I ask for affirmation”.
At least three aspirants, Osareimen Osunbor, former governor of Edo State, Clement Ebri, former governor of Cross River State and Ibrahim Emokpai had contested against Oshiomhole but withdrew from race at the twilight of the convention.
The elated new APC Chairman in his inaugural speech promised to rebuild and reposition the party ahead of 2019 general election.
He pledged that under his leadership, the APC would support the three arms of government and ensure cordial relationship among them.
“We have come in to build on what we met and to reposition our party as we approach 2019. We want to go beyond being electoral platform to a party that is guided by its Constitution and manifesto”, Oshiomhole asserted.
Soon after Oshiomhole assumed office, APC was plunged into crises contrary to his pledge but in confirmation of the predictions of Kawu Baraje, then leader of the New People’s Democratic Party bloc within the APC and Dino Melaye, lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District who was still a member of the APC that the party was heading to doom with Oshiomhole in the saddle.
Baraje said the foundation of the convention which produced Oshiomhole was shaky as it was held despite the fact that there were lawsuits in Courts against the party arising from parallel congresses in over 18 states of the federation, a signal for serious crises.
Melaye on the other hand described the ascendance of the former Edo State governor to the coveted seat of APC National Chairman as the beginning of the “political obituary” of the party.
Barely one month of Oshiomhole Chairmanship, was APC hit by a political tsunami in which about 20 Senators and 40 members of the House of Representatives dumped the party for the main opposition People’s Democratic Party.
The defection of the lawmakers was swiftly followed by a mother of all defections led by the then President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Ahmed Abdulfatah of Kwara State and Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State with thousands of their supporters and subsequently, Yakubu Dogara, then Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Almost all the defectors cited crises and injustice in the APC with fingers pointed at the National Chairman as the reasons for their defections but Oshiomhole remained unperturbed and rather claimed he was not losing sleep as the defectors were big masquerades without political value.
His reaction to the gale of defections was that, “this party that I am privileged to chair is not worried at all, we are not disturbed. I am not going to miss my sleep and we will go into the campaign.
“Check the electoral results, you will find that a lot of those who claimed to have defected, on a good day, the votes they got that made them members of the Senate, our President got much more votes in their constituencies. So, we are not fooled at all”.
After the defections, came the acrimonious primaries following the introduction of the direct method in which all registered party members participate in the nomination of candidates unlike the indirect method where only selected delegates vote.
Though some states insisted and adopted the indirect method, there were crises as other factions used the direct approach leading to parallel primaries that leave sour taste in the mouth of the party during and after the elections.
The direct primaries pitched many governors, ministers and senators who were stripped of powers of selecting delegates that could do their biddings via indirect primary against Oshiomhole leading to political overheat in APC.
Noted victims were then Governors Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State who lost second term ticket, Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun and Rochas Okorocha of Imo whose governorship candidates, lost primary elections; Abduraziz Yari of Zamafara State.
Particularly, Yari Senatorial primaries and his candidates for other elections were rejected by the Independent National Electoral (INEC) and their victories at the general elections recently overturned by the Supreme Court, making Zamfara a PDP State against the wishes of APC stakeholders, particularly those from the North.
Another episode was the Rivers State primary elections in which the Rotimi Amaechi, former Minister of Transportation-led faction and that of the Magnus Abe, then senator for Rivers South East conducted parallel primaries, a development that denied APC in the state the opportunity to field candidates for the 2019 general election, causing the party 100percent failure in the oil-rich state.
The crisis-ridden party primaries superintended by Oshiomhole has caused APC untold set back particularly to the extent that there have been calls for the removal of the former labour leader.
For instance, Lawal Shuaibu, APC Deputy National Chairman (North) in a letter demanded for nothing less than Oshiomhole’s resignation, accusing him of the party’s woes since 2018, culminating in loss of some states to the PDP, especially the Zamfara saga.
“It is my honest opinion that your ability to ensure this party flourishes is deficient as you lack the necessary composure and you also don’t possess the capabilities and the requisite experience to run a political party.
“I want to advise you to take the path of honour, to step aside and allow the party to embark on the onerous task of reconstruction and rehabilitation in those states it was weakened by the effect of the last primary election exercises.
“Or even the task of recreating the party where it is on the path of extinction, arising from the loss of a sitting APC Government, for example in Zamfara State, where you directly personally created the problem leading to the painful complete loss of APC’s electoral fortunes.
“From up to down, all these are uncontestable facts. You cannot exonerate yourself from what happened to APC (in) Zamfara State, thereby destroying the hopes and aspirations of 534,541 APC members and supporters”.
Be that as it may, credit to Oshiomhole, he had in the last one year of his stewardship led APC to victory in the 2019 general election as the party’s Presidential Candidate, Muhammadu Buhari was declared winner by INEC having scored 15. 2 million votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP who scored 10.8 million votes.
Also, APC under Oshiomhole won majority of seats in the National Assembly with 63 senators and 190 Members of the House of Representatives while it clung governorship slots in 15 states but the Zamfara ruling brought it to 14 out of the 29 states where governorship elections were held.
Again, the combatant National Chairman ensured that the party’s preferred candidates emerged presiding officers of the 9th National Assembly unlike in 2015 when forces outside APC infiltrated its ranks to produce leadership of the 8th Assembly against the party’s choice.
James Kwen, Abuja
