Penultimate week, the leadership of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) made good its threat to suspend erring party stalwarts for alleged anti-party activities. In this piece, ANDREW ESSIEN x-rays the immediate and future implications of the suspension
Immediately after assuming the reigns of leadership as national chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole read what can be seen as the guiding principles that will govern his National Working Committee (NWC); a riot act of some sorts.
One of the high notes he struck while addressing the staff of the secretariat upon his assumption of duties was that the party, under him, must return to party discipline. This cord, resonated with most APC stalwarts who had believed that the party had strayed under the Oyegun era. Many were of the opinion that the lack of discipline was in part, responsible for the divisions in the party and the subsequent internal squabbles that preceded the election of Comrade Oshiomhole as chairman.
Hence, his declaration that he would champion the cause of party discipline was an announcement that a new sheriff was in town.
The first casualty(s) to test the fiery dart of the new party leadership was the Minister of Labour. Even though the issues were allegedly resolved, it was an indication of the gathering clouds especially in the weeks and months to follow. Primaries were to commence, interests and tempers were sure to rise.
Interestingly, Oshiomhole is not new to crisis bedevilling the party he is now leading. In fact, like the mountain of Gibraltar, he was inundated with real issues on the ground from day one. Incidentally, the new chairman, on his first full day in office, was greeted with one of such issues he and this team will have to deal with for a while.
To celebrate his victory at the convention, he received two factions of the party from Taraba State, who came on a solidarity visit. Each group as vivacious as the other. The factions, one led by the then Minister for Women Affairs, Hajia Amina Alhassan and another by Senator Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, came minutes apart and pledged support for the new leadership even as they tasked the new chairman to resolve contending issues within the party.
Even though he tried to calm things down, the new national chairman had already set the tone on how his chairmanship would be defined.
Addressing party staff at the secretariat, Oshiomhole said: “And above all, when we talk of party supremacy, it can only be operative if there are organs of the party meeting to take decisions on variety of policies and when we take decisions like that, for example in the National Executive Council NEC meetings and the president is seated, if the president violates or acts in contravention of a decision taken by NEC, even the president can be accused of anti-party activity because it is a party decision. The same thing goes for the National Assembly (members)”.
This statement was put to test after the party primaries for elective positions as issues of interest would clash with party position, thus setting the stage for the eruption of crisis with volcanic effects.
Among those worthy of mention will be the issues arising from the governorship primaries in Imo, Zamfara and Ogun states.
The state governors affected governors are all in their second term with that of Zamfara being Chairman of Nigeria’s Governors Forum (NGF). One would have thought that these states would be a given for the APC, where a template would be set for other states to key in as regards succession and retention of the state in the party’s fold.
The governor of Imo state and chairman, APC governors forum, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has picked his Son-in-law, Ogumba Uche Nwosu, as his successor and he has made no bones about it. The party will not have that. Nwosu has left the APC, joined another party, emerged as its governorship candidate and enjoys the support of the governor against the governorship candidate of the APC, Senator Hope Nzodimma. In Ogun State, the case is the same. Governor Ibikunle Amosun, a personal friend of President Muhammadu Buhari, also has a preferred candidate who did not scale through the APC primaries. He is in another party and enjoys the support of the governor, a card-carrying member of the APC. The party is not comfortable with this arrangement.
The Director General, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, a staunch partyman vied for the Senatorial ticket of his party but lost out in the primaries. He is alleged to be working for another candidate other than that of the APC in the forthcoming governorship poll in the state.
In February, the leadership of the APC gave an indication of what was to come when it handed down warnings to persons it considered were going against the it’s interests in their areas of ‘command’, stressing that it would not hesitate to hand down punitive measures upon completion of investigation. It also added that should they be found guilty, they would risk being suspended.
In a statement issued after the presidential rally in Ogun, where party leaders were petaled in the presence of the President and his Vice President, the party fingered Governor Amosun as being responsible for the turn out of events.
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“The All Progressives Congress (APC) regrets the premeditated attacks sponsored by Governor Ibikunle Amosun on President Muhammadu Buhari and other senior party leaders at the venue of the presidential campaign rally in Ogun State. This is one act of indiscipline too many. The APC will not condone acts of indiscipline, indiscretion and anti-party activities from any party member no matter how highly placed.
“The party will review this gross misconduct of deliberately positioning thugs to attack and embarrass the President and the party’s leadership. The party will take a decision on this matter immediately after the elections.
It must be stated that party supremacy and discipline according to our constitution are not matters of choice but binding principles which must be adhered to by All party members.
“The APC is a party known for discipline, justice, fairness and equality hence any plan to destroy what this party stands for would be rejected. No single person will be allowed to put his personal and selfish interests ahead of the wishes of the people of Ogun state and elsewhere.
“Post primaries, the decision of the National Working Committee to uphold the wishes of party members is unbendable. Therefore, whatever means being presently deployed by persons intending to undermine the wishes of the people for personal gains will not be tolerated”, it quoted.
Many had thought it was just a rhetoric as the persons involved were senior party members, all having various degree of access to the president. Others had posited that it was one fight the national chairman will to lose. However, the party, last Friday carried out its threat to severely penalise erring party stakeholders even as it suspended Ibikunle Amosun and Rochas Okorocha, governors of Ogun and Imo states receptively, from the party. The NWC also went a step further to recommended their expulsion from APC to the national executive committee (NEC) for ratification. This is coming against the backdrop that both Governors Amosun and Okorocha were just recently elected on the APC’s platform to represent their constituencies in the Senate. The decisions taken at the NWC meeting in Abuja where allegations of “anti-party activities” were levelled the governors. Amosun and Okorocha were both elected senators on the platform of APC on Saturday but they are backing different candidates for the March 9 governorship election.
“In Enugu, the VON DG was accused of working for the re-election of the PDP candidate who is the incumbent governor”.
In a statement signed by the APC national publicity secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the Ondo governor, Rotimi Akeredolu however escaped with a query letter. The statement reads in part: “The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has suspended the Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun and the Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha for anti-party activities.
“Also suspended by the APC NWC over anti-party activities are the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani and the Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu.
“The NWC has also taken a decision to recommend the expulsion of the suspended individuals to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party. The NWC would also issue a query to the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu over his glaring anti-party activities, which greatly affected the fortunes of our candidates in the recently-conducted Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
“The party reviewed the serial anti-party activities of the concerned individuals before and during the last Presidential and National Assembly elections in their respective states and resolved to enforce party discipline in line with our constitution. The NWC noted how the suspended members have continued to campaign openly for other parties and candidates that are unknown to our great party, even while they have constituted themselves as opposition to APC candidates in their respective states.
“Importantly, the NWC is closely monitoring the activities of our members across the country, and particularly, in the states these suspended members belong to. We wish to reiterate that any member of our party who takes any action solely or in line with the directives of the suspended members to undermine our party’s candidates in the coming governorship and House of Assembly elections would face disciplinary actions. “Consequently, the NWC calls on our members to disregard directives and actions of the suspended individuals as APC would continue to live by the dictate of our constitution.”
The debate as to whether the party leadership had exhausted all mechanisms of resolving all contending issues arising from its primaries is now the question on everyone’s lips. Could there have been any other way without leading to this? Certainly, the persons involved in this evolving saga, are no mean persons within the party and in their states, but of more importance is adherrance to party rules and recognition of its supremacy.
The party must now make spirited efforts in ensuring that cooler-heads prevail and create the enabling environment for stalwarts to close ranks even as new alliances are being forged.
Already, the various opposition parties are making quick gains, strategising and preparing adequately for any eventuality. With the raison d’etre of any political party being to win popular elections, it is imperative for any serious political party to maintain a high sense of internal discipline if it will stand the test of time, with the highest chances of bringing electoral victory in any election. This is why the process of ensuring party discipline must be done after due consultation with relevant organs, guided be constitution in a critical time such as this.
