All Progressives Congress (APC), National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole is facing criticism from foes in his own backyard. In this report, Moshood Adeoye examines his prospect in the stormy political wind.
It began like a little breeze, then it turned into a wind, now it is looking like a whirlwind.
Forces against the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), resurfaced last week when hundreds of protesters stormed Abuja calling for his exit. The protest was preceded by scathing criticisms from APC members some of who made veiled reference to his removal.
Known for his tradition of radical politics, it was not difficult for Oshiomhole, a former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), to organize a counter attack spurring a rally in his favour in Abuja few days later. The protesters praised his ” courage and raw determination to re-position the ruling party.”
This was followed by a string of social media buzz and press blitzkriegs rallying support for the embattled party leader.
In the past few weeks, Oshiomhole had been sighted shuffling between the party secretariat and the Presidency where he had met twice with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The simmering crisis is coming in less than five months into the Presidential election slated for the first quarter of next year. The feud is also brewing less than five months after the new leadership had emerged after an internal power struggle that nearly tore the party into shreds.
His Chief Press Secretary to Oshiomhole, Mr Simon Ebegbulem said some top APC chiefs were ganging up against the former labour leader whose entry into the foray as the new national chairman saw rare enthusiasm among party leaders who had watched in awe as the party’s fortunes floundered under the leadership of former National Chairman, Chief Odigie Oyegun.
Soon after the Presidential election in 2015, signs that the APC would witness major upheavals began when the current Senate President Bukola Saraki emerged through subterfuge to the consternation of many party leaders.
Less than two years after, a major pillar of the party, Atiku Abubakar left. Saraki and three state governors of Kwara, Benue and Sokoto later joined the exit door.
Some argue that Oshiomhole came at a period of serious internal wrangling within the party and that there was no way he could have fixed the mayhem without stepping on toes.
What appears to have prompted the fresh accusation was the recently held party primary.
Initially, Oshiomhole insisted on direct primary which many of the state governors opposed. The pressure compelled him to chose a middle course ordering states to adopt stratagem that best suites them.
Leading the opposition against Oshiomhole were the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and the Zamfara State Governor, Abdullaziz Yari.
The two had lost out in the board room politics of succession in their respective states. Both Yari and Amosun wanted their cronies to fill the state and federal constituencies with the best route to this plot being indirect primary which observers say appears easier to manipulate.
Again, some members of the party at the National Assembly wanted to be returned without primary being conducted. Oshiomhole had said he would wish to see party loyalists rewarded.
This was widely interpreted to mean granting automatic tickets to favorites who stood behind the party in moments of internal schisms.
Former APC Presidential aspirant, though unseeded, Alhaji Mummakai Ungha had accused the APC chairman of double standards and of making conscious attempts to scuttle the party’s democratic credentials.
In his response, Ebegbulem said ‘the totality of Unagha’s claims without necessarily addressing them one after the other tallies with cooked-up narratives being sponsored by some influential stakeholders in their respective states that Comrade Oshiomhole is responsible for all the problems in the APC at the moment.”
He said further “Although it might appear fortuitous to some people that he became national chairman at the threshold of the 2019 general elections, the truth is that there is no accident in predestination.”
Oshiomhole said the purpose of his renaissance has begun to manifest in its vast flourish and ramifications through “instilling discipline, ensuring party supremacy, promoting due process, dealing with impunity and executive arrogance wherever they manifest to undermine intra-party electoral processes in the states.”
Senators Ovie Omo Agege (Delta-Central) and Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara-Central) in separate interviews said Oshiomhole has met the aspirations of the party.
Omo Agege said “All I know is that the National Chairman has tried his best to carry out the instruction of the Presidency to the effect that all Senators who are loyal and have continues to be loyal to Mr President who want to return to the National Assembly be assisted in their efforts to return to the National Assembly And I know that the national chairman has tried his best to see that that is the case.”
Marafa said “I’m fully satisfied with the national leadership of the APC handled the issue of primaries in Zamfara. But what I’m not satisfied with is the assertion that there was consensus when primaries failed. That is what I don’t agree with because there was no consensus. There were no primaries and there was no consensus.”
Oshiomhole’s intervention is viewed as progressive by a section of the party’s leadership.
Direct primary they argue is inclusive and presents the greatest test of the party’s democratic credentials. They also insist that indirect primary would have made the situation worse for the APC.
Observers think Oshiomhole actually inherited a party almost in a state of disrepair. “He was like a mechanic invited to fix a car grounded for four years. It was not an easy task”, said Sola Ajayi, leader of Liberty Forum, a pro- APC concern. He told Newdawnngr that “There was no way he would deal with the problems without making some enemies ”
To him, the APC is like a fruitful tree that will necessarily attract the biggest stone haul.
Ajayi said “When a party has great potentials, people will scramble to be part of it. The party looks good wining the 2019 elections, that is why there is so much tussle within and without.”
Some analyst think it is better for the party to sustain the present leadership since any crisis at this time has the capacity of damaging the potentials of the party at the 2019 poll.
