APC had a smooth birth when the defunct major political parties, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC and a faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, agreed to dissolve and form the new mega opposition party at the time.
However, no sooner had the new party applied for registration from the Independent National electoral Commission, INEC, than it faced its first major battle.
Some politicians had already approached the electoral umpire to register another party, African Peoples Congress, APC, with a view to frustrating the registration of the new mega opposition party.
After winning the acronym war, the new party was now faced with the “crisis” of forming interim executives and some of the defunct parties were insisting on producing some of the “juicy” leadership positions. The party successfully weathered that storm and came out stronger and more united.
However, “crisis” was soon to return when some erstwhile leaders of the legacy parties felt that they were short-changed when the APC eventually decided to hold its first national convention to elect party executives.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tom Ikimi, who hosted most of the meetings of the merger committee prior to registration, was “schemed” out of becoming the party’s first elected national chairman.
Others such as the current governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El Rufai, who had also signified intention to emerge the national secretary was “zoned” out of the position. The same thing applied to one of the formidable members of the party at the time, Ismail Ahmed, who was equally “zoned” out of consideration.
Yet another crisis that the APC successfully surmounted was the fallout of the defection of five governors from the PDP into its fold in 2013.
The coming of the five governors, though, hugely enhanced the fortunes of the party, also came with its own problems.
The leadership of the party had already adopted a position to the effect that governors belonging to the party, are the leaders of the party in their states. With the coming of Governors Rabiu Kwankwaso and Aliyu Wamakko, two major members of the APC in Kano and Sokoto states, Ibrahim Shekarau and Attahiru Bafarawa, were automatically relegated in the pecking order.
The duo found it difficult to stay with their hitherto “arc enemies” and therefore, unsurprisingly defected to the PDP.
Two other leaders, Tom Ikimi and a former Borno Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, also defected to the PDP.
Indeed, the ruling PDP at the time variously expressed confidence that the APC would not survive the crisis that would follow its primary election to elect the party’s presidential candidate.
The party’s failure to produce a consensus candidate prior to the primary election in Lagos in 2014 meant that Muhammadu Buhari, ATiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Sam Nda Isaiah would slug it out.
After intense politicking, horse trading and lobbying, Mr. Buhari beat the three other contestants to the ticket and since then, the APC continued to grow from strength to strength.
When the party eventually defeated the PDP and also formed the majority in the two chambers of the national assembly, it became clear that APC would produce the next Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
However, that blessing is turning out to be a “curse” somehow, because the party is now divided and the leadership has basically failed to reign in some of its lawmakers-elect on its decision regarding who should run.
Signs that all was not well first emerged after the leaders of the party including its NEC, and NWC failed to zone the two major assembly offices to any of the six geo political zones.
The leadership also called a “retreat” for all the Senators and Reps elect at Ibeto Hotel Abuja two weeks ago.
Although the retreat succeeded in having some persons who had earlier signified their intention to vie for the two offices to step down, it failed to come out with a single candidate for the office of Senate President and Speaker.
Former Governor of Benue state, George Akume, stepped down for Ahmed Lawan in an alignment that saw him running with the Yobe Senator as his Deputy Senate President.
In the House of Representatives, Tahir Monguno, also stepped down for Femi Gbajabiamila and was equally made a running mate.
However, APC leaders failed to convince Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara to shelve their ambition of running for Senate President and Speaker respectively.
Shortly after the retreat ended, two major camps in both chambers of the national assembly emerged.
The first group called themselves the “Senate Like Minds” and they addressed the press to say they were behind the candidature of Mr. Saraki.
The address, which was read by Dino Melaye, also stated that Mr. Saraki enjoyed the support of 34 out of the 59 APC Senators at the retreat.
Earlier in the day, another group, the Senate Unity Forum, also addressed a press conference and claimed that the forum had 50 Senators supporting the candidature of Senator Lawan.
In a nutshell, the retreat left the APC more polarized along the two major camps.
Findings by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that a national leader of the APC and former governor of Lagos state, Bola Tinubu, was promoting Mr. Lawan’s candidature.
Facing rebellion, leaders of the APC again called for a “meeting” of all Senators and members-elect first on Thursday, before shifting it to Saturday.
However, upon arrival, members of the House of Reps were informed that the meeting was called to conduct a mock election to elect the party’s candidate to run for Speaker of the House.
Members loyal to Mr. Dogara promptly rejected the decision saying they were not informed about the mock elections. They therefore, staged a walk out.
As for the Senate, the various groups in the Senate had met earlier and were informed that unlike what transpired during the mock election to elect a candidate for Speaker, which was open/ secret balloting; election for a candidate for Senate president would be done via the open ballot.
Sensing foul play, Senators loyal to Bukola Saraki decided to also stay away.
The APC eventually conducted the mock election using the open/secret ballot and Messrs. Lawan and Akume were “elected” for Senate President and Deputy respectively.
However, Mr. Saraki had insisted that irrespective of what happened on Saturday, he would still run for election as Senate President on Tuesday.
Opposition holds the ace
It is clear that with the position taken by the APC, the opposition Senators made up mainly of the PDP and other smaller parties, holds the ace as to who emerges as president of the Senate.
While Mr. Lawan may have gained the support of his APC colleagues, Mr. Saraki appears to have the upper hand within the opposition ranks.
Investigations by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that PDP Senators are likely to give the former Kwara governor their block votes.
Tuesday morning, the PDP announced it was adopting Mr. Saraki, the biggest boost for the camp.
One of the Senators in the PDP informed us in confidence that although the party leadership has tried to “guide” them on who to vote for at a retreat in Portharcourt, Rivers state last week, he said, they have already decided where to go.
“Our votes are for Saraki, not just because we consider him a better candidate, but because we are sure that all that is due to us as opposition in terms of committee appointment and welfare will surely come to us, so it is a win-win situation for us all,” he said.
Another Senator also said they decided to pitch their tent with Mr. Saraki to spite Mr. Tinubu.
Out of the 59 APC Senators, 35 attended Saturday’s election. So it is safe to assume that the 24 Senators who stayed away belong to Mr. Saraki. Presently, the PDP has 49 Senators and if they follow their party’s advice and vote for the former governor of Kwara state in block, he would be elected as the president of the 8th Senate.
No comments:
Post a Comment