APC: Reality beckons!

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor, OKEY NDIRIBE, DAPO AKINREFON & Simon Ebegbulem

Fresh cracks may have emerged within the ranks of the nation’s leading opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, APC as a fall out of its national convention which ended Saturday morning in Abuja.

APC National Convention: Convention Committee Members Senator Olorunbe Mamowora discussion with Senator Chris Ngige and others at the Convention . Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan

The convention which was slated to commence by 10.00 a.m. did not start until about 9.00 p.m. In between the about 11 hours while delegates waited inside the Eagles Square convention ground, party chieftains were in different locations in Abuja, and through telephones, were aiming to settle disputes between senior contenders and stakeholders that threatened to scuttle the first national convention of the party.

In the end, the trouble shooting efforts were partially successful. But not totally.
Chief Tom Ikimi, the man who announced the birth of the new party last year and who hosted and chaired most of the meetings of the merger committee absented himself from the convention ground.

Convention venue
“I was not at the convention venue, I bought the chairmanship form, but I did not fill it when I found out what they wanted to do,” Chief Ikimi told Vanguard over the telephone.
“I still have the forms with me. I never stepped down for anybody I did not participate in the exercise, I boycotted it,” he added saying “I will come up with a statement soon where I will explain what transpired.”

The questions about Ikimi are, however, not new as party insiders revealed that for some time, party officials had feared about the continued loyalty of the party for some time especially given his recent vituperations against alleged highhandedness by some party chieftains from the Southwest.

In the end Ikimi refused to step down, but another contestant for the post of national chairman, Chief Timipire Sylva after much dithering procrastination succumbed and stepped down for the favoured choice of the top hierarchy, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun who was favoured for his ideological purity.

But the way and manner Ikimi, Sylva and another contestant, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja were coerced to step down exposed to some extent a kind of similarity between the APC and the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP which the former had consistently ridiculed as anti-democratic.

APC leaders Vanguard gathered were determined to enter the convention ground with a consensus list of candidates for the most high profile positions, notably, national chairman, deputy national chairmen, national secretary, national publicity secretary and national organizing secretary.

Party leaders like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who championed the consensus option were seriously rebuffed by Ikimi and Sylva.

In some cases, the consensus candidates were chosen by zonal caucuses and after serious deliberation. For example one of the favoured candidates for a legal office zoned to the South-South was dropped at a caucus meeting presided over by Governor Rotimi Amaechi after party chieftains raised issues about his legal qualification.

In other cases, candidates were picked as consensus on the whims of influence moulders in the party. Tinubu was indisputably the major force behind the ascension of Odigie-Oyegun and he successfully marketed him through Senator Bukola Saraki to the northern caucus of the party.

Chief Bisi Akande who also strongly backed Odigie-Oyegun to emerge as his successor was said to have seriously canvassed his ideological purity as he said that those who had in the past been the face of the PDP should not become the new leaders of the PDP.

That was the argument that derailed the candidacy of Sam Sam Jaja and Ikimi. Sylva, Vanguard learnt was side-stepped on account of the court issues bordering on corruption he is currently facing.

Party chieftains said they could not afford to have their national chairman being dragged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, something, they believed President Goodluck Jonathan would be well pleased to do.

However, the failure to take Ikimi’s major role in the merger of the legacy parties to form the APC is said to have rankled the former foreign affairs minister.
Ikimi was the one who announced the merger, chaired and hosted many of the meetings that gave birth to the new party.

Newly Elected National Chairman of APC Odigie-Oyegun at APC National Convention in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

By weekend many party leaders including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Vanguard learnt were moving to halt Ikimi’s exit from the party.
Party leaders, however, agreed to give those from the PDP a sense of belonging by zoning the office of deputy national chairman to those from the former PDP.

Ikimi was not the only one that came out with a beef from the convention. Sylva even if he announced he was stepping down apparently did it very reluctantly albeit, belatedly.
Ikimi’s refusal to withdraw and Sylva last minute decision to step down were reasons behind the late commencement of the convention which commenced 11 hours late.

After party leaders belatedly got an assurance from Sylva to step down, the decision to proceed with the convention was taken irrespective of Ikimi’s plans. Even by then, Tinubu and the other pro-Odigie-Oyegun canvassers had successfully locked down whatever votes that would have been needed to push their candidate through.

Ikimi was not the only loser at the APC convention. Alhaji Kashim Imam, who served as Presidential Liaison Officer to the Senate in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first term was another loser. Imam had been packaged by Tinubu for the position of national secretary. Many at the convention ground had believed that he was a shoo-in for the office given the momentum and force of the Tinubu forces.

However, other interests in the party, notably the northern caucus was said to have bucked at the idea of allowing Tinubu produce the national chairman and national secretary. So, in the end, despite the earlier momentum, Imam was sidestepped.

However, besides the two major offices of national chairman and national secretary, the election of other national offices proceeded almost uneventfully.

The unopposed election of former Ekiti State Governor, Engr. Segun Oni as National Deputy Chairman, South arose from the decision of the national caucus to reward those who came from the PDP a sense of belonging given the strong objection by ideological purists not to give them the post of national chairman or national secretary.

Others who emerged at the convention were Senator Lawal Shuaibu, as National Deputy Chairman North Lai Mohammed who retained his position as National Publicity Secretary;  Hon. Zakare Ede, National Vice-Chairman for North-Central; Hajia Ramatu, National Woman Leader; Jock Alamba, Deputy Welfare Secretary; Hajia Hassan, North-Central Zonal Woman Leader and Hon. Nelson Alapa, ex-Officio member  for the North-Central.

Besides Ikimi, Chief Timipire Sylva is another top party official who came out of the convention unhappy. Though Sylva, apparently may not go to the PDP given that his nemesis, President Goodluck Jonathan remains the de facto leader of the ruling party.

Convention Day: The day began with what could be described as political fireworks during the accreditation of delegates at the secretariat of the Convention Planning Committee of the party along Emeka Anyaoku Street, Area 11, Abuja.

Violence broke out after two members were beaten up by some party faithful from Abia and Ebonyi states while policemen looked on. One of them who was labeled as “Ngige boy” was stripped naked near the gate of the Secretariat.

Investigations by Vanguard revealed that the fighting erupted between delegates of different factions of the party from Abia and Ebonyi States. Some of the aggrieved  delegates from both states who spoke to Vanguard alleged that although they were elected as state and local government officers of the party and therefore automatic delegates for the party’s convention, they had been denied accreditation by the Convention Planning Committee headed by Sokoto State Governor Alhaji Aliyu Wammako with Senator Chris Ngige as Secretary.

One of the delegates from Abia State who identified himself as Uche Emeka accused Ngige, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, former National Chairman of All Nigeria Peoples Party, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu and  Interim National Vice-Chairman of the party for the South-East, Mr Nyerere as being responsible for their plight.

According to Emeka: “We were reliably informed that Ngige and Okorocha have instructed that our Chairman who is Fabian Okonkwo and the rest of us from Abia State should not be accredited.
Another delegate from Ebonyi State who spoke to Sunday Vanguard identified himself as Ali Christian and Secretary of the party in Ishielu local government.

Said he: “ There are two factions of APC in Ebonyi. One is led by Chief Ogbonnaya Onu while the other is led by Senator Julius Ucha and because of that, there seems to be a power tussle between the two of them.

The Eagle Square venue of the convention, located opposite the National Assembly Arcade and sandwiched in-between the Office of The Head of Service of the Federation and the Federal Secretariat looked like it was about to host a major carnival Friday morning. APC contingents from the 36 states of the federation jammed all the adjoining streets in the area. Many of them were adorned in different attire while some came with their band which played music while the delegates danced.

Many APC faithful had arrived the vicinity Thursday evening and slept in the open with their mats. By Friday morning, the entire area, including the access roads leading to the Presidential Villa had been jam-packed with people and vehicles. A total of 6,855 delegates attended the convention from the  36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Security was also tightened at all entry points into and within Abuja.

This notwithstanding, the commencement of the convention proper was delayed for hours as the National Caucus of the party held series of meetings which deliberated on choice of candidates for the key positions in the party.

Earlier in the week, the National Caucus had allocated different positions in the party to different zones.
When the business of the day eventually began, ratification of  the party’s constitution and its code of ethics were handled first.

The motion for the ratification of certain sections of the constitution was moved by Senator Kabiru Gaya and seconded by House of Representatives Minority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamilla. The constitution was adopted by voice vote. This approach also applied to the adoption of the APC code of ethics. Senator Osita Izunaso moved the motion which was seconded by the Deputy Governor of Osun State, Mrs Grace Tomori.

The election of the party’s new leadership was preceded by speeches delivered by the Interim National leaders.
Former Interim National Chairman of the party Chief Bisi Akande who spoke first.

Going down memory lane he said: “When we consummated our merger, we said the aim of that unprecedented  and historic achievement was to create a credible alternative platform for Nigerians, who were tired of the perpetual misrule of the PDP.

“Now, I can say clearly that Nigerians have heard us and have reacted in joining our party in huge numbers. Our membership registration attests to this, as we all know by now that the membership registration, which started on February 5, was supposed to be over by February 10 but the response of Nigerians was so overwhelming that we had to shift the exercise to February 12.”

ISSUES

Ikimi boycotted the convention because he felt he was not wanted
Atiku making moves to bring back Ikimi
Tinubu did not have his way completely, his man Kashim Imam was stepped aside for National Secretary
Convention was delayed by eleven hours because of intrigues
Accreditation was poorly managed by the media sub-committee
Party disappointed critics as no open quarrel emerged

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