APC: Battling with Gale of Defections
It was like an ugly tiding foretold but sycophantically ignored as the ruling All Progressives Congress is battling for breath over a tsunami of defections prior to 2019. Ahamefula Ogbu looks at the phenomenon that may permanently change political configurations and power structure in Nigeria’s political equation
The ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), appear to be on a macabre dance as fate is oscillating it between control and survival. For a party in strict control, though suffering from internal control malfunctions, to wake up and all the advantages were gone in a national assembly where it had good majority may not be an overnight event. The disagreements had been simmering over time, either ignored or dismissed from the ears of those pulling party strings as of no consequence till it was too late. It has been all too obvious as it happened to the Peoples Democratic Party under former president Goodluck Jonathan. Perhaps because the dramatis personae are a constant, they are also re-enacting the game which so far has earned them winning streaks, though with changed positions.
The most interesting thing however is not the avalanche of defections so far but where it would end. The pertinent question would be if the ruling APC would become a shell of its old self or simply catapulted back to where it began as an opposition party.
Though officials of the party have been sounding confident, though hollow, that they were still in control and in the majority, the gainers of the defections are assuring that if what has happened so far was a gentle breeze, the main wind was still on its way.
A retrospective glance at when the cracks started appearing shows that it has come a long way right from when Odigie Oyegun emerged national Chairman of the party even though President Muhammadu Buhari had always, as with most not within his trusted allies, tagged him “corrupt”, but was prevailed to allow him lead the party or the problem would have long started. So when the tenure extension issue arose, the President prevaricated , supporting now and dumping later before former governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole became the beautiful bride of the party, it was apparent that some interests were positioning for 2019.
Then came the emergence of Bukola Saraki as the Senate President which many viewed as an affront on the leaders of the party that had penciled down who should be what in their usual sharing formula from booties of power. The steps to beat him back to line led to spinning of different webs to do him in, in mini intra-party intrigues. Unfortunately, it appeared that while the party and the federal government used brawn to follow the matter, Saraki and his group used brain which ensured his survival.
When therefore some people in the party saw themselves as the only ones with electoral value and the amalgam big for anyone to leave, the stage became set for the expected fight within the party many people have come to describe as strange bed fellows fused by common bid for power, the scuffle boiled over, birthing division and balkanisation.
What was a dress rehearsal for the main scene happened when a Senator in broad day light led some miscreants to invade the Senate chambers where they shoved aside the sergeant-at arms and made away with the mace, the sole symbol of authority without being apprehended. The police said they ordered a lockdown of Abuja and yet the mace travelled to the overhead bridge near the city gate from where it was allegedly recovered and returned to the lawmakers. Till date, though a serving senator led the onslaught, nothing has happened even in the guise of being called to order talk less of being punished for violating the chambers. From then, many have seen some actions against the principal officers of the Legislature as orchestrated by the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob.
Prior to the D-day, series of boasts had it that the controlling organs of the ruling party would not lose sleep because of anybody leaving the party, deriding those who wanted to dump the party as people of no electoral value. Alhaji Buba Galadima had cried out that it would be difficult for them to continue with the ruling party since all their suggestions were derided and dumped while the government was failing at the center without listening to any of them, he was as always, dismissed. Oshiomhole practically got very loud, often reenacting his hey labour days by dismissing views of party members as of no consequence. It became apparent that the party had cracked and that those whose breads were no longer buttered on the expected sides moved to dump the party. Buoyed by their number, they met and with the good knowledge that the only way the law would be on their side to defect without being asked to drop their seats was for a reasoned crises.
They floated the Reformed APC which effectively passed the party as suffering from crises. Thereafter, those who worked for the success of the party in their various states which the party machinery refused to recognise or allowed those at the state level to politically maltreat rose to find a new alliance.
When it became clear that the movement could jeopardise the 2019 chances of President Buhari, he resorted to calling meetings and behind closed doors, begging them to hold on. The effort was too little and too late. Saraki was invited to the presidential villa, likewise Kwakwanso and some others where they were told between subtle threats and pleas, to stay in the ruling party.
Even the boisterous Oshiomhole, basking in his position as Chairman of the ruling party that was badmouthing everyone started a Nicodemus movement of going by night to beg those he had dismissed as having no electoral value. Trust social media, their pictures were all over the place as having gone to beg.
After drinking villa kunu with the political arrowheads and pointers were that the movement had begun, government wielded its powers by mobilising the police whose statements have been fraught with so much truths that their believability was damaged to stop them from accessing their political positions. It was noised that the government mulled change in the leadership of the national assembly and with the police that had been framing and reframing those seen not to be towing the lines of the government, the stage became set.
Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu were blocked from leaving their houses. While the police resurrected the Offa bank robbery case that had been closed with a Director of Public Prosecutions recommending that there was no case for Saraki to answer; there being no nexus between Saraki and the alleged robbers and that there was no legal ingredient under which Saraki could be charged was dusted up again. He was to report to the police that morning but the police that invited him went early to blockade entrance and exit to his residence.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission wrote to Ekweremadu to report for money laundering investigation the same day he was invited. Before he woke up, police and EFCC operatives aided by Department of Security Services blockaded his house in what appeared like a house arrest.
While Saraki got wind of the plot and sneaked out of his house to sleep elsewhere and slipped into the national assembly the morning he was supposed to be impeached and superintended the defection of his colleagues, Ekweremadu was pinned down at home. Police spokesman who appears to be applying truth sparingly sprang up to deny the involvement of the police in both operations and said they were investigating what happened. He blandly stated that the people who blocked Saraki were those deployed to secure him.
Clearly outsmarted, what the ruling party feared had started happening to it as 15 senators of the APC announced through a letter read by Saraki had dumped the party and defected to the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). The senators who have so far defected are: Rabui Musa Kwankwaso (Kano Central), Barnabas Gemade (Benue North-West), Dino Melaye (Kogi East), Isa Hamman Misau , Lanre Tejuoso, Shaaba Lafiagi, Mohammed Shittu and Ubali Shittu. Others senators are: Rafui Ibrahim, Suleiman Hunkuyi, Monsurat Sunmonu, Ibrahim Danbaba, Usman Nafada and Suleiman Nazif
Before the shock from the Senate chambers had waned, Speaker Yakubu Dogara also read a letter announcing 36 Members of the House of Representatives had dumped the APC. While four of the lawmakers from Oyo State opted for Africa Democratic Congress, ADC, 32 others went to the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
While the APC spokesman, Alhaji Bolaji Abdullahi was reeling out statistics to show that the APC still had majority in the national Assembly, the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, who has had the most troubling tenure due to mass killings by herdsmen and under constant threat of more bloodletting by the Myetti Allah group organised what appeared like a choreographed orchestra in his journey to defection.
Unknown to many, he had been called behind closed doors and begged to stay on in the party, that all his grievances would be addressed. Apparently uncomfortable with the promises, he enacted a dramatic exit. In the morning of the day he was supposed to be attending a reconciliation meeting of APC stalwarts in the Presidential villa, Abuja, suddenly, youths with placards barricaded his exit, blocking his convoy with placards.
The youths told him not to attend or lose chances of contesting for a second term. In the full glare of the security personnel, the youths tore off the APC flag from his car and ordered him back to his office. He drove back and in a meeting with the Local Government Chairmen, announced he had defected to the PDP.
Meanwhile a day before then, all principal officers of the State Assembly were impeached and replaced. Since then, news came, albeit denied that 25 members of the Kano State Assembly had defected from the ruling APC to PDP while the Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal had defected to the ruling party with his entire cabinet and state Assembly members.
Desperate measures by those who sounded so sure and dismissive of others, even the President have been ongoing round the clock while the most torturous aspect of the whole saga is that what has happened is being claimed to be only a phase as more were to follow.
That notwithstanding, APC, said it respects the rights of anyone to change parties, a sentiment expressed by President Buhari and echoed by APC members
Alhaji Abdullahi, said in a statement, “APC remains in firm control of 25 states of the 36 states of the federation and maintains a clear majority in the federal House of Representatives and state assemblies. It would appear however that the individuals involved have different considerations beyond the grievances that they were willing to discuss and which our leaders were willing to address.
“As a truly democratic party, we respect the right of every citizen to political association. Therefore, we urge our members to remain calm as we continue to work hard to position our party strongly for the next general elections.
“We assure members and supporters that our great party will continue to consolidate on our majority status in the lead up to the 2019 General Elections, even as our government continues to work hard to deliver on our promises to Nigerians.”
However, Senator Lanre Tejuoso returned to the ruling party within 48 hours of decamping. The question however is, will the APC recover or suffer more defections that would leave it a ghost unable to retain power in 2019?