JOHN ALECHENU writes on the Herculean task before the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu-led presidential panel saddled with reconciling aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress
The task of reconciling aggrieved members of the governing All Progressives Congress, which President Muhammadu Buhari has assigned to former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is what some have aptly described as a “mission impossible.” Barely one week after Tinubu was given this task, the crisis of confidence between gladiators of the party at the federal and state levels seems to be gathering stronger momentum.
Just as the Jargaban Borgu was holding his first peace-building meeting with the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee of the APC, party loyalists in the Senate were up in arms against one another over the reordering of the sequence of the 2019 elections.
The crisis in the Kaduna State chapter of the party was taken a notch higher with one faction of the party announcing the suspension of the Special Adviser to Governor Nasir el-Rufai, Mallam Uba Sani. The state governor, el-Rufai, is equally locked in a battle of wits with another faction of the party in his state and his most vocal critic, Senator Shehu Sani, over the running of state affairs.
A lecturer in the Department of Political Science of the University of Jos, Mr. Joseph Anuga, explained that the challenge anyone, who is given an assignment to reconcile aggrieved politicians is bound to face, includes but not limited to “managing egos and ambitions.”
He added, “The political season has begun. Those occupying offices, who will want to remain in office, will struggle to remain while opponents, wishing to replace them, will also be at their best to achieve their political objectives.”
Speaking in a similar vein, a Kaduna-based public affairs analyst, Mr. Emmanuel Ado, said whichever way one looked at it, the task before Tinubu is a tough one.
Ado stated, “The first question to ask is: Who will reconcile Asiwaju with Buhari? Can Tinubu be honest with the President to tell him, ‘I am also aggrieved’. You know how he was treated during the last governorship election in Ondo State.
“How does he come to terms with the Saraki problem in the National Assembly? Has Tinubu’s position on the leadership of Odigie-Oyegun as national chairman changed?
“Will the President reverse appointments he has made without input from the party? Many state governors confess in private that they knew next to nothing about persons appointed into federal positions from their states. Can this be undone?
“These issues must be resolved before any reconciliation can begin.”
Some party observers are of the view that previous attempts to reconcile feuding members of the APC, especially in the states, have failed to yield any positive result because of the personal interests of party leaders. Those that subscribe to this school of thought argue that the understanding that governors are the leaders of the party in their states will make it difficult, if not impossible, for governors in crisis-ridden states to accept any arrangement which will make them appear weak before their supporters.
Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, for example, told all those who cared to listen that his refusal to allow Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso dictate to him was the main reason behind their political feud. Ganduje said, “This issue of policy fine-tuning is always a big problem between a predecessor and his successor.
“It is a very important theory in political science; so, that is an issue. It is not an issue that you can go out to advertise. And to the outgoing governor, it is painful that you have changed this and that.”
What he did not say is the fact that his support for President Muhammadu Buhari could be the major factor behind his opposition to his former principal. Ganduje, who is fully aware of Kwankwaso’s presidential ambition, has not left anyone in doubt about where his support lies.
In Kogi State, there is no love lost between Governor Yahaya Bello on the one hand and the state party executive with the support of the senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, on the other.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and the governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar, are equally engaged in a political feud, which is threatening the party’s cohesion.
The faceoff between Zamfara State Governor, Abdullazeez Yari, and Senator Kabiru Marafa often finds its way into the Senate chamber. Marafa takes advantage of every opportunity offered to speak on the floor to draw the attention of his colleagues to what he often refers to as the maladministration in his home state.
A similar scenario is also playing out in Oyo State where the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, who has made his desire to seek election as governor in 2019 known, is taking on the incumbent governor Abiola Ajumobi.
Ondo, Borno, Bayelsa, Gombe, Sokoto and Benue states’ chapters of the party grapple with their own internal bickering.
Of particular concern to the national headquarters of the party is the situation in Benue, where Governor Samuel Ortom has, of late, been sending out signals of a possible exit from the party’s fold.
The APC National Vice-Chairman (South-South), Hilliard Eta, is however optimistic that the task at hand, though daunting, is not insurmountable.
Eta said, “Our leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, is not a person who is a stranger to managing conflicts especially political conflicts.
“His choice by Mr. President is one that is designed to achieve results and if you go through Asiwaju’s political history, you cannot associate him with failure.
“We have a challenge which our leader, Mr. President, has identified and he has tapped on the right man to help us get out of it and forge ahead.” He made no reference to the fact that the party leadership was taken unawares by the appointment.
However, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, in an exclusive interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, acknowledged this fact.
“Yes, the party was not consulted but we don’t feel the need to be consulted. We are happy and it is a positive development. It is neither strange nor new,” he added. Without doubt, this is evidence of a disconnect between the President/Presidency and the party leadership. This is also evidence in the relationship between the Presidency and the National Assembly. The President has found it difficult to get a number of his nominees confirmed by the Senate.
The cases of the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, as well as nominees to the Monetary Policy Committee, are just a few out of many.
Herein lies the major challenge before Tinubu and the team he is expected to assemble. The Jagaban Borgu, as friends and foes alike often call him, has frequently been named as the chief aggrieved member of the party. A member of the party’s National Working Committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “There is no reason for anybody to pretend. We all know Asiwaju has not been treated fairly since he spent time, energy and resources to help bring this government to power.”
Asked how, in concrete terms, the party leader has been treated unfairly, he said, “He had no hand in the appointment of ministers. In fact, it was as if some appointments were made to spite him.
“There also appears to be a deliberate policy by those around the President to work against anyone he shows preference for after the APC won the election in 2015. Take the governorship elections in Ondo and Kogi states for example; we all know what happened.”
The party source said the first task before Tinubu was to reconcile himself to the new reality that no matter his sense of personal injury, the survival of the APC and the government it formed in 2015 depends on the success or failure of the task given to him.
Like it is often said, since there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics, it is expected that the politically-savvy Tinubu will first live with the fact that he will be dealing with persons who have, within the last two years, betrayed him in one way or another. Tinubu’s dexterity in the art of political strategy and execution, especially in the area of consensus-building, has never been in doubt.
Political pundits are of the opinion that President Muhammadu Buhari picked him, perhaps, against the advice of close associates who are determined to reduce the former Lagos governor’s influence for reasons best known to them.
Tinubu also has the task of convincing the President that he still has the magic wand to turn a very bad situation into an advantage.
Party loyalists are however upbeat about Tinubu’s commitment and capacity to handle the task. The Director-General, Voice of Nigeria, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, is one of such party stalwart. According to him, problems are meant to be solved.
“Mr. President, who has worked with people all his public life, knows and appreciates capacity when he sees one. His choice of Asiwaju, without doubt, shows how much he appreciates him,” Okechukwu stated.
Tinubu has hit the ground running with his first meeting with the party leadership. How far he can go before the party’s national convention, which is expected to come with its fresh round of challenges, remains to be seen.
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