John Alechenu examines the controversies surrounding the Senatorial primaries of the All Progressives Congress in Imo and Cross River states last week and posits that there is still a long way to go to restore peace in the party
When on June 25, 2020, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), presided over an emergency National Executive Committee meeting which set up the Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extra Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee, party members heaved a sigh of relief believing that an end to the party’s seemingly intractable internal squabbles was in sight.
Some analysts believe that the confidence reposed in the caretaker panel by the president and most of the party faithful was not misplaced following the string of success it has so far recorded in its efforts to reconcile feuding party members in Cross River and Ondo states.
In Cross River State, for example, stakeholders who were at loggerheads agreed to sheath their swords and unanimously adopted Matthew Mbu Junior as the consensus state chairman of the party.
The Buni-led panel also succeeded in getting party members in the state to withdraw pending court cases.
It is also to the credit of the caretaker committee that the fallout of the Ondo State governorship primary election was properly managed with virtually all aspirants queuing behind the eventual winner of the contest, Rotimi Akeredolu SAN.
However, the recently conducted Imo North Senatorial District APC primary may yet be a litmus test for reconciliatory efforts in the nation’s South East region. It may be of interest to note that Imo is the only state the party controls in the entire region.
Controversy has continued to surround the conduct of exercises since the seven-member committee set up to conduct the primary concluded its assignment last Friday.
The Imo North Senatorial seat became vacant on December 18, 2019, when the former occupant of the office, Senator Ben Uwajumogu, died after a brief illness.
The APC National Caretaker Committee set up a seven-member panel headed by Senator Surajudeen Bashiru as Chairman and Chief Samuel Ogbuku as Secretary. Other members of the panel include Sen. Jibrin Gada, Bello Kumo, Alhaji Umar Gana, Mohammed Salihu Saba, and Prince Godfrey Ejim.
To the shock of many, the conduct of the exercise which was described as peaceful across the 64 wards of the state by members of the committee, produced two separate winners.
A faction of the panel consisting the chairman, secretary and two other members named a serving member of the House of Representatives, Frank Ibezim, believed to be the preferred choice of the state governor Hope Uzodinma, as winner.
However, the three other members of the panel who were led by Umar Gana declared Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, a political rival of the governor, as winner.
Speculations that all was not well with the primary election committee were confirmed soon after the Senator Bashiru -led group submitted its report to the office of the National Organising Secretary. He addressed the media soon afterwards.
In response to a question on the whereabouts of the remaining members of the seven-man panel during the compilation of the results and submission to the organising secretary, Bashiru said, “Since Thursday afternoon, I have not set my eyes on three members of the committee and as you know, the rule of committee is operated on a simple majority basis. I am the Chairman and I have the Secretary and two other members with me, which helped us to form a quorum to be able to do our work.
“The work started with the seven members until about noon yesterday (Thursday) after the election was almost completed in all the 64 wards where the election was held. The report we presented showed the composition of the committee and the engagement of stakeholders in Imo State.
“At the end of the day, the aspirant that got the highest votes is Hon. Frank Ibezim and he is the person declared as the winner in my capacity as the Chairman of the election committee and his name has been submitted to the Organising Secretary of our party a moment ago.”
He accused the three other members of absconding from the exercise. No sooner had he left the venue of the briefing than the remaining three members appeared with a copy of a separate report announcing Senator Ararume as winner of the same primary.
Gana also led his team to the office of the National Organising Secretary to submit their report after which he also addressed the media.
He alleged that the chairman, secretary and two other members of the committee “disappeared” after the entire team secured an appointment to pay a courtesy visit to the governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma
Gana said “Some people are making a lot of noise about the election in Imo state, I was there live and I can show you many pieces of evidence that I attended the primary live and it was done successfully. We have just submitted our report to the headquarters of the APC and it was acknowledged. So, we are waiting for the day of the election. Whoever emerges, we will support him; all of them are APC men, an APC man is an APC man.”
On the result sheet they wrote their results on and whether the national organising secretary of the APC received it from them, he said “It is not necessary we have to write on a result sheet. The important thing is to bring one’s result, not necessary on a result sheet.
“The party gave us a document; if the leader of the committee who is in the possession of the document and the result sheet chooses not to go out, should I go and sleep? No! You can write on the paper and come to the party and explain what has happened to them.
“It is left for them to act or not to act. We have submitted our results and explained what happened to the party. They have promised to look into it. We gave them the report and they collected it, you can ask them questions and they will answer you.”
Speaking on the issue, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena, said, “There is no controversy. We set up a committee. Each of the committees for Imo and Cross River states has a Chairman and a Secretary; they were given electoral materials. As a party, we expect a report from those we gave this assignment. The Mai-Mala Buni-led Caretaker/ Extra-Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee is committed to due process; we cannot return to the past.”
The crisis in the Zamfara State chapter of the party is also a source of concern to party leaders. A faction of the party loyal to the immediate past governor of the state, Abdulaziz Yari, and another loyal to a former federal lawmaker, Kabiru Marafa, are still locked in a battle of supremacy.
A senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science of the University of Jos, Joseph Anuga, expressed the view that disputations over who gets what were normal in politics.
He, however, expressed worry that in the case of Nigeria, like in most third world countries, the democratic culture was suffering from what he described as “stunted growth.”
Anuga said, “It is sad that after more than two decades of uninterrupted democracy, our political parties have yet to organise themselves in such a way as to strengthen internal party democracy. You can’t give what you don’t have. We have a situation where the nomination process within political parties has been hijacked by individuals who either buy their way or use coercion to get party tickets. What you now have is the judiciary playing the kind of role not envisaged in our electoral process.”
Speaking in a similar vein, the National Secretary of Project Nigeria Movement, Olawale Okunniyi, explained that the political system being currently practiced was largely responsible for the crisis in the polity.
This, he explained, was not just within the ruling party.
Okunniyi said, “There is hardly any difference between the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in their approach to electioneering. There was a time in this country that all you needed to do was to get the PDP ticket; you go to sleep and let the party do the rest. We cannot definitely continue like this if our democracy must grow. I know for sure that with the way the APC is going, it will soon join the PDP in opposition. “
While party members and stakeholders in Imo State are waiting for a definite pronouncement from the party leadership, party supporters hope that the disputes will not lead to the party suffering the fate it suffered in elections in Zamfara and Bayelsa states where its victory was upturned by court verdicts.
The President, Voters Assembly, Mashood Erubami, said it was unfortunate that politicians wilfully flout their own rules and get away with it.
He said, “The rules of engagement within political parties are clear for the APC which I am familiar with. For every primary, the decision on the mode is agreed upon. The process is either through consensus arrangement, direct or indirect. But you have a situation where some people because of their selfish interests decide to change the goalposts in the middle of the game. When this happens, you are bound to have a crisis. It is not the absence of rules but the conduct of the operators that is the problem.”
Speaking in a similar vein, the Executive Director of the Civil Societies Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Auwual Musa, said “We must as a people irrespective of our political leaning agree that we want this democracy to work, there must be a consensus among the elite to allow democracy work, if not, the internal conflicts within parties could snowball into something else.”
As the APC battles to stabilise the party following the crises that led to the controversial exit of the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee, party stakeholders can only hope that the current developments will not further divide the party.