After rain comes sun(shine). After war comes peace. After pain comes joy. Are members of the Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) about to witness “sunshine, peace and joy” in the beleaguered party?
Every APC faithful, and well-meaning members of the public crave for a truce following the constitution of a new committee to resolve the series of crisis in the state, and across the country.
The squabbles, soon after the assumption of office of Governor Godwin Obaseki in 2016, escalated, and haven’t thawed since 2018, prompting the empanelling of two peace committees.
But the panels, constituted by the National Working Committee (NWC) and the National Executive Committee (SEC), respectively, didn’t get off the ground due to opposition to their membership.
The Obaseki camp objected to the bodies on the premise that members shouldn’t be judge in their own cause. For instance, the first committee was established by the NWC, headed by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who’s Obaseki’s nemesis in the crisis.
The second task force, put together by the party’s NEC, was led by Senate President Ahmad Lawan, who chairs the National Assembly (Senate and House) that wanted Obaseki to re-proclaim the inauguration of the Edo State House of Assembly (EDHA).
Recall that the discord in the Edo APC became public when the EDHA, on the alleged backing by Obaseki, was “nocturnally” inaugurated by nine Members-elect of the 24-member legislature.
The insistence by the Oshiomhole-led NWC and the NASS for Obaseki to re-proclaim the Assembly – and the governor’s refusal to do so – heightened the disharmony in the chapter.
Both factions then engaged in anti-party activities: suspension and/or expulsion of high-profile members – on either side – from the APC, including Comrade Oshiomhole and Governor Obaseki.
However, the party leadership, headed by President Muhammadu Buhari, may have woken up to the reality of the worsening problems in the entire platform, and in the Edo chapter in particular.
The first worry is the prospect of losing the state to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which gave the APC a blooded nose in the 2019 general election – losing four states outrightly to the PDP at the poll on March 9, 2019.
Instructive, too, was the loss of Rivers and Zamfara, where the courts proclaimed that the APC had no candidates for the governorship and national and state legislative slots at the polls.
While the Rivers chapter wasn’t allowed to field candidates, the party’s overwhelming victories in Zamfara’s governorship and legislative contests were vitiated by the courts as “wasted votes.”
No less troubling was the declaration by the courts that the APC governorship candidates in Cross River, Enugu and Taraba weren’t duly nominated, and thus not qualified to contest in the election they, nonetheless, lost to their counterparts in the PDP.
The last straw was on February 13, 2020, when the Supreme Court nullified the election of the APC Governor-elect in Bayelsa State, Chief David Lyon, on the excuse that the deputy governor-elect “forged” the documents he submitted for clearance to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
These poll losses by the APC – through actual balloting or via court judgements – were the culmination of fractionalisation in the state chapters – resulting from congresses and primaries – which the party leaders were unable to resolve.
And coming in a few months – from June 2 to 27, 2020– are the primaries for the September 19, 2020, governorship poll in Edo – processes that may compound a bad situation if they failed to meet the rules guiding elections.
Already, both sides to the chapter’s problems claim to have the right to conduct the primaries – and they’re fine-tuning strategies to have the upper-hand “by fire, by force.”
Coupled with the speculations that Governor Obaseki was plotting to decamp to the PDP before the primaries or after the September poll – an allegation he has denied – the APC has “finally” decided to stem the tide in the Edo chapter.
Yet, the party’s success in this taxing endeavour is dependent on how serious the main gladiators – Governor Obaseki and Comrade Oshiomhole – are willing to forego their ego and embrace peace.
Will their enabling partisans – members of the “any government in power” (AGIP) that fan the embers for their pecuniary or political gains – allow them the latitude to manoeuvre out of the quagmire they’ve brought on themselves?
Both men should realise that they’re in deep shit, politically. For the governor, he could unwittingly abbreviate his ambition on the alter of presenting himself as the “strongman,” simply on account of his not only “being in government, but in power, too.” (Apologies to former military President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida).
But he shouldn’t forget that several governors, who lost their second term bid in 2019, failed owing to the division from the primaries, which they reportedly manipulated, using the power of incumbency that couldn’t save them at the actual poll.
So, rather than trying to whip the local chapter into line – and preventing decamps from other parties into the APC – Governor Obaseki should spearhead the gathering of more members.
And what’s this about his demand that Oshiomhole must endorse him for re-election? Conveying this message to newsmen in Abuja, Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu said: “When he (Oshiomhole) comes to Edo and endorses Governor Obaseki and his programmes, then we will be on the same page politically.”
This obvious “blackmail” tactic cannot replace appeal, persuasion and lobbying, which oil the wheel of politics and political activities. Obaseki must change his strategy, which the new reconciliation committee offers him.
As for Comrade Oshiomhole, he needs no binoculars to see that the heat is on in the APC on his watch – what with the losses in the 2019 polls, and the fiasco in Bayelsa that have increased the pressure on him to resign his position of chair of the party!
As the adult in the room, at the national and subnational levels – and by virtue of his being the “installer” of Obaseki as governor in 2016 – Oshiomhole should see him through his second term ambition in September 2020, and thus retain Edo State in the APC column, to partially assuage the party’s losses in 2019.
The festering crisis in the Edo APC has defied interventions of well-meaning Nigerians: the revered Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba Nedo Ukuakpolokpolor, Oba Ewuare II; traditional rulers in the state; President Buhari; some chieftains of the party, and close friends to both Obaseki and Oshiomhole.
Hopefully, this time, the “combatants” will give a listening ear to the Chief Bisi Akande committee, to reconcile all sides, for “peace and joy” to reign at the Edo chapter of the APC.
