* The prodigals return

BY CHIOMA GABRIEL

By now, the All Progressives Congress, APC, would have been rattled to the reality of the fact that all is indeed not well with the party especially with the recent decampment of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to  the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. This defection from the All Progressives Congress, APC, despite being the 2011 presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN ,was upon his conviction that the 2015 presidential ticket of the APC was out of his reach. It was reported that Ribadu was few weeks ago told to forget about running for the 2015 presidency and concentrate on running for Adamawa governorship.

Ribadu had obviously taken his lesson home and slept over it before deciding to go indeed for the Adamawa guber but on another platform. And to get back at the party that diminished him, Ribadu decided for the ruling party, the PDP.
This was just the beginning as many returns to the PDP are expected before the 2015 elections. Only last week, Chief Tom Ikimi, a top chieftain of the APC in Edo State, also announced his defection from the party, citing irreconciliable differences with the leadership.

Towards the end of last year, the APC was having an owambe party all over Nigeria; from the North to the South and was getting all the media attention required; openly mocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and celebrating the implosion in the ruling party; then rubbing it in by taking away their best governors and politicians. It was the dark days of PDP and the party had just split with many decamping to the APC.

But even as the PDP mourned at that time, there was always the nagging feeling that just like the PDP, the APC was also an accident waiting to happen. The APC is a marriage of strange bed-fellows and appears vengeful and full of propaganda in ways that elicited more questions than answers.

The truth has always been that if PDP is such a bad party, APC does not have the right answers. A pot calling the kettle black has never brought solutions to the system. So, why won’t it leave PDP alone and do it’s own thing? When leaders of APC went to PDP to start collecting new members, one knew for sure it would explode and implode on their faces. Why did APC go looking for the ‘living’ in the land of the ‘dead’? Why did it make such frantic efforts to lure PDP members into APC? Was APC thinking that the best people to run for elections still belonged to  the corrupt and ‘dead’ PDP? Would champions of corruption rebuild Nigeria?  A dog should not go back to it’s own vomit. So why did opposition look for ‘corrupt and incredible’ PDP members to fill up its numbers?!

APC leaders cornered Gov Rotimi Amaechi to join their party. This was not a surprise as Amaechi  inadvertently became a leader of opposition in the South-South against his will even before he was lured. Would anyone be surprised if tomorrow, Amaechi returns to PDP? We have all read and heard about the return of the prodigal, how Nuhu Ribadu returned to PDP. Many more stories abound.

In Ogun state, there is fire on the mountain and if something is not done, APC will lose not only Ogun state but others. If care is not taken, Osun will end up as the only APC state.

Between Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the South West Obas is a different story. APC needs to go on a serious campaign to dis-abuse the minds of the people that no serious harm was intended by whatever statement Tinubu made that drew the ire of the traditional institution.

Between Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar is another story.

Who could imagine Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar seeing eyeball to eyeball after what they subjected Nigerians to in their hey days? If the dead could see, those who indirectly lost their lives because of the war between the then president and his VP would die again when they see the two holding hands and laughing together.

Would former Gov Nyako of Adamawa have joined the APC if he knew it was going to cause him his governorship position? And who knows if Gov Al-Makura of Nasarawa state is not regretting being in APC by now?

What is really baffling is why the leaders of a party claiming commitment to save the masses from PDP’s bondage would now be perpetrating injustice amongst themselves.

Going back to history, Nigerians were once upon a time swayed by the politicking going on in Adamawa between Murtala Nyako and Muhammed Buba Marwa,  a top notcher of Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and now merged into APC.Before joining the APC bandwagon and his later impeachment, Murtala Nyako had brushes with some top politicians within the Adamawa political landscape.

A question was once asked if Nyako who was into rivalry with General Buba Marwa would really want to belong in the same party with Marwa? Many had wondered outright how the APC leaders would reconcile the interests of this former governorship candidate of the  defunct CPC, Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd) with Nyako’s political interests.

It was once predicted that the succession game in Adamawa in the forthcoming  elections was the root of  the face-off between Nyako and the PDP. It was also the face-off that eventually led to his impeachment.

Today, Nuhu Ribadu whose hands were raised by none other than Asiwaju Tinubu as the main man of the then Action Congress now APC, has returned ‘home’ as a true prodigal. When Bola Tinubu was raising his hand as the presidential candidate of the AC then, many Nigerians had wondered how someone once declared wanted by Ribadu’s EFCC would be working in tandem with the perceived ‘thief’.

At the national assembly level, APC it is believed, has been working on the possibility of drafting the Speaker of the House of Representatives into the party with a view to presenting him as the party’s presidential candidate in 2015.

APC leaders are said to be working on Tambuwal because of his age and perceived acceptability across party lines and the fact that he hails from the North-West with the highest voting population in Nigeria. The Speaker however is still playing his game of being neither here nor there but the people know that even though he carries the PDP membership card, he is at the other side. There have also been reports that some decamped members of PDP to APC in the Senate and the House of Representatives are preparing to reintegrate themselves into the mainstream PDP because their  2015 can only be achieved if they remain with the .PDP.

The way things are going, the desperate move made by APC that lured the aggrieved PDP top notchers into its fold is beginning to spell doom for the opposition party.

With 2015 around the corner,the party is battling to navigate and enshrine internal democracy in their selection process of candidates in the forthcoming elections. In many states across Nigeria, there is war in APC. How would it be by the time they begin to elect candidates for 2015 election? There would be nothing short of fire of the mountain.

The party leader has been knocked for not demonstrating anything different from the godfatherism we see in the PDP. He has also been knocked for turning political positions in Lagos State and other states to a family affair where key positions are held by himself, the wife, the daughter and son-in law. Unfortunately, many APC members have not seen anything wrong with this. Many had jeered at PDP when it’s house was divided. Now that implosion and explosion have commenced in the APC, it is happening sooner than envisaged .

Flash points
When the APC was duly registered as a full-fledged political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigerians thought the All Progressives Congress (APC) would give the country the platform to strengthen the nation’s political system. The progressives’ camp saw the development as a positive one that would assist in deepening democracy and democratic culture. But as feared in many quarters, hardly had the party established in some of the states than leadership crisis crept into its fold and at the moment threatening to destroy its foundation.

From the North to East and South to West, the story of the APC leadership crisis is rife. Currently, the party is operating two secretariats in some of the states, raising question as to whether it can be a credible alternative.

In Bayelsa state for instance, two foot aides to the former governor of the state,Chief Timpre Sylva, were at loggerheads over who should control the party in the state. Richard Kpodor, former aide of Sylva claims he is the chairman of the party in the state while Tiwe Orumunigbe, says he is the rightful person to lead the state to the forthcoming 2015 general elections.

In Ogun State, the situation is most fearful considering the dimension it has taken. The crisis which started as a minor disagreement has graduated to a dangerous level. The state governor and the party’s leader and former governor of the state, Olusegun Osoba are at logger head.

In Ekiti State, the story is not different. Before the Ekiti elections, Opeyemi Bamidele resigned as leader of the APC caucus in the House of Representatives and joined the Labour party in order to pursue a governorship ambition.

In Kano State, there is no love lost between principal APC members. There, the battle line was drawn between the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) led by a former governor of the state, Ibrahim Shekarau, and the state governor, Musa Kwankwaso, who is the acclaimed leader of the APC in the state.

Kwankwaso defected from the PDP to APC alongside four other governors including Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state last year. But Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau would not recognise Kwankwaso’s leadership of the party leading to a breakaway which is an evidence of the impending implosion that awaits the party. The party leader, Asiwaju Tinubu had allegedly told Mallam Shekarau to take a backseat to Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso – that “it takes money to run the party, you don’t’ have the money, Kwankwaso does”.

Shekarau and some of his supports were not happy to hear this and so they defected from APC to PDP.

In Sokoto State, the crisis is between the state governor, Aliyu Wamakko, and his predecessor, Attahiru Bafarawa. Wamakko, the assumed leader of the APC in the state who had gone all out to announce his membership of the party’s Sokoto State interim executive committee. But Bafarawa’s faction met and presented its own interim executive committee.

Rivers State APC is not left out of the crises. At the point he decamped to APC, Gov Amaechi was at war with the police command in that state. Besides, many have attributed whatever crises in Rivers state to be the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob.

Soon after Amaechi joined APC with his supporters, internal squabbles crept into the party. The disaffection following the  conduct of it’s congresses nationwide continued to degenerate with over hundred members of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) that formed APC in Rivers State defecting from the party and declaring their support for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Most recently, the allegation has been that all is well within the party to the point that one of the founders, Muhammadu Buhari is allegedly threatening to join the Labour Party.

Many critics think the APC merger was hurriedly done and in the process, critical details to the merger were overlooked. The various political camps could not mold into one so as to peacefully agree on a presidential candidate against the 2015 elections that will match and defeat President Jonathan.

Going by what is on the table, it is possible that the situation of the APC would be worse in the coming months when General Muhammadu Buhari finally announces his intention to contest the presidential election in 2015. Buhari appears defiant in manning the office of the presidency through the APC and would not trade it for any reason.

In Benue, splinter groups have emerged in the APC.

Oyo State is not left out in the crises. Cracks emerged early this year in the crisis rocking the Oyo State chapter, leading to the entire structure of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) dumping the party for the Labour Party (LP), in May.

In Lagos State,the story is the same. The Lagos Chapter splited into factions last April over alleged marginalisation by members of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change.

While a faction was led by the Chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, Otunba Oladele Ajomale, the other faction has Chairman of the defunct CPC, Ajibade Emiabata, as its leader.

In every state, there is a story to tell.

Some analysts have predicted that APC crises would be worse than that of the PDP with the passage of time but there are others who believe that what is happening is in line with the natural pattern of party and democratic development.
Only time will tell .