By Omeiza Ajayi 

Since the end of tenure of the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun led National Working Committee NWC of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC in June 2018, the party has been afflicted with one leadership crisis or another.

The development had led to the mid-tenure ouster of Odigie-Oyegun’s successor, Comrade Dams Oshiomhole who was immediately replaced with the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC led by the Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni. But even the Buni committee which almost sought to perpetuate itself in office was forced out after two years. The committee’s original mandate was for six months.

Thereafter, the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC was instituted in March 2022 but his inability to hold meetings of relevant party organs, give regular financial reports and accusations that he was running the party with like hia personal fiefdom, soon led to his ouster in July 2023.

It was in such state of uncertainty that the National Executive Committee NEC of the party appointed the former Governor of Kano state, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as National Chairman, thereby “inheriting” Adamu’s NWC.

One of the many challenges that first confronted Ganduje was the battle to fill the vacant office of the Deputy National Publicity Secretary which was zoned to Kogi state. As the leader of the party in Kogi state, Governor Yahaya Bello rightly felt the onus was on him to make nominations for the office but in order to placate some other stakeholders, especially in he aftermath of President Bola Tinubu’s constitution of his Cabinet, Dr Ganduje thought otherwise. Hence, the battle line seemed drawn between him and Bello. At the end, Ganduje was able to convince Bello to accept to nominate anyone for a vacant zonal office.

Then came the situation in Ondo state where the deputy governor, Lucky Ayedatiwa was set to be impeached by the state assembly.

It took the swift intervention of Ganduje who set up a high powered committee to stall the process and come up with a political solution to the issue. When after some time it became obvious that the issues were not yet settled, Ganduje again enlisted the support of President Tinubu to help bring a final closure to the matter.

One of the issues that shook the party in 2023 was the face-off between Gov. Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers state and his estranged godfather and Federal Capital Territory FCT Minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike.

Not that the issue would have concerned Ganduje but for the fact that Wike is a Minister in the APC-led administration.

Having known that the Tonye Cole led APC in Rivers state was not open to having Wike in the party, Ganduje’s NWC decided to dissolve the Executive Council and instead constituted a Caretaker Committee led by Tony Okocha.

While some partisans have accused him of handing over the party on a platter to Wike, a party official  said without Wike, the APC would not have won any state in the South South in the last Presidential election.

“Wike was the one who stood and ensured that out presidential candidate secured at least 25 percent in that state. Many of those who oppose him today in the state were nowhere to be found when it mattered most. In fact, some of them were openly against our candidate, going by their utterances on election day and the fact that they were never part of our campaigns”, he stated.

The Buhari House national secretariat of the party is today a beehive, as opposed to when it was only busy during general elections, off-cycle polls or Congresses. Many of those who deserted the party house, including local and international envoys are today seeking to revive their partnerships with Nigeria’s ruling party.

Apart from seeking to establish critical standing committees and the Progressive Institute, one policy that may eventually reposition the APC is Ganduje’s decision to take the party back to the grassroots, by establishing functional offices at the wards and local government levels as well as inaugurating states campaign councils in the various states as opposed to the past when such councils were inaugurated in Abuja.

APC’s attempt at embarking on electronic membership registration had since 2014 suffered serious setbacks, but the former Kano governor said without e-registration, the party may not be able to plan adequately for its members.

Consequently, the year 2024 would see whether Ganduje would be able to kickstart the process of registering members electronically.

But in the less than five months he has been in the saddle, there were other landmines. As one NWC member told Saturday Vanguard, there were those who felt the party was going to lose Kogi state to the opposition during the November 11 governorship election.

“It was so bad that some thought we would lose the three states or Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo and they were already designing a propaganda to get Ganduje out of the way on the basis of electoral losses. But as it turned out, we retained two and we believe we would have gotten Bayelsa were it not for the inability of aggrieved stakeholders in that state to shift grounds”, he said.

Om his part, the immediate-past National Vice Chairman, Northwest, of the party, Salihu Moh. Lukman who has never spared any of Ganduje’s predecessors, said the APC national chairman has not done enough.

“We removed Abdullahi Adamu and brought Ganduje, Ganduje is just sitting, almost behaving like Abdullahi Adamu. I am sorry with due respect to him, no meeting is taking place, sometimes ceremonial, you see people paying courtesy visits. It doesn’t amount to meeting all the obligations the Constitution has imposed on him as the national chairman of the party. I think these are the issues”, he told Saturday Vanguard.

However, in spite of the best efforts of the Ganduje-led NWC towards enhancing the fortunes of the party, there is still a wide disconnect between the party and Nigerians due to its peacockish attitude in responding to issues that matter.

The communications template of the party is so poor that it is often impossible to get relevant party officials to respond to burning national issues. While the ruling party is supposed to be setting the narratives, it lacks a clear capacity to respond to opposition narratives, let alone setting its own. In the New Year, it is hoped that the APC NWC would open itself more to the public, via the media.