By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

The crisis in the APC was blown open by the divergent positions taken by some prominent party leaders ahead of the June 9 leadership contests in the two chambers of the National Assembly.

Chairman of APC Odigie-Oyegun at APC National Convention in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

National party leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu according to sources, apparently reading the body language of President Muhammadu Buhari had sacrificed his own project to elect Senator George Akume as Senate President thrown his hat for the aspiration of Senator Ahmad Lawan, who it was believed had the support of the president.

That belief was underpinned by the support for Lawan from the Katsina senators and those believed to be close to the president.

Presidential convention

That was despite the well orchestrated campaign by Senator Bukola Saraki who immediately after the March 28 National Assembly elections written all the APC senators-elect congratulating them and seeking their support.

Even before that election, Saraki’s ambition was reportedly also made known to party leaders, especially during the presidential convention.

In the House of Representatives, the Buhari effect was of little effect. Rather, the immediate past speaker of the House, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal was believed to have initiated the Dogara project to run on a joint ticket with Gbajabiamila.

Dogara, it was gathered was, however, snubbed by a powerful party chieftain from Lagos State. Even more Tambuwal’s plan for Dogara and Gbajabiamila to run on a joint ticket with either of them leading the pack was jettisoned reportedly on the claim that Gbajabiamila preferred to run with Mohammed Moguno from Borno State as his running mate.

The rebuff given Tambuwal, it was learnt, fired him to mobilise more support for Dogara from the Northwest with Zamfara throwing in the hat. Strong rebuff for Dogara, however, came from Kano and Jigawa States, apparently on the instruction of former Governor Rabiu Kwankwanso who saw Tambuwal’s hand in the Dogara project as an attempt to strengthen the former speaker’s hand in the alleged 2019 presidential race.

Widespread allegations

Kwankwanso according to a source in the Dogara camp did their campaign the worse harm.

All sorts of innuendos were reportedly thrown into by the Kwankwanso camp to unsettle Dogara and in the eleventh hour, the last joker became the religious card with widespread allegations that Dogara was a minority Christian activist.

That was despite the visible hand of the Sultanate in the Dogara campaign.

The sultanate it was gathered saw in Dogara, a man that could be used to reconcile the far north and the northern minorities given the chasm created by recent religious crises.

It was as such not surprising that Dogara held on in the face of the calculated attacks that almost unravelled his campaign in the few days before the election. Tambuwal was said to have played a major role as a bulwark in those trying days.

Tambuwal’s efforts were also not helped by the reported antagonism given the Dogara project by another 2019 presidential hopeful, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai whose National Assembly delegation from Kaduna State were almost solidly behind Gbajabiamila in the House and behind Lawan in the Senate.

By the time the contest for presiding officers of the National Assembly played out what emerged in the APC was a silent collaboration of two 2019 potential presidential aspirants (Tambuwal and Saraki) confronting another two possible presidential aspirants (El-Rufai and Kwankwanso).

Despite recent efforts towards reconciliation, the party as it is now, is presently fragmented along those lines as leaders put their bets on projecting themselves in the unlikely event that President Buhari does not seek re-election in 2019.