If there’s anything that the All Progressives Congress, APC, has learnt from her closest rival, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in recent times, it is the secrecy deployed in the management of her internal affairs which is perhaps triggered by the composition of its Presidential Campaign Council, PCC.
The APC presidential candidate, Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu may have sown the seeds of the new crisis in the APC by deliberately over riding President Muhammadu Buhari, the party leadership and the governors, in the composition of the council.
While the governors are expected to take of charge of campaigns in their respective states, the president and Tinubu are also expected to coordinate campaigns across the nation.
There was a gentleman’s agreement between APC governors and Tinubu that composition of the campaign council should be based on nominations but the president should be carried along and involved in the final list of members on the campaign council.
Unfortunately, Tinubu, without recourse to any of the other parties, including Buhari, single-handedly reviewed the list, particularly, tampering with some critical areas that the president and the governors, had indicated interests and agreed with him. He deleted the names of nominees sent to him by the president and governors.
Buhari was said to have indicated interest in Mrs. Margaret Okadigbo, wife of a former Senate President, whom he wanted as the regional coordinator for the South East, apparently deferring to his late friend and former running mate, Senator Chuba Okadigbo, while at the same time, factoring the interest of the South East into the council.
But Tinubu removed the name of Mrs. Okadigbo and in her place, put the sole female presidential aspirant of the party, Uju Ken Ohanenye, who stood down for him at the presidential primary in Abuja.
APC governors were said to have favoured Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, as the PCC coordinator for the zone, but Tinubu opposed his choice and in his place, chose the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN. Sensing intrigue playing out, sources said Fayemi had immediately stepped in, saying since Akeredolu was the Chairman of the South West APC governors, he was a better choice and quietly acceded to the choice of the presidential aspirant without making a fuss of it.
Tinubu’s insistence on the choice of James Faleke, a member of the House of Representatives, from Lagos, as Secretary of the campaign council did not go down well with governors from the North.
The position of secretary of the council was reserved for the North Central, as part of moves to pacify the minority North because the Director-General of the PCC, Governor Simon Lalong, was from Plateau State. It was agreed that the position of the secretary should be given to Benue State, being a critical state in the middle belt.
Also, with the controversy generated by the preference of the presidential candidate, stakeholders believed picking a Christian from Benue State, would go a long way to quell opposition to the Moslem-Moslem ticket of the party.
To balance the PCC composition, former governor of Benue State, Senator George Akume, was prevailed upon to send in two names and their Curriculum Vitae, for Tinubu’s consideration for the position, which he allegedly did.
It was alleged that Tinubu turned down the two names from Benue and claimed that since Kogi was part of North Central, he would rather choose Faleke, a man representing Lagos State in the lower chamber of the National Assembly, and without seeking the consent of other stakeholders, listed him as the secretary of the PCC.
These developments angered Lalong, to the extent that he threatened to quit as DG of the PCC, but for the interventions of some members in the party, including a former deputy governor of Nasarawa State and other stakeholders, who appealed to him, not to throw the party into crisis by making such a move.
Further more, Tinubu had been accused variously by members of allegedly appointing some persons, either as directors or assistant directors, to different positions in the council, without consulting other stakeholders, a move many believed was intentionally to directly control the campaign secretariat, especially, with Faleke’s choice as secretary.
Majority of northern governors are unhappy over the way and manner Tinubu had managed things since he emerged as the party’s presidential candidate, especially, with the allegations that a former chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole and Faleke, were being used to project a southern agenda, undermine Lalong, and by extension, the governors as a body.
Also, apart from Northern governors and Lalong, the chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has been kept in the dark in the appointment of members of the PCC. Sources say Tinubu is yet to forgive him for his role at the party’s presidential primaries when he announced and presented Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the president’s anointed consensus candidate.
These issues were responsible for the postponement of the proposed launch of the APC presidential campaign.
Notwithstanding, days after its critical National Working Committee, NWC, meeting, after he returned from his London visit, the APC, like the Freemasons society, have kept secret, away from the prying eyes of the public and Nigerians, resolutions reached at that meeting over the disagreements on the list and membership of her presidential campaign council.
The seeming peace in the APC may just be the peace of the grave yard. Perhaps, unlike the PDP, whose crisis is well known across Nigeria and beyond, the APC has learnt not to wash her dirty linens in the full glare of the public, rather has chosen to secretly manage her crisis like coven members.
Sadly, the decision of APC’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, on how the management of APC crisis is resolved will, to a large extent, determine how soon the party will launch her presidential campaign.
Considering her same faith ticket, it will only be better for the APC to have an all-inclusive presidential campaign council list.
The interest of Northern governors and the reduction of persons perceived to be the party’s presidential candidate’s henchmen from the South-West, must be directly addressed by Tinubu himself.
Proverbially, Tinubu holds the knife in one hand and the yam on his other hand, in the settlement of his party’s brewing internal crisis.
Like the PDP crisis that is already in the public domain, will the seeming ‘peace’ in the APC burst into the open? Coven members are not predisposed to reveal what happens at their meetings. Time will tell.