BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
The pendulum of the ruling All Progressives Congress for the forthcoming general elections in 2023 has yet to start swinging but the party’s abysmal performance at the recently concluded Anambra gubernatorial election has almost immediately set tongues of members wagging.
The party, it would seem, has yet to endear itself to the people after what the masses tagged its failure to live up to the expectations of the masses that kicked out the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party with high hopes of experiencing change for better governance.
The APC has been enduring protracted internal wrangling, with the general elections just about 15 months away. But it has also managed to project an external image of a flourishing organisation where all is well, and most importantly, as the darling of the people.
The gale of defectors into the party from others has been trumped up as the most eloquent testimony to the fact that the party is about the best thing that has happened to Nigeria since 1999 when the country returned to democratic governance.
Observers and political commentators think the party has jettisoned every pointer to a possible downturn in the fortune of the party in the nearest future as they readily tell their followers that the APC is the party to beat in every election they are contesting.
However, the reality on the ground has shown that the claim may not be very correct after all. Last year, the party was so confident that it would win the Edo State gubernatorial election, even before the votes were cast, but it lost woefully at the end.
Recently, the Anambra gubernatorial election was tagged a sure win by the party at both the national and state levels. The claim assumed a life of its own when heavyweight politicians which include former and present lawmakers at both national and state levels, even a sitting Deputy Governor, former and serving commissioners and others dumped their parties to join the APC. On that score, one cannot but give kudos to the APC leadership of Governor Mai Mala Buni as the Chairman, Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee. The parties at the receiving end include the PDP and even the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance in Anambra State.
The mass defection, backed by well-oiled publicity, effectively portrayed the APC as the only major contestant to the government house at Awka while other political parties, including the ruling APGA were only making up the numbers. That, however, was not to be as the party came a distant third with 43,285 votes.
APC’s membership revalidation exercise across the length and breadth of the country also boosted the belief that the party is the largest political party in West Africa and as such will cruise home at every election since it has the largest membership base.
All these appear to be conclusions reached wearing rose-tinted glasses. But a shocking performance at the Anambra election has now opened the eyes of stakeholders to the need to take a second look at whatever the party claims to be, especially as it may not have the benefit of the larger-than-life image of President Muhammadu Buhari on any ballot paper.
Stakeholders have continued to ask in a hush tone, what will be the fate of the party in the forthcoming 2023 general elections as President Buhari winds up his constitutional two terms.
Not too long ago, a pressure group within the party, The Concerned APC Youth, led by Mohammed Audu, was at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja to demand the sack of the governor Buni-led CECPC. It happened in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment in the Ondo State governorship election, which gave the party a slim 4 – 3 victory over the PDP.
The group expressed fears that the party was heading to the Anambra gubernatorial election with such major shakeup and awareness created by the Apex court’s judgment, which might have exposed it and would give other parties the confidence to institute court cases against it.
Some other groups within the APC have, however, said that this particular group was sponsored against the Buni-led committee for selfish reasons ahead of the 2023 presidential elections.
An aide to a top chieftain of the APC, who would not want his name mentioned, owing to the sensitivity of the issue, particularly said that the APC was not allowed to play its usual winning game in Anambra with its major crack team, because a cabal wanted to play a fast one and claim glory for the victory, if it came.
“The governor that led the campaign held everything to his chest until he showed everyone that he could not win an election; he and his cohorts. Now they know the masters of the game in APC and they are biting their fingers,” he said.
Meanwhile, the outcome of the congresses nationwide had brewed up squabbles in the party. On these crises, another group, Rebirth APC, led by Abubakar Sadiq, called for a holistic approach to return the party to the masses.
The group claimed that moneybags had hijacked the party and had continued to feed the members with lies to make them believe that the party was still what it used to be in 2014 when it was formed.
Last week, another group held a media briefing to call for the sack of the governor Buni-led CECPC accusing it of being the major reason the party lost in the Anambra gubernatorial election of November 6.
Spokesperson for the group, Ayo Oyalowo, said it was based on the realisation that the caretaker committee had failed to manage the affairs of the party. The group claimed that the Caretaker Committee had created even more problems for the party than it was meant to resolve.
“The Caretaker Committee has conducted what is arguably the worst ward, local government and state congresses since the formation of the party in 2013.
These congresses, rather than putting the party on strong footings, have created further divisions and disenchantment among its members,” it said.
“The governor that led the campaign held everything to his chest until he showed everyone that he could not win an election; he and his cohorts. Now they know the masters of the game in APC and they are biting their fingers
“
Oyalowo noted that only days ago, stakeholders of the party from Bauchi State protested at the party’s headquarters, demanding for the sack of Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, as a result of the fallout of the congresses, and in the same vein, the attempt by the leadership of the party to reconcile stakeholders from Oyo State failed right inside the party’s headquarters.
“Another crystal clear evidence of the failure of the Caretaker Committee is the outcome of the Anambra gubernatorial election. While it is sad that the APC came a dismal third in an election it had every chance of winning, it would have been magic if the party had performed better than it did especially considering that the candidate of the party, Senator Andy Uba, emerged through a process that was completely strange to the ideals of the APC,” he argued.
The group, like the other groups, further called on all concerned members of the party across the country to join forces and ensure the election of a National Working Committee that would represent the interest and aspirations of those it called genuine APC members.
Though APC had yet to fix a timetable for its national convention, many stakeholders in the party are optimistic of the party’s very bright chances in 2023, with resounding victory in the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun states’ governorship elections.
However, some members have divergent views. A member of the party, who spoke to The Point on the condition of anonymity, said the party faces the prospect of losing the 2023 general elections, especially as President Buhari was serving out his two-term tenure.
He expressed fears that the exit of President Buhari from the Aso Rock Villa would disorganise the party. “We don’t have any name that can attract votes for us and if this happens at the presidential level, then imagine the fate of the party at the other levels,” he said.
He further expressed fears that the APC might disintegrate into many factions after the convention if the caretaker committee continued to progress in error without listening to the voice of genuine party members, calling it to do the right thing at the right time.
He said intrigues in the party and the interests of those accused of hijacking the party might cost it the 2023 election as pressure might lead the party into making a wrong choice of flagbearer.
APC has enjoyed tremendous and absolute loyalty from its members at the National Assembly, and as the majority, has had its way but the reverse was the case in the Electoral Act amendments. The support for direct primaries for all the political parties by APC lawmakers was a shock to the party hierarchy and a signal that it is no longer business as usual.
While Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State said the APC governors were not afraid of direct primaries as provided for by the Bill recently passed by the Senate, political watchers are accusing the party of mounting pressure on the President to decline assent to the Bill.
The party is divided along interests and this has a serious effect on the decisions coming from its hierarchy. Even among the Progressives Governors Forum, there are divergent opinions on both the yet-to-be-held convention, and of late, the passage of the Electoral Act amendments Bill with the direct primaries in focus.
