The flexing of political muscles between the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has now degenerated into mutual hostilities, in what has begun to create cracks on the walls of the party.
Tinubu and Odigie-Oyegun’s worsening relationship began its incubation in the aftermath of the APC victory at the national level, in which the party, under Odigie-Oyegun, aborted Tinubu’s aspiration to have his zoning formula in the election of principal officers into the National Assembly erected.
Besides, the party chairman also reportedly came between Tinubu and the installation of James Faleke as the governorship candidate in Kogi State, following the sudden death of the APC candidate, Audu Abubakar, in the course of the election. Eventually, Odigie-Oyegun’s candidate, Yahaya Bello, became the governor.
It is believed in some quarters that some ‘cabals’ in the ruling party, who were once close to the national leader, but who fear being sidelined should Tinubu have an upper hand, this time, in the affairs of the party, are solidly behind Odigie-Oyegun’s actions
The mutual distrust between these APC leaders soon streamed to the choice of candidate in the 2016 governorship primary election in Ondo State. Tinubu’s candidate in the election, Segun Abraham, was defeated by Rotimi Akeredolu amid claims by the Tinubu camp that there was fraud in the primary poll.
A panel was raised by the party to investigate the case; but at the end of the day, contrary to the panel’s recommendation that the primary poll be cancelled, Odigie-Oyegun’s National Working Committee vetoed it and submitted Akeredolu’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission. Today, Akeredolu is the governor of Ondo State.
Now, the silent war between the two men, who are former governors, has turned to an open battle following the appointment of Tinubu as head of a special presidential reconciliation party formed for the APC by President Muhammadu Buhari.
With the rift reaching a fever pitch high, Tinubu wrote a letter to the party’s national chairman in which he accused the latter of sabotaging the reconciliation assignment given to him by the president.
In the letter, Tinubu said Oyegun had engaged in different moves to frustrate his move to bring peace back into the party nationally.
Tinubu also maintained that the party’s initial soul, which meant well for the country, “has been replaced by the bankrupt and clueless ways that brought the PDP low.”
“You (Odigie-Oyegun) promised unalloyed support for my mission. Consonant with that vow, you said you would provide all information at your disposal and you vowed to act as the liaison between me and the state party chapters. Unfortunately, the spirit of understanding and of cooperative undertaking to revive the party seems not to have lived beyond the temporal confines of that meeting. I assure anyone who cares to know that this positive spirit of cooperation did not meet its demise at my hands,” Tinubu said.
He added that he was disappointed with several moves of the party’s national chairman, which had led to a division of the party in some states.
He maintained, “Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of the APC. As a party, we have strived to be the best, and present hope for the nation. Yet, your goal appears to be something of a lesser pedigree. In our discussion, you personally mentioned Kogi, Kaduna, Kano and Adamawa states as places afflicted by serious party issues. Given your assessment, these are states where I believe cooperation between you and I should have been intense and detailed. Instead, you have taken it as your personal mission to thwart my presidential assignment in these key states.”
Then he added, “In Kogi, you rushed to the state to unilaterally inaugurate new state chapter officials parallel to the officials already heading the state chapter of the party. While this may place you in significant affinity with those parallel officials you handpicked, this machination suggests no improvement in the welfare of the party in Kogi or at the national level.
“This usurpation of authority exacerbates conflict and confusion; it does not resolve them. It is my understanding that your dissolution of the duly constituted state executives and the hurried naming of the above-mentioned caretaker group were not approved by the NWC. This arrogation of power sets you at variance with the members of the NWC as evidenced by the National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi’s statement, condemning your improper and unusual action.”
Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, also said Oyegun had created the second problem for the leadership of the party at the states’ levels, adding that he deliberately undermined him.
“By creating a parallel body, you not only acted improperly, you grew a second problem from the stem where previously there had sprouted but one. Drawing from your behaviour in Kogi, Kaduna and with regard to the state chapter assessment requested, I am led to the inference that you have no intention of actually supporting my assignment. Instead, you apparently seek to undermine my mandate by engaging in dilatory tactics for the most part. When forced to act, you do so in an arbitrary and capricious manner, without the counsel of other NWC members and without regard to our internal procedures,” Tinubu maintained.
However, he lamented that the party, if not quickly saved from the “jeopardy” afflicting it, might not see beyond the current time.
But in a release later, Odigie-Oyegun, a former governor of Edo State, replied Tinubu, rather canonically and in a method that some followers of Tinubu described as “the kiss of Judas.”
“Let me once again formally congratulate you on the peacemaking assignment Mr. President has entrusted you with. It is most challenging but I believe you will ultimately justify the confidence reposed in you by Mr. President. In this, you have my fullest support.”
It is believed in some quarters that some “cabals” in the ruling party, who were once close to the national leader, but who fear being sidelined should Tinubu have an upper hand, this time, in the affairs of the party, are solidly behind Odigie-Oyegun’s
actions.
Meanwhile, in what looks like the denouement of the power play, Tinubu may have lost out as Odigie-Oyegun, fully backed by Buhari, has been awarded additional 12 months of service as APC national chairman; tickled along with the passage of a vote of confidence.
However jaded, observers say Tinubu is a master political strategist, and that the ruling APC may have shot itself in the foot with the treatment meted out to him.
The APC drama, it would seem, now gets hotter.
