APC Chairmanship, Buhari’s Legacies and Matters Arising

Adekunle Bakare

The merger of four political parties in a mega opposition to the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in 2013 was a radical step taken to salvage the country from ruin, despair and hopelessness as a result of a lack of internal democracy, colossal corruption in key government institutions and a brazen disrespect for the rule of law.

The urgency to redeem Nigeria’s global image as a haven for lawlessness and corrupt practices heralded the coming together of these political parties –– the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

In retrospect, this alliance achieved its stated aim of taking power from the men who supervised the illegal sharing of our national assets to their cronies; weakened the armed forces through the diversion of funds approved for arms procurement, and the mismanagement of the country’s foreign reserves.

The adoption of President Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate of the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014 was hinged on his impeccable record of integrity, his simple approach to life and his background as former military ruler. The odds were in his favour and this goodwill was extended to more than 80% of the candidates that contested elections under the party – as they recorded a clean sweep in their various elections.

Much has been achieved by the ruling APC since it took power in 2015. The need to sustain the legacies bequeathed to the party by President Buhari on account of his goodwill and the events that occurred during and after the 2019 general elections have given more compelling importance on who emerges as the national chairman of the Nigeria’s foremost party, APC.

In recent times, the media has been inundated with an x-ray of the candidates jostling for the national chairmanship position. As at the last count, close to 10 aspirants comprising of former governors, former and serving senators have directly or indirectly indicated interest to contest the vacant chairmanship position.

Based on their recent activities related to the chairmanship position, Senators Tanko Al-Makura and Mohammed Sani Musa, former governors Abdulaziz Yari and Ali Modu Sheriff have stepped up their engagements within the party and in the media. It is commonplace to have the prospective candidates engage with party stalwarts and members of the fourth estate of the realm before making a formal elaborate pronouncement.

No doubt, these candidates have enriched the outlook of the APC as a national party in their various states either during its formative years or at its later stage. Put differently, these are men of timber and calibre who have done their bits in the shaping of the party into the formidable force that it is today.

But then, the challenge that will face the party in the coming years goes beyond mere consolidation; it is about taking the party to the next level, ensuring the sustenance of its ideals as indeed the legacies of the current administration. That obviously requires new breathe of vision, energy and dynamism. This is where the question of the qualities of the individual aspirants to the office comes in. In other words, it comes to the question of whether the party can source for a fresh broom.

This is perhaps where the candidacy of the senator from Niger East, Sani Musa, comes across as interesting. Obviously, he does not belong to the class of the former governors often regarded as the ‘heavyweights’. Yet, he cannot be described as a pushover by any stretch of imagination.

A silent player and achiever, his numerous selfless activities in and out of the party is outstanding if not unequalled. As the highest individual financial contributor to the APC in Niger State during and after the 2015 and 2019 elections, he presented election materials, vehicles for easy transportation, branded billboards and other souvenirs alongside radio and television jingles that conveyed the party’s message to the remotest parts of the state. In this he has been consistent since 2014 in his contribution to the development of the party both at the state and national level. In the build-up to the 2015 general elections, he furnished and maintained the biggest campaign office in the country which happens to be that of his home state of Niger which inevitably served as the campaign headquarters of presidential and other elections in the state.

No doubt, there is also a lot to say about his highly cosmopolitan outlook which accounts for why he’s highly respected among his peers in the National Assembly where he currently serves; his strong advocacy for inclusivity and his capacity to build bridges between the young and the old, and among the different groups in the Nigerian federation. Those virtues will surely serve the party well at this time.

One other factor going well for candidacy for the Niger East senator, Sani Musa, might well be the silent restructuring already on-going within the APC itself. Political analysts privy to the workings of the party have alluded to the body language of President Buhari and other top leaders within the party echelon as being unenthusiastic at the possibility of a former governor’s emerging as party chair owing to what some have described as their overbearing tendencies. The argument here goes that the governors, having tasted of the enormous powers as chief executive of their states, stand the risk of seeking to run the party as if it is an extension of the states they previously governed. Some analysts, drawing from the party’s recent odyssey appear to suggest that the experiences have not been stellar. Here, it is said of Senator Musa that he possesses all the right qualities to lead the party as its chairman without the highhandedness that the party’s rank and file experienced in the hand of a former chairman who often handled party as if it was his personal fiefdom.

Above all, Musa has distinguished himself as a loyal party man with the requisite leadership acumen to carry on and sustain the legacies of President Buhari for the All Progressives Congress. He is as progressives as they come, a master-strategist, shrewd mobiliser who is not only passionate about the wholesome development of the nation but has the capacity to manage diverse people and interests irrespective of tribe and religion.

• Bakare, a political analyst, wrote from Lagos.