From APC Convention, the Winners and Their Supportive Losers
Although the All Progressives Congress (APC) created a ‘no victor, no vanquished’ impression after its Saturday, March 26 national convention at the Eagle Square, Abuja, the casualties were not hard to identify either. Indeed, there were winners and losers.
After months of deliberate manipulations, orchestrated to delay the national convention of the APC, due largely to conflicting interests of critical stakeholders, the event eventually held on Saturday, March 26.
This, of course, culminated in the election of new members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, with a former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, coronated as the new chairman of APC.
With the consensus option brazenly thrown in the faces of all the aspirants, albeit with the consent of President Muhammadu Buhari, as the supreme leader of the party, the APC had wished the process was utterly seamless, and had sold the convenient narrative, right from the convention ground.
Unfortunately, the initial refusal of some aspirants to stand down their ambitions, and those, who openly condemned the arrogant approach of the leadership to the consensus option, exposed the pains of the losers amid the pyrrhic victory of the preferred lot.
Therefore, in keeping faith with one of THISDAY’s age-long traditions, below are some of the winners and their supportive losers, who without any options ‘genuinely’ open to them, stood down their ambitions, in larger and overall interest of the party.
THE WINNERS
Muhammadu Buhari:
The president was unpretentious about where he stood from day one. He wanted a consensus-driven convention and had even reminded party faithful that, since the merger of the APC in 2014, the party had always elected its national officers through consensus.
He cited Bisi Akande, John Odigie-Oyegun and Adams Oshiomhole as handy examples. But while a majority of other stakeholders shared the consensus idea as propounded by the president, what was left to resolve was the choice of national chairman as the starting point.
That eventually didn’t come off as a hard nut to crack and eventually, the president’s choice candidate, Abdullahi Adamu, who was governor of Nasarawa State under the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was elected APC’s national chairman. With this alone, the president is the number one winner. He, technically, controls the party.
Mai Mala Buni:
The Yobe State Governor and former chairman, Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the APC, Mai Mala Buni, had a tough time in the days leading to the national convention. Some of his colleagues and other incensed stakeholders, had suspected he was deliberately stalling and frustrating the convention and therefore, plotted his removal.
But things changed after Buhari stepped in, reversed the situations and gave clear instructions on what to do to make the convention a reality. Buni followed the books and thus, on March 26, the exercise held. He is a major winner and deservedly so, having left without humiliation.
Abdullahi Adamu:
A former governor of Nasarawa State under the PDP and erstwhile secretary of the Board of Trustees of the opposition party, Abdullahi Adamu, was also elected senator under the PDP and the least likely candidate to emerge chairman of the ruling party, given his antecedents as a founding PDP member.
Adamu, who was only handed an assignment to reconcile some of the aggrieved members of the party, found the lot fall on his laps, when the president zeroed in on him. He too would later hint somewhere as interested in the seat, a development that altered the previous equations and threw other camps in disarray. He is an enviable winner.
Iyiola Omisore:
A former deputy governor in Osun State under the Alliance for Democracy (AD) party, Omisore soon joined the PDP, where he went on to become a senator for eight years. He is a strong politician from his Ife part of Osun State and has maintained that hold on his people since then.
But after some challenging political trajectories, which forced him to change parties at different times, attempting to resuscitate his failed governorship bid in the state, Omisore found himself in the APC, after helping the incumbent governor of Osun, Adegboyega Oyetola to emerge governor at a desperate period.
This is why, despite the opposition from other stakeholders, both Oyetola and his brother – a presidential hopeful – Bola Tinubu, thought the office of the national secretary would be ideal to compensate Omisore, having failed to make the Buhari cabinet this second term. By all standards, Omisore is a winner, against all odds.
The APC Governors:
Governors elected on the platform of the APC didn’t have it smooth for many weeks, especially, when they started suspecting that their CECPC chairman, Buni, had started to pitch tent with other interests other than the collective. This created tension that almost cost Buni his office.
But the situation degenerated further, when zoning was first introduced and then, consensus. Led by the Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, the progressive governors, fought hard to ensure their place in the emerging party regime was not relegated and made sure their choice unity list passed the consensus test. The governors won big time.
Abubakar Kyari:
A senator from Borno State, Abubakar Kyari, was one of the lucky contestants, who had the solid backing of his governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, to be on the unity list and represent the state in the new NWC of the APC.
Kyari was clearly running against an individual, who was touted an interest of the president and almost lost out in the equation, until his governor issued a threat that many refused to take for granted, before he eventually made the list as deputy national chairman, north. He is a winner.
Dayo Israel:
The office of the National Youth Leader, was what Lagos opted for, apparently for convenient politics of 2023 with respect to the presidential run. Lagos, like Ogun, which is featuring a governorship hopeful, Bola Tinubu, was opposed to any major NWC office coming to the state during the micro-zoning exercise, so it would not stand against the state, when pushing forward the presidential slot.
For Israel, however, it was also compensatory. He had wanted to become a local government chairman in Lagos, during the last council polls but lost out to the internal political arrangement, which favoured someone else. So, the political leadership had him in mind, when the office was poached for convenience sake. He won.
The Entire NWC:
Apart from those, who emerged either as a result of internal politics of the zones or as a measure of sheer compensation, the other members of the NWC, who also made the unity list for one political consideration or the other, particularly, those who went for elections and won. They are victors too.
They largely didn’t have to struggle, campaigning to their respective delegates or spending so much money seeking the much-needed support for their election; they just went to the Eagle Square, venue of the convention, for their coronation. The party and government already bore their cans.
THE LOSERS
Tanko Al-Makura and the Five Others:
Another former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Tanko Al-Makura, was until a couple of weeks to the convention, the APC national chairman-in-waiting and the reason for this was simple. When the APC merger was to be consummated in 2014, Nasarawa under Al-Makura, was the only thing, aside some mythical votes, that Buhari could take to the table as his own equity.
Therefore, a majority of the other stakeholders, had concluded that except the devil found its way into the details, Al-Makura was everyone’s natural choice, at least, with the chairmanship zoned to North Central. Although such confidence didn’t limit his push and campaign, Buhari, however, pulled the rug off his feet and settled for someone from his state, also, his predecessor.
It was a bitter pill for Al-Makura and his supporters as much as other aspirants to the office of the chairman, who had to walk away, because the president had spoken. Others, who walked in the path of Al-Makura were Senator George Akume, Alhaji Abdul-Azis Yari, Senator Musa Muhammed, Etsu Muhammed and Turaki Salifu Mustapha.
While their losses were compelled by circumstances, which bore official seal of the president and clearly against their wishes, there couldn’t have been a better way to describe them, in the final analysis, other than losers.
Ifeoluwa Oyedele:
Perhaps, Mr. Ifeoluwa Oyedele, fizzled out of the race for national secretary, the same way he showed up like a cometh. A former governorship aspirant in Ondo State during the 2020 governorship election, Oyedele, was not in the equation all along. His name only suddenly showed up a day or two to the convention, and paraded as the candidate of the president for national secretary in the unity list.
But the governors, obviously fighting for their colleagues in Ondo and Osun, came together and opposed his nomination, insisting on Omisore. Had Oyedele made the list, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s candidate, Isaac Kekemeke, would have lost out as planned as well as Omisore, who was being pushed by both Oyetola and Tinubu. He lost out.
Tokunbo Afikuyomi:
If there was any candidate, whose loss really didn’t go down well with a majority of the active players, but were helpless to push his case harder than they did, it was Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, who wanted to be National Vice Chairman, Southwest but was yanked off the equation because of Tunubu’s presidential ambition as an aspirant from Lagos.
Ironically, Afikuyomi’s case shared closely with that of Al-Makura as they were both backstabbed by people, they were loyal to and had given so much to help many years ago. Afikuyomi played a critical role in the certificate scandal of Tinubu, by admitting to be responsible for the controversial mix-up. But for some weird reasons, Tinubu had always feared Afikuyomi’s progress could undermine his and therefore, consistently stood in his way.
In this stance, like he did to him when he wanted to be governor and attempted to return to the senate recently, he pretended not to be aware he was running and instead, pushed for the national youth leader to be zoned to Lagos, using the “southwest YES and pretentious governors” to deliver his mission, while they deceived the former senator that all was well, even till the last minute.
Afikuyomi lost painfully, banking on all the people he thought were his genuine allies of many years. The development left in very bad shape. He actually felt stabbed in the back, from Tinubu to the governors, all of whom were his supposed personal friends.
John Akpanudoedehe:
He was secretary of the CECPC and by virtue of his mismanaged loyalty to his boss, Buni, Akpanudoedehe, a former senator, made enemies for himself, until the rest of the caretaker committee collectively sacked him. He seemed first like a joke, but it soon became a reality that ultimately saw the back of the former governorship aspirant in Akwa Ibom State, from the current party politics.
Although there were suspicions that Buni and his clique had planned to make him return to the party as secretary, however, while the micro-zoning of the offices did not favour him; the rest of the APC stakeholders were not ready to give him a chance either. He didn’t just lose out, he was a collateral damage.
Ken Nnamani:
A former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, from Enugu State, was a casualty for being tagged a candidate of the president. Already marked safe for the unity list, governors, who boasted they would dare the president and made sure he didn’t have more than Adamu on the unity list, classified Nnamani as enemy to collective interest and moved against him.
The office of the deputy national chairman, south, had been conceded to Nnamani as a worthy southeast ally and successfully sold to the president, who in turn, had allegedly marked him his choice for the office. But since the succession politics was read rightly by the governors, they refused the president having extreme hold on the party and moved daringly against almost everything he wanted except the chairman. Nnamani was a collateral damage. He lost.
Adamu Farouk Aliyu:
He was an aspirant for the office of the deputy national chairman, north but not favoured by the governors. He was only on the list because he was sold as the candidate of the president, which placed him in a position of disadvantage, contrary to expectations, making him lose the office to Kyari, also from Borno.
Waziri Bulama:
The office of the National Organising Secretary had been assigned to Bulama as one of the preferred aspirants of the president. He was caught in the local politics of his state, Borno, as his governor, Zulum, would rather someone else. Thus, by the time the list was perfected and other interests taken care of, he was one of the casualties from the compromise that later ensued.
Olusegun Dada:
A promising young man, who had run an excellent campaign for the post of the national youth leader, had to step down, when it was clear leaders of the party did not believe in democracy and would rather play military politics in disguise.
The young man didn’t ask for much, he just wanted a level playing field and let the better of the two candidates to the office in Southwest emerge. But he fell victim to the cult politics of the political leadership, as he had neither any godfather nor anyone in the corridor of power to push his case.
Dada stood down his aspiration that night in heavy tears and with his shaky voice unable to mutter the right words. But he did it for the party; he did for APC’s peculiar democracy and he did just so they would not brand him a rebel. He lost badly and didn’t hide that fact.
…And the Rest:
Apart from these few, there were several other people, who took turns, to renounce their aspirations, just so they look good before the rest of the country and the world as good party men and women. While some brave ones spoke their minds and condemned the high-handedness of the party leadership on how they handed the resort to consensus, others just mounted the stage, announce their decision to stand down and left. Whether or not it was a personal decision, they all lost out.
