Six Months on, Is APC Better Off Under Ganduje?

Former governor of Kano state, Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje, in August, 2023, emerged the sixth National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress. Six months on, has Ganduje been able to prove those who were hitherto against his emergence wrong? Adedayo Akinwale reports.

The immediate past governor of Kano state, Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje on August 3, 2023, emerged as the sixth National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) within 10 years of the existence of the party. His choice was ratified at the 12th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party.

The ruling party had the former Governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande as its proterm chairman, followed by former Governors of Edo state, Chief John Oyegun and Adams Oshiomhole. The Governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni, was drafted in as the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) Chairman following the ouster of Oshiomhole, and was later succeeded by Senator Abdulahi Adamu.

Prior to his emergence, the position of National Chairman was zoned to North Central. However, after Senator Abdulahi Adamu was eased out of office, the position was zoned to North-west, which led to discordant tunes from some party stakeholders.

Due to political exigency, President Bola Tinubu in consultation with other leaders of the party insisted on the position moving to the North-west to pave way for Ganduje.

The choice of Ganduje wasn’t far-fetched, the party needed someone in his mould who could steady the ship of the party in a seamless and crisis-free manner, while taking various interests into cognizance.

Speaking after his emergence, Ganduje assured that his main focus would be to promote party unity, defending and increasing the number of executive and legislative seats the party currently holds.

“It’s a huge privilege and an honour and a great responsibility to take on this job and I will do it with everything I have to the best of my ability for my party and my country. We will ensure a level playing field for all party members that want to contest elections under the party’s platform. Our primary elections would be free, transparent and fair.

“Under  my watch, internal democracy will be strictly adhered to with a deliberate policy to engage in wider consultations and make the party functional throughout the year.

“More reforms will be carried out in the party in alignment with the current political landscape. We all agreed that we must unite our members to achieve support for our government to respond adequately, urgently and assertively to the challenges that Nigerians confront on a daily basis,” Ganduje had said.

Few months on, Ganduje has been able to live up to expectations. Just like in any human organisation where there might be pockets of disagreement, the ruling party has been generally peaceful. Aside from that, the former Governor of Kano state has been able to infuse life into the party.

Unlike what was obtainable in the past, where almost all activities of the party are conceived and initiated at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, Ganduje has changed the narrative by taking the party back to the grassroot.

For instance, the inauguration of the national campaign team for the just concluded November 11, 2023 governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states were held in the aforementioned states instead of Abuja.

Establishment of Institute of Progressive Study

In ensuring that the ruling party lives up to expectation as a progressive party, the national chairman recently said the leadership of the party has concluded plans to open functional offices in all the 8,813 wards across the country, and establish an Institute for Progressive Study.

He said, “I will like to call on all party members and stakeholders to rally round our candidate so that our party will succeed. By doing so, all the legacy projects would be sustained and there will be continuation in governance.

“As a party, we are committed to working hard individually and collectively to realise these goals and objectives. It is pertinent to also note that we have initiated and concluded plans to structure our party into a truly grassroots progressive party by opening full-fledged and functional offices in all the 8,813 wards in Nigeria.”

E-registration of members

The Ganduje-led National Working Committee (NWC) has also commenced the process of registering its over 40 million members electronically to consolidate its membership strength ahead of the 2027 general elections.

This development was coming two years after Mai Mala Buni-led National Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Committee conducted a similar nationwide membership registration exercise, which brought the current membership to over 40 million.

Ganduje explained that the essence of the electronic registration innovation is to capture the current membership strength of the party.

He decried the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, stressing that the number of votes garnered by the party was a far cry from the actual strength of its registered members.

According to him: “If you will recall, we had several 41 million members. But during the presidential election, we had only eight million. What happened to the rest? This is why we need to be digital and ensure that we are working with the correct data.

“Another step that we have taken is that we are reviewing our registration electronically now. The work has already started. You should be ready that all our members will be electronically registered so that we have an exact number physically.”

Reconciliation of party members

Since assumption of office, Ganduje has initiated various reconciliatory moves to ensure various tendencies in the  states are united, while those that had left the party have started coming back.

Recently, during the heat of the face-off between the Governor of Ondo state, Rotimi Akeredolu and his Deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the national leadership of the party set up the reconciliation committee to resolve the political disagreement.

At the time, Aiyedatiwa was under the threat of impeachment by the State House of Assembly over allegations of gross misconduct and has been served with notice of the allegations levelled against him by the lawmakers.

But the deputy governor obtained an order from the Federal High Court in Abuja to compel the lawmakers to suspend the process.

Defections of opposition leaders

Without doubt, the leadership style of Ganduje has endeared a lot of political actors prompting them to the ruling party.

Recently, a former National Chairman of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Prof. Rufai Alkali, the former  National Organising Secretary,  Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi,  former National Legal Adviser, Prof. Bem Angwe and other party members have defected to the ruling APC.

In addition, political bigwigs in Anambra state, including Senator Ifeanyi Ubah also defected to the ruling party recently.

Just tast week, 27 House of Assembly members in Rivers State defected to the party.

Winning Kogi, Imo Guber elections

Interestingly, Ganduje has also been able to consolidate on the successes of the party. The party recently retained Kogi and Imo states at the just concluded November 11 governorship polls.

For those that are watching the political events in the ruling party closely, they will not but agree that this is the first time in a long time that the party has enjoyed relative peace. This to many was an indication that the choice of Ganduje to steer the affairs of the party was not a mistake.