Agonies of a party at war with itself

Less that fifty days to the next general elections, the Ogun state chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is still battling a serious intra-party crisis that pundits say is capable of affecting its chances of doing well at the polls. Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, examines the issues and the personalities involved in the furore.

Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, last Thursday officially flagged off his campaign for the Ogun Central Senatorial seat at a massive rally in Abeokuta, the state capital. Aside being a gathering of politicians loyal to the governor, the rally also exposed the agonies of the ruling party in the state whose chieftains have been at war with one another since the emergence of Prince Dapo Abiodun as its gubernatorial candidate.

Present at the Abeokuta rally were APC members loyal to Amosun as well as thousands of supporters of Hon. Adejunle Akinlade, the governorship candidate of the Allies Peoples Movement (APM). Conspicuously absent at the event were Ogun central APC chieftains supporting Abiodun’s gubernatorial ambition. Observers of happenings within the ruling party the state say the lingering face off among the gladiators is capable of hurting the chances of the party if not checked.

Amosun has been consistent in saying he will not work for Abiodun’s election. He says Akinlade remains his preferred choice of successor and he will do everything possible to see him take over from him later this year. Many chieftains of the APC are of the opinion that Akinlade cannot emerge governor on the platform of little known APM, but analysts say the governor’s anti-party activities, if not curtailed by the national leadership of APC, can change the tide on election day.

Co-ordinator of the APC Youth Mandate Group in the state, Comrade Bola Oba, while speaking to The Nation in Ijebu Ode on new year day, says the party is currently very troubled by the activities of Governor Amosun. He said many prominent chieftains of the party across the state are unsure of what role to play as the election approaches largely due to the unfavourable body language of the governor.

“APC must do something about the governor’s anti-party activities. While thousands of our members across the state are being encouraged to disregard the directives of the party and engage in similar anti-party activities, a good number of our prominent leaders too are currently seating on the fence, unsure of what to do as the election approaches. Many of them are hoping the governor will have a rethink.

“Sadly, the camp of Prince Dapo Abiodun is not helping matters. It is either his handlers don’t have the right ideas about what to do in the current situation or they are just being politically incorrect. Many of those they need to move close to and cajole to remain with them are being ignored. What I see each time around our gubernatorial candidate is band of inexperienced politicians and some social media noise makers.

“Somebody needs to urgently tell him and the national leadership of the party that we need to find a way of moving ahead of Amosun and his people if we truly intend to win this election. We are today a party at war with itself and we must go extra miles to retain the confidence of our supporters and win news ones,’ the APC chieftain, who was also a House of Representatives aspirant, said.

Angry at the difficulties with which the APC is now carrying out its campaigns in places where the party should be enjoying open support, Oba lamented that the governor and his people are playing spoiler roles ahead of the next general elections. “The governor knows that Akinlade and the APM cannot win the next election. Both the candidate and the party are unknown to the people of Ogun State.

“But they are just doing all these to ensure the APC also loses in Ogun State. Forget their professed love and support for President Muhammadu Buhari. They don’t care if he loses too. Amosun and his people are bad losers. It is now left for the national leadership of our great party and the presidency to do something drastic to end all these anti-party charades that are now embarrassing our party and confusing our people,” he said.

Similarly, a chieftan of the APC in the state, Dr. Femi Majekodunmi, had appealed to Governor Amosun to play the role of a statesman in resolving the controversy that trailed the party’s governorship primary in the state, urging him not to make the mistake of taking a political decision that will consign his name into political oblivion.

“Nobody would dispute the fact that Governor Ibikunle Amosun has become the architect of modern day Ogun State with many landmark achievements scattered all over the state. Indeed, whenever the history of the state would be written, his name cannot but be in gold. And as the sitting governor, he is a major stakeholder whose views and interest must be important and paramount.

“But as a politician who has always been committed to the APC, I want to sincerely appeal to the governor to see the present issue concerning the gubernatorial candidate of the party as a test of his statesmanship in which the interest of the party must be supreme, not only because of the entire members of the party in the state but of President Muhammadu Buhari, whom the governor always holds in high esteem,” he said.

Raging war

But it appears the pieces of advice are not being heeded just yet even as the 2019 general elections draw closer. The gladiators, rather than sheathe their swords, seem to be sharpening the blades in preparation for more onslaughts. At the Abeokuta rally, Amosun threw caution to the winds and openly boasted that Akinlade of the APM, and not Abiodun of the APC, will win this year’s governorship election in the state.

He also, for the first time, took on President Buhari in public, when he warned the federal government against deploying soldiers to the state for the polls, while speaking at the New Year cross-over fanfare held at Oke-Ilewo in Abeokuta, a few days later. He repeated his boast that his protege, Akinlade, will beat Abiodun and other contestants and emerge as the next governor to take over from him in May.

“Let us prove to the world that Ogun State is known for peace and a state which has produced a number of eminent personalities in the country. Let us tell them that we don’t need the service of the military and police for the conduct of election because we are going to comport ourselves as peaceful people. And for the youths, don’t allow yourself to be used as political thugs. Anybody who approaches you for such, tell them to bring out their children to join in the thuggery,” he said.

At the rally, Amosun stated that regardless of the crisis, the APM members in the state still remained true members of APC. “We know that this (APM) is a child of necessity. They are APC, everybody knows and I am happy that they’ve adopted President Muhammadu Buhari. Even I’ve been told that they’ve adopted me as well (for Senate), which is good news. But you know what I know that has happened.

“If they remove those that are the mainstream of APC from APC, of course, you don’t even have 10 percent left. If they say APC, it is APC that we are pushing. It is APC that belongs to us. So, for me, APC is APC and that is what we want. For me, this is not what we prayed for. If anybody had told me that it is going to be like this, I would say no. But clearly as human, God will show his way at any time to all we ordinary mortals,” he explained.

But the Ogun State chapter of the APC, responding, said Governor Amosun deserves to be pitied and prayed for. The party said the governor’s recent comments against its governorship candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun, borders on “outgoing syndrome, emanating from political amnesia and loss of touch with reality.” This was contained in a statement issued in Abeokuta and signed by the party’s Publicity Secretary in the State, Comrade Tunde Oladunjoye.

The statement said, “But for the fact that the reported outbursts of the governor was reported by a credible online medium, we would not have taken him serious; and for the fact that friends in the media have been asking for response, we would not have reacted. However, rather than exchange words with the governor, we would call on members of the public to please sympathise with the governor and pray for him, as he is obviously manifesting outgoing syndrome resulting from political amnesia, loss of touch with reality and fear of life after office.

“For an individual to attempt to play God, and assault the collective intelligence of the well informed people of Ogun State by telling them who the next governor of Ogun State will be, as if he has already written the results, shows that such person deserves our pity; we don’t need to exchange words with him, but to actually sympathise with him on his present state of paranoia on Prince Dapo Abiodun.

“The constant, unceasing and monotonous attacks on Dapo Abiodun by the governor and his minions show that our candidate is the leading contestant and his imminent victory is only a matter of weeks. We challenge the governor to publish the recent survey he commissioned and which he read to some leaders in his house last week, wherein it was revealed that his preferred governorship candidate will not only lose the election, but also lose in the governor’s hitherto strongholds of Ifo, Ewekoro and Ado Odo Ota local governments.”

One party, two leaderships

And while it is battling with alleged anti-party activities of Governor Amosun and his supporters, the Ogun APC is also currently struggling to extricate itself from an obvious leadership tussle. Two groups are laying claims to being the authentic state leadership of the party following last month’s dissolution of the Chief Derin Adebiyi-led state executive committee by its National Working Committee (NWC).

The ruling party had based its decision to dissolve state executives in Ogun and Imo states on the alleged anti-party activities involving Amosun and Rochas Okorocha (Imo State governor). A caretaker committee was appointed to run the affairs of the party in the state with Chief Yemi Sanusi while Ayobami Olubori is to serve as Secretary. Tunde Oladunjoye emerged as the spokesperson of the party.

But Amosun, while addressing members of the APC at the party’s secretariat in Abeokuta recently, declared that nothing would happen to the state executive body. The governor, who was with the embattled exco members led by Adebiyi, said the body was created by God through the efforts of the members of the party. He insisted that the state executive members would spend four years in office despite the purported inauguration of a caretaker committee by the NWC.

“You know me by now. For me, I fear God and I respect people. So, it won’t be because we are afraid or we don’t want to talk. Where we are now, what we should concentrate on is to let them know that Ogun State is the home of President Buhari and we must vote massively for him. I want to assure you that this executive that God has used you to put together will be there for the next four years. They will serve their term,” he said.

Reacting swiftly to Amosun’s threat against his own party, Oladunjoye in a statement said the APC remains one big family, noting that they would work on bringing all aggrieved members together. He urged the governor and others in his camp to promptly respect the decisions of the national leadership of the party.

“There is only one party according to the electoral law and in line with the party constitution; that party is the national headquarters of any political party. Our committee was set up by the APC National Working Committee (NWC), an organ of the party vested with the constitutional power to do so. We are not going to join issues with anyone, including the governor, but to breathe new life into the party, promote peace and cohesion and renew the hope of our members in all the nooks and crannies of the state.

“We are on the same page with the national body. Our mandate is to bring everybody together and reenergise their commitment to the party and its electoral victory at all levels. We will be fair and equitable to all. We are all members of the same house under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, we will renew, realign, and rebuild our party for total victory at the 2019 polls, by God’s grace,” he said.

But the dissolved Derin Adebiyi-led exec described members of the Care Taker Committee of Ogun APC as interlopers and confusionists. A press release issued by the Wole Elegbede said: “Tunde Oladunjoye lacks the integrity and does not possess the pedigree to castigate the governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. If he is truly a member of APC in Ogun State as he wants us to believe, then he should not have spoken thoughtlessly to the leader of our party in Ogun State the way he did.

“It could be recalled that Oladunjoye was recently disgraced out of Ogun APC after which he wrote an epilogue that he was quitting politics for good. How such an ingrate now turns around to speak for Ogun APC should baffle the understanding of every reasonable men. For the avoidance of doubt, the State Executive Committee of Ogun APC is currently and effectively discharging its responsibilities under the constitution of our great party, hence the supreme law of Nigeria.

“Any other body which pretends to carry out those functions is a contrived body unknown to the constitution, the Ecxo of our party and the generality of our dedicated members across the state. Some people came to join or rejoin the party through the back door, so they may not appreciate what it takes for Senator Amosun to build the party and make it strong. These are the elements that are painting the governor in bad light and bent on destroying the party in Ogun State.”