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| Oyegun, Tinubu, Atiku with President Buhari |
From Emmanuel Ado
Immediately after
the swearing in of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999, Engineer
Barnabas Gemade became a constant face at the Aso Rock residence of
Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The plot to kick out Solomon Lar who led
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to a resounding victor in the general
elections, had started in earnest.
Long before Obasanjo 's swearing
in, Lar the Apostle of Emancipation had been sentenced to political death. His
"real crime", opposed to the "public lie", was that Obasanjo wanted
absolute control of the party. The "public lie" was Lars' lack of
capacity to lead the PDP.
So to date, the PDP has had Solomon Lar,
Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, Ahmadu Ali, Vincent Ogubulafor, Okwesilieze
Nwodo, Bamanga Tukur, Muazu Adamu, Mohammed Bello and Senator Ahmed
Makarfi as chairmen.
Of all the chairmen, only Ali served out his
tenure, without the usual "PDP " treatment. A feat which was made
possible by the willingness of Ali to do Obasanjo's dirty biddings unquestioningly.
From the
orchestrated campaign against John Oyegun, it is obvious that the All
Progressive Congress (APC), that prides itself as agent of change, wants
to travel the same PDP road, with the same obvious implication for
itself and the polity. How can Nigerians ever trust again, if the APC
that held out so much hope, dashes it so willfully? Will this not be the
confirmation that they are all the same? And that the people hardly ever
matter.
If Bola
Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar and Timi Frank had their way, John Oyegun during
the recent visit of Mr. President to Edo State, would have been
addressed in the past tense and as "your excellency" in obvious
reference to his ambassadorial position, which they had proposed to Mr.
President, as part of the plot to ease him out.
Sources claim they
already bought Oyegun a one way ticket to Sweden, where he will be far
removed from the politics of Nigeria. Oyegun's crime according to Bola
Tinubu and Timi Frank, is his lack of leadership, as evidenced by his
"failure to resolve the internal crisis of the party."
The other
allegation as articulated by Tinubu is that Oyegun lacks integrity.
Atiku on his part hasn't really been as clear as Tinubu and Frank, as to
his grievances, with Oyegun. He is obviously fishing in troubled waters, to
help push out an obstacle to his presidential ambition.
The charges
against Oyegun are weighty. But unfortunately the events don't support
the allegations. Take the specific case of Kogi and Ondo States. But for
the death of Alhaji Audu Abubakar, the then Governorship candidate of
the
All Progressive Congress (APC), Oyegun would not have crossed paths with James Faleke and his main sponsor Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu holds Oyegun
responsible for his failure to gain a foothold in the North. The other
man equally as guilty as Oyegun in the "travails" of Tinubu is Abubakar
Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation. And he has been
thoroughly thrashed by the famed Lion of Bourdilion. Malami's crime was
that his legal advice denied James Faleke, from becoming the Governor of Kogi State.
But while all kinds of
conspiracy theories are being bandied about, not many people have
bothered to read the position of the law. Thankfully, the law courts
from the tribunal to the Supreme Court have spoken eloquently, in support
of the tricky road the party and the Independent Electoral Commission
adopted in resolving a unique situation.
Again as in the Kogi State case, Tinubu had preference for Abraham as the flag bearer of the APC for
Ondo State. He had every right to. But his candidate was trounced by
Rotimi Akeredolu, a man that he Tinubu had in 2012 "awarded" the Action
Congress of Nigeria ticket to. In the murky world of politics, only God
knows Akeredolu's crime, that made him a political leper.
In his widely
publicised statement, Tinubu claimed the National Working Committee(NWC),
voted for fresh primaries. A claim the party has strongly refuted. The
two critical issues remain that to date, nobody has showed proof of those
who ought to vote, who didn't vote or of those who shouldn't have
voted, but voted. It is not about money, that was freely spent. Thursday
22nd September, 2016, the day the NWC was meeting, was also the final
day for submission of candidates by political parties.
The implication
was that if for any reason a fresh primary was indeed needed, and was in
fact conducted, the APC would have automatically shot itself in the
foot, as the party would have technically knocked itself out of the
race. Was that a preferable course of option to Tinubu? There was need for
political brinkmanship. But this word is absent from the lexicon of the
average Nigerian politician.
The question that
continues to agitate Nigerians, is the lack of political skills by
Nigerian politicians. Why is it so difficult to resolve political issues
politically? How can Oyegun be solely blamed for all the problems of
the APC? Is Oyegun to be blamed for the continued quarrel between Rabiu
Kwankwaso and Ganduje?
Even after sending fact finding teams to Kano
State to "resolve" the issues? Is Oyegun also to be held responsible for
the brewing crisis in Adamawa State, where a governor has said it is
either Atiku for 2019 or nobody? Politics ís the act of agreeing to
disagree, but in Nigeria it is agreeing to destroy. Today, the national
legal officer of the PDP has lost track of the cases in various courts.
That is the part, that those pushing for Oyegun's removal are pushing the
party to.
Those opposed to
Oyegun want President Muhammadu Buhari (the Super Man) to intervene in
the crisis of confidence rocking the party. They want him to become
like Obasanjo. They say that the only reason they want to hijack the
party is to save it from collapse before 2019. That if the party is
left in the hands of Oyegun, it would be bye-bye to APC in 2019. The
signs are there, that by 2019, the APC would have been factionalised
beyond recognition. But it won't be because of Oyegun.
The fate of the
APC is not in the hands of Oyegun alone. Yes, as party leader he has the
moral duty of providing direction - a wealth of experience that he
possess in quantum. But what do you do with party members that insist
the party must be run on their dictates? The greatest undoing of the PDP
was its impunity, and the APC is beginning to manifest those tendencies
that sent the PDP to the intensive care unit.
The governors from their
meeting with the President, henceforth want to determine who gets what
and on what terms. Their next move will be to "impose" a national
chairman. And like the irrepressible Fela would say everything "go
scatter".
Let's admit that
APC is in crisis, but without conceding. The question is what led to the
crisis? Has it got to do with implementation of party
policies? Unfortunately, the crisis is about the next election. The APC is
surely facing trying times - an economy in recession and failure of the Federal Government to dispense patronage to those who "laboured " for
the party, hasn't helped.
All stakeholders must join hands to build a
strong APC. We need a strong party, disciplined and focused in delivering
and a strong alternative in the event the party in power, begins to take
the people for granted like the APC is currently doing.
Mr Ado contributed this piece from Kaduna
