10th NASS Leadership: APC Walking On A Tight Rope
The All Progressives Party, APC, is a party in continuous search for itself and its values. Since it emerged victorious in the last general elections in the country with the Presidency and majority of the members of both arms of the National assembly, the party has not been the same again.
While the President-elect is busy planning and touring major parts of the world attracting support and cooperation for his incoming government, the party especially the elected members of the National Working Committee, NWC, is busy trying to weld the divergent interests as represented by the different contenders for the National assembly leadership together.
The fact that it started early, means that it is determined to avoid the mistake which it made in 2015 when the faction of the defeated Peoples Democratic Party, PDP- the New PDP, led by Senator Bukola Saraki, went through the back -door as a result of President Muhammadu Buhari’s lethargic interest in who emerges the Senate President and the Speaker either out of political naivety or false belief that what is important to run a smooth government is his presidency is enough cause for concern for the party not to walk along the same tortuous path again . For his naivety, the President and party licked the wound for four years.
Today, the party’s NWC oblivious of the need to avoid the mistakes of the past has taken the bull by the horn in zoning of the seats to some zones in the country obviously to avoid the 2015 scenario.
Rising from its meeting on April 28, the Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC announced the choice of South- South its preference for Senate Presidency and North West as Speaker. Senator Godwill Akpabio won the slot to be assisted by Senator Barau from North West as Deputy. Same North West got Speaker in person of Honourable Tajudeen Abbas to be assisted by Benjamin Kalu of the South East. In this arrangement, angry senators from all regions have cried foul of having been left out of consultation by the party while they have rightly came out to signify intention.
Isn’t it curious that in spite of having two of the six top posts, some elements in the NW region are still playing Oliver Twist by saying that should they lose the Senate Presidency seat, they will withdraw support for the party and government. Their reason though not so tenuous is that they gave the President- elect the highest posts during the election. The NW are also curiously raising the claim that since the Southern part of the country is controlling the executive and judiciary, the North should be allowed to control the legislature.
Is this not an attempt to Armstrong the new government and reinforce the latent fears that the whole North as a region may not be at home with policies likely to be adopted by the Tinubu government, hence use their position in the NASS to checkmate him. The question they should answer is that without the support of other regions would the NW alone have been able to get the Presidency as they did in 2015? Were they able to achieve same purpose when they delivered block votes to President Buhari in 2003,2007 and 2011?
Another cry came from Senator Orji Kalu from Abia in South east where President -elect Bola Tinubu scored only 8,914 votes in same election he scored 30,805 votes. Where are Kalu’s supporters who voted him? Why did they abandon Tinubu and voted Obi who got 327,095 votes.? This are the questions Kalu’s opponents are asking him to answer and thus justify why South East deserve the third position in the country?
Would Kalu and his supporters in the APC senatorial caucus broke the ranks of their party and vote for another candidate so that the party could lose in its bid to have a Senate President of Northern extraction in the Red Chamber?
Today the APC has 62 senators. If they do this, would they still enjoy the trust of their colleagues and indeed the party and by inference the government? Would they still have any genuine reason to cry about marginalisation in the party and government?
But then, apart from the South east, the loudest cry on the party’s zoning arrangement of key offices is coming from the North central zone of the party who are complaining loud for everyone to hear that they are being denied any of the six key positions in government despite having delivered four states of Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger state to the party during the presidential election like South west region.
During the Presidential election, the North Central region of the country delivered 1.7 million votes out of the 4.5 million votes cast by all the parties for the APC candidate. This represents 41 percent of total votes cast in the region. Again, they equally won four states in the governorship election with the exception of Plateau like the South west states of Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo and wondered why they should not get any of the six top posts like SW and NW?
Though, Adamu, the national chairman of the party has accepted the fact that the NWC did not make enough consultations with the aspirants before arriving at the zoning formula, would it be justifiable to change the rule at the middle of the game when all the top contenders like Akpabio, Abbas, Kalu, Barau have all commenced consultations all over the country wooing state governors. Not only this, Akpabio’s team are boasting of having get the support of senators form other parties like the PDP, LP, YPP to clinch the coveted post. Should Akpabio have his way in the Senate and managed to emerge, would Honourable Abbas and the APC leadership be able to swim through the tide of the often ‘rebellious’ tendency of the House of representatives considering that the party has only 177 out of the 360 seats in the lower chamber?
Will the return to the country from working leave by the President-elect Tinubu and his intervention provide the solution to the deep disaffection in the party by those who are complaining that they’ve been left out and intervene to weld the National Assembly together so as to ensure smooth take off and a harmonious relationship among and between the executive and legislature needed to run his government.
The next three weeks to the inauguration of the NASS will be crucial as horse-trading never known before will dominate the affairs of the party specially since the election of leaders would be left to the assembly itself after its inauguration. How far would the APC be able to rein- in its dissatisfied legislators to toe the party line for ultimate victory at the victory?
Interesting days lies ahead for the party.
