| From: | Xantaplus Temitayo |
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Political enthusiast were thrilled when major political opposition parties in the country came under one umbrella, APC, to set the tone for an interesting election in 2015. Gladiators who many thought couldn't work together embraced unity in an attempt to give the ruling PDP a stiff run in the coming elections.
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This post sourced from Punch details the gains, losses and travails of the All Progressive Congress one year after its formation. Read more after the cut.......
Considering its wide membership and the number of public offices it controls, the All Progressives is the second largest political party – after the Peoples Democratic Party – and the biggest opposition in Nigeria. Its registration by the country's electoral umpire, Independent National Electoral Commission, on July 31, 2013 was widely seen as the emergence of a formidable opposition to the ruling party.
Four political parties – the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria; the All Nigeria Peoples Party; the Congress for Progressive Change and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance – had merged to form the APC. The decision, according to leaders of the parties involved, was an attempt to form an opposition that is strong enough to unseat the PDP, which has controlled the Federal Government since 1999.
The ruling party has also dominated the National Assembly – the Senate and the House of Representatives – where it has maintained a significant majority ever since.
The parties that formed the APC were based in different regions across the country, giving the opposition party a national outlook when it finally emerged. For instance, the ACN had its base in the South-West; the CPC had its base in the North, while the ANPP and APGA, which have huge presence in the South-East, lost a faction to the APC.
The APC, as part of its mobilisation drive, toured the country to woo several personalities into the party. It also consulted with the likes of former President Olusegun Obasanjo; former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar; and former military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.
The merger blessed the APC with several political heavyweights, including a former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari; former ANPP Chairman, Ogbonnaya Onu; former Osun State Governor, Bisi Akande; former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tom Ikimi; former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu; former Borno State Governor, Alimodu Sheriff; Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha; former Edo State Governor, John Odigie-Oyegun (now APC National Chairman); former Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Timipire Sylva; former Governor of Kaduna State, Ibrahim Shekarau; and former Sokoto State Governor, Attahiru Bafarawa.
Others were former PDP National Chairman, Abubakar Baraje; the pioneer Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu; former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, among others.
Predictably, the likes of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, who are famed for defecting from one party to the other, had also joined the APC train.
On November 26, 2013, five out of the seven (G7) aggrieved PDP governors, who were part of the factional New PDP, had announced their decision to join the APC. They were Governors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Rabiu Kwankwanso (Kano); Murtala Nyako (Adamawa, but now impeached); Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara); and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto).
Several members of the National Assembly, especially those from the states where the governors defected, also followed suit.
In January 2014, 11 PDP senators led by former Kwara State Governor, Bukola Saraki, notified the Senate of their defection to the APC. Also, 37 members of the PDP in the House of Representatives formally defected from the ruling party to the APC on December 18.
APGA, Labour Party, Accord Party and Peoples Party of Nigeria also lost a total of 17 of their lawmakers to the APC.
The mass defection increased the numerical strength of the APC from 135 to 172, making the party to have a simple majority in the House; after leaving the PDP with 171 members. However, the majority status of the APC is still being contested in court.
Some political pundits, who described the successful merger of the parties as first in Nigeria's political history, believed that an opposition party of such size and influence would give the ruling party a tough contest during elections.
It is now over one year that the APC emerged on the political scene with full force but political analysts believe the party is losing momentum.
For various reasons, the opposition party has lost some of its national and state leaders in recent times. Those who have left include Sheriff, Shekarau (now Minister of Education in President Goodluck Jonathan's cabinet), Bafarawa, Fani-Kayode and Ribadu.
In what was described as the first crack in the walls of the APC, members of the National Executive Council of the APC were said to have been allegedly imposed by some powerbrokers at the national convention of the party held in June. The offices had been declared "unopposed," leaving the acting executives to remain in office, except Akande who willingly left office as national chairman.
Consequently, Ikimi had threatened to leave the APC over alleged dictatorship and imposition.
He had said, "I did not willingly step down for Chief Odigie-Oyegun. I was not there. I did not step down for anybody because I was not there. Whoever said I stepped down is telling a lie because I was not at the convention. I didn't participate. I boycotted the convention."
Ikimi, who chaired the committee that oversaw the merger process of the APC, in a statement on where he protested the development, attributed his grouse with the party to the tyrannical approach to leadership by some of the leaders of the party, including Tinubu. He reportedly said the ex-Lagos State governor had turned the APC into a private property
Ironically, he had earlier in the year led an APC peace and reconciliatory committee.
Shekarau and Bafarawa had in January claimed that they left the APC because the party had lost its soul. They alleged that a powerful clique had hijacked the APC, forcing them to defect from the party to the PDP before they were alienated.
Bafarawa had said, "We were almost got rid of by what they did to us. Fortunately, we are not in politics for ourselves, we are leaders who have followers. We allowed the followers to decide for us. We cannot decide for them."
Similarly, Fani-Kayode had accused the APC of pursuing Islamic agenda, adding that the party was poised to present a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2015 presidential election. The APC had denied these allegations.
In the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State, Governor Kayode Fayemi of the APC had lost to Ayo Fayose of the PDP. The opposition party later won the Osun State governorship election, where Governor Rauf Aregbesola secured a second term.
The APC recently lost the governorship seat in Adamawa State, when the state House of Assembly dominated by PDP members, impeached Nyako. His deputy was said to have resigned in a controversial circumstance, leaving the Speaker of the Assembly, Ahmadu Fintiri, a PDP member, to be sworn in as the acting governor.
After the impeachment in Adamawa, the APC now controls 14 states, while the PDP has 20 states. APGA and LP have one state each – Anambra and Ondo, respectively. When Fayemi's tenure ends on October 16, 2014 and Fayose of the PDP comes into power, the APC will be left with 13 states.
In Nasarawa State, there was a failed attempt by the House of Assembly to impeach Governor Umar al-Makura. Another impeachment plan is now in the offing.
In Ogun State, former Segun Osoba, who is the state leader of the party; his erstwhile deputy, Senator Adegbenga Kaka; and other leaders and members of the APC had held parallel congresses that produced parallel state executive. The faction is now heading to the Social Democratic Party.
In Lagos, there have been protests in the state APC over alleged plans to impose a governorship aspirant loyal to a national leader of the party.
Recently, Ribadu, a defector who was part of the processes that led to the formation of the APC, returned to the PDP to register as a governorship aspirant in Adamawa State.
Although the embattled former Osun State Governor and National Secretary of the PDP, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, as well as former Ekiti State Governor, Segun Oni, recently defected to the APC, observers are of the opinion that the APC is losing more than it is gaining in terms of its leadership.
Speaking on the matter, the Chairman of the PDP in Ogun State and Chairman, Committee of South-West PDP State Executives, Adebayo Dayo, said the return of PDP members who had left for the APC was expected as the defectors could not cope with the operations of the opposition party.
He said, "PDP is the only party in Nigeria where people have freedom, especially of speech and association. These PDP people can never be part of the APC; it is a party where they are practising imposition. We don't impose in the PDP. Having gone to the APC, they discovered that what they (the party) are doing there is not good enough for them."
However, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, stated that those who left the party did so for different reasons, mostly personal, and should not be seen as a general phenomenon.
On the reports that Ribadu was lured back to the PDP with governorship ticket, Mohammed said only the ex-EFCC boss could confirm such. On Bafarawa and Shekarau, he said, "One is now a minister, the other was heavily compensated."
Mohammed added, "Anybody who leaves the APC for one reason or the other, only the person can give the reasons why he did so. What I know as a fact is that being in the opposition is not very easy. It takes a very big commitment for you to remain in the opposition and not be tempted by the ruling party. We have different resistance levels and all those who have left will always find reasons for their leaving.
"What I know is that only the strongest and most committed can remain in the opposition, in the face of intimidation, harassment and constant temptation; others will fall by the wayside. When they do, they will always justify it."
"Some were deliberately planted to destabilise the party; when they do not succeed or when they are uncovered, they will move on. Some are there to vie for posts and when such posts seem elusive, they leave the party. Those who will be there till the last day are those who have been committed," Mohammed added.
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