Barely three weeks to the national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, on May 14, it’s 24 governors and other national leaders remain polarized over their struggle to control the party’s structure ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Following President Muhammadu Buhari’s insistence that the party must hold an elective convention that will usher in a new set of executives, the struggle by the power blocs within the party to control its structure especially at the national level has heightened.
While a former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is currently leading eight serving governors pushing to install immediate past governor of Edo state, Adams Oshiomhole as the party’s national chairman at the May 14 national convention, 16 other serving governors that tag themselves as pro-Buhari are bent on returning John Odigie-Oyegun and his National Working Committee, NWC members into office.
There are however indications that two of the NWC officials; Deputy National Chairman, North, Senator Lawal Shuaib and the National Legal Adviser, Dr. Muiz Banire, SAN.
Just as the governors are locked in a fight to the finish, which many see as a battle for the survival of their own political career, another trouble that may lead to a crippling legal conundrum is brewing within the ranks of the party. This borders on the provisions of Article 20, Section IV (a) of the APC constitution.
Governors lining up behind Tinubu to support Oshiomhole include Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state, Rochas Okorocha of Imo, Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun, Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, Godwin Obaseki of Edo and Kashim Shettima of Borno. One common factor among them is that, apart from Ambode, Ganduje and Obaseki, the rest are rounding off their second term in office.
The 16 governors rooting for the return of the Oyegun led NWC to have a common agenda; to stop Tinubu from hijacking the structure of the party both in their state and at the national level because most of them are first-term governors pushing to ride on Buhari’s shoulders back to the office for a second term, while the second termers desire to control the party structure to be able to install their successors.
They include: Bindo Jibrilla of Adamawa; Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar of Bauchi; Samuel Ortom, Benue; Badaru Abubakar, Jigawa; Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, Kaduna; Aminu Bello Masari, Katsina; Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Kebbi; Yahaya Bello, Kogi; Abdulfatah Ahmed, Kwara; Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, Nasarawa; Abubakar Sani Bello, Niger; Ibikunle Oyelaja Amosun, Ogun; Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, Ondo; Simon Lalong, Plateau; Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Sokoto; Ibrahim Geidam, Yobe.
