APC and Kogi governorship election

One would have thought the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership have learned their lessons from the mistakes they made in Zamfara and Rivers that cost the party catastrophic losses in the states.  But it appears they are bent on repeating those scenarios in Kogi State. Since the fateful general elections in 2015 that saw one […]

One would have thought the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership have learned their lessons from the mistakes they made in Zamfara and Rivers that cost the party catastrophic losses in the states.  But it appears they are bent on repeating those scenarios in Kogi State.

Since the fateful general elections in 2015 that saw one candidate winning the gubernatorial election, but another taking over his victory, cracks developed within the parties.  These cracks have since developed into a full-blown crisis triggered by the dissolution of the party executives by the Governor and the selection of new ones.  The issue resulted into a legal tussle between the old executives and the Governor’s anointed executives, led by Abdullahi Bello. Four of the old executives are still in court even as Hadi Ametuo withdraws from the case following pressures from his tribesman, Governor Bello.

If the current court case over who among the two executives are the legitimate leaders and the imbroglio on the mode of primary election the party will adopt to produce the Governorship candidate are not resolved quickly and amicably, then we might be witnessing Zamfara all over again.

Recall that the APC seemed to be cruising to victory in Zamfara State until the Sokoto division of the Court of Appeal held that the APC did not field any eligible candidate in the 2019 general elections because the party did not conduct any valid primary elections. In the appeal filed against the judgement by the APC, the Supreme Court in a unanimous judgment by a five-man panel of Justices led by the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad, upheld the verdict of the Appeal Court.

The same signs of trouble are currently playing out in Kogi as we are yet to know who the genuine party executives are, and there seems to be an intense division on the mode of primary to be adopted, even though the APC National Working Committee, NWC, has come out to announce indirect primaries as the agreed mode.

There is still the case in court to determine who between the old and the new are the genuine executives. Chairman of the old executive, Haddy Ametuo, who was alleged to have caved in to pressures and overtures from Governor Bello, recently transmitted a letter to the APC NWC that the case in court had been withdrawn.  This letter prompted the Committee to announce their choice of indirect primaries for Kogi election. However, some members of the old executive led by the party Secretary, Apostle Destiny Eneojo Aromeh, have responded by transmitting another letter to the NWC informing them that the case is still very much alive.  They argued that the Ametuo-led group do not have the authority to independently make decisions for the party in the State, and urged the NWC to disregard Ametuo’s false claims in his letter to them, and rescind their decision for indirect primary election. Now, the same old executives have instituted a fresh case in court to challenge the decision of the NWC on the mode of primary to be adopted.

In their response before the fresh suite, the NWC said they had decided to take a second look at their earlier decision.  They are yet to speak further. This situation of suspense has given rise to various protests to the APC headquarters in Abuja in favour and against direct primaries.  About 20 aspirants grouped together to press for direct primary, while only Governor Yahaya Bello had been agitating loudly for indirect primary.

Then suddenly, a plethora of about 35 new aspirants emerged from the blues, and were quick in joining Governor Yahaya Bello to demand for indirect primary.  Many observers are attributing this strange development to Governor Bello. The narrative is that he is trying to procure the indirect primary election through the back door by sponsoring these unknown candidates whose only task is to continue to put pressure on the NWC to approve indirect primary, which he believes is his lifeline for survival.  It is easy to decipher why Bello desperately wants indirect primary.  Most of the party officials and other delegates who will vote under indirect primary are his appointees.

As it stands, it is not only the APC that is in trouble, Kogi State is in serious trouble under Governor Bello. Since Bello emerged Governor of Kogi State, one can hardly point to a tangible achievement that he has recorded.  If you speak to 10 persons on the streets of Kogi State, eight of them will tell you that Yahaya Bello is only advancing his personal interest to the detriment of the state.  He is accused of running the state as a sole proprietorship and alleged to have little respect for justice, equity, and good conscience.

Civil servants have been retrenched under unexplainable circumstances.  Salaries of those in service are not paid.  The civil service audit embarked upon by his administration is seemingly interminable. Myriad of civil servants have died as a result of non-payment of their salaries that are in arrears of between four to 38 months.  Pensioners who cannot afford the medical care befitting of the aged due to non-payment of their pensions and gratuities are passing away in very quick succession.

In Kogi youths have been turned into thugs and heavily armed with sophisticated weapons and adequately sustained on drugs to unleash terror on political opponents and the innocent public.

Despite the obvious gross shortcomings of the government and the palpable ill feelings of the Kogi electorates, the APC, from its body language, is set to give Bello the ticket to run for a second term. This clearly shows that the party does not care much about the welfare of the people of Kogi State or good governance.

In the last last general election, it took the intervention of Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, for the aggrieved stakeholders of the APC to agree to work for the victory of the party. But as it stands, the factions have split again and have returned to war trenches.  Well-meaning members of the party are now wondering if the Presidency and the party hierarchy are really concerned about retaining their hold on Kogi State or will allow the gains of the past successes of the party in the State to slip away.

If the APC NWC does not wade in to settle the deep rift within the party in Kogi and allow things to continue on their current trajectory, we might have a case of another Zamfara, where the party lost out due to internal crisis.  In other words, should the APC insist on fielding Governor Bello for the November 16, 2019 governorship election despite his performance in office,  then the APC is on its way to losing Kogi State.

 

Benson Ojodale Aduku, is a public affairs analyst.