The festering crisis within the leadership of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, may have taken a new dimension as the G-5
governors’ who defected from the Peoples Democratic Part, PDP, last year are
reportedly considering a possible return to their former party.
A cold war is currently rocking
the APC over the composition of its National Executive Council and the 2015
presidential election.
This was just as the former
military administrator of Borno and Lagos states, Gen. Buba Marwa, had got his
supporters’ nod, after a town hall meeting inYola, Adamawa State, yesterday to
dump the APC for the ruling PDP.
This may have put an end to
speculations over the disenchantment of the retired general with the APC since
Governor Murtala Nyako was handed the control of the APC in the state.
A party source at the weekend
told National Mirror that if the leadership crisis in the APC persisted for too
long, some of the G-5 governors had been mulling the idea to open discussions
with the leadership of the PDP to return before preparations for the 2015
elections kick off fully.
The G-5 governors – Rotimi
Amaechi (Rivers), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Musa Rabiu
Kwankwaso (Kano) and Abdulfattah Ahmed (Kwara) had in November last year
defected to the APC over irreconcilable differences with the leadership of the
PDP and the Presidency.
But the source, a member of the
National Executive Committee, NEC, of the APC, who spoke with journalists, said
the party was on the verge of losing its new allies.
He said: “We cannot say all is
well because some persons are trying to run the APC the way they ran their
former parties and this will not augur well for us because if we continue this
way, our desire to get power from the PDP will only be a pipe dream.
“At least, we cannot say that the
party has not benefitted anything from the governors who defected from the PDP;
but as it is now, some of these governors, we learnt, are beginning to express
disappointment about the state of affairs, especially the issue of national
officers of the party.
“We even gathered that moves are
on for some of them to re-trace their steps to the PDP; that will be disastrous
for us in the APC because their return will only confirm that our crisis is
irredeemable.
“It is our belief and hope that
we are able to manage the seeming crisis of confidence and suspicion among our
leaders, but a few of the leaders only want their wishes to be obeyed and
nothing else; that will only kill the party.”
Asked whether the purported move
by the governors was as a result of the issue of national chairmanship, the
source said he was sure that it could be a reason, stressing that some other
reasons might also be responsible.
“The issue of national
chairmanship is the main issue that has almost torn the party apart, so they
might be sensitive to same, but you should also know that in politics, there
are interests to be protected.”
National Mirror gathered that one
of the APC governors in the South- South did not support the move by some
leaders of the party to ‘dash’ the zone the office of national chairman.
According to findings, the
governor prefers the South-East to produce the national chairman with the
desire that he would be picked as running mate to the presidential candidate of
the party.
For another governor from the
North-West, his disappointment stems from the fact that he has been told to
forget his 2015 presidential ambition for which he has commenced consultations
soon after he joined the APC.
For over two weeks now, a cold
war had been brewing among the APC leadership over the May 2014 national
convention of the party.
While former governor of Lagos
State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu prefers to retain Chief Bisi Akande as national
chairman, others, led by Senator Ali Modu Sherif, are rooting for Tom Ikimi.
The Northern caucus of the party
has already decided that the slot be zoned to the South-South. This may have
been responsible for the alleged face-off between Tinubu and Sheriff at one of
the party’s NEC meetings.
Marwa had convened a town hall
meeting of his supporters where over 1000 delegates from Adamawa State
concluded that “We don’t want APC.”
The former military administrator
had asked his supporters at the meeting whether they should return to the PDP,
a question to which the majority shouted ‘ayes’.
Marwa had told the gathering that
the meeting would put paid to the lies, deceit and lack of justice within the
APC, berating the party for its sudden lack of integrity and character.
Tracing the problem of the party
to the national leadership foisting Nyako on the party, Marwa regretted that
the house they helped built had been taken over by political marauders.
He wondered why state legislators
and National Assembly members in the state were yet to follow Nyako into his
new party.
A former member of the House of
Representatives, Saad Tahir, noted many irregularities, which he said made the
APC an aberration and bound for an imminent collapse.
Tahir said: “A house built on a
shaky foundation will not stand,” adding that the PDP had already formed
government in Adamawa State with the movement of Marwa into its fold.
State treasurer of the party,
Musa Bubakari Kamale, put the blame of the crisis rocking the APC in the state
on the doorsteps of the national leadership of the party.
He said the leadership of the APC
“committed a national blunder” by foisting defecting PDP governors on the party
as party leaders.
Marwa’s spokesman, Kamale, added
that parting ways with the APC was an attempt to protest the flagrant disregard
of democratic ethos by the “lameduck leadership” foisted on the party by Nyako,
whom he said was pursuing parochial agenda.
Listing the many sins of the APC
in the state, Kamale cited the continued existence of a task force team
allegedly controlled by Nyako’s son, Commander Abdulaaziz Nyako, which he said
was an aberration.
According to him, going by party
rules, upon inauguration of the state interim management committee, all other
organs of the party prior to the merger stood dissolved but “that was not the
case in Adamawa,” he said.
Meanwhile, Marwa said that he
would be meeting with the leadership of the PDP to finalise all protocols
necessary to rejoin his former party.
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