- The chances, the stumbling blocks
- There’s no crisis in our party – Keyamo
- Nigerians won’t go back to 16 years of hardship – Nabena
As political campaigns for the 2019 general elections kicked off in earnest throughout the country on Sunday, strong indications emerged that the ruling All Progressives Congress might be inadvertently working to hand over power to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party if nothing urgent is done to resolve the political crisis rocking the ruling party.
This is coming as the opposition PDP perfects its moves to actualise its ambition of returning to power at the federal level in 2019.
The Point reliably gathered at the weekend that top leaders of the APC are already worried by the implications of the lingering crises trailing the primary election of the ruling party across the country on the party’s chances in the forthcoming general elections.
Many of the APC leaders expressed concerns that, while the opposition party had been busy consulting around the country with its presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, APC stalwarts were busy tackling themselves over personal interests.
“If the local leaders of the APC across the states fail to rein-in their egos, personal and selfish interests, they would be handing over to the PDP in the next elections on a platter of gold,” a top party leader, Hon. Ade Adeogun, who is the APC candidate for the Akoko South West/ East Federal Constituency of Ondo State in the forthcoming election, said.
He, however, expressed the view that the PDP was more fragile than the APC, saying its leaders have managed “to paper over the cracks.”
“The chances of the PDP reclaiming power in 2019 depends on how the APC is able to manage its internal dynamics and resolve all the crises trailing the primary elections across the country,” Adeogun said, adding, “It is in the interest of the people of my state that the APC retains power at the centre so that we can join other stakeholders to ensure that 2019 becomes too soon for the PDP to reclaim power.”
The same fears were expressed by the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, who said that the APC might lose power in 2019 if the rift between the party’s National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and some governors of the party was not resolved.
Sagay warned that the APC leadership could not afford to lose the election to the opposition PDP, advising the APC National Working Committee to resolve the crisis in the party.
He said, “I will urge the party to think of the consequences. We need to be pragmatic on this issue and, also, they have to think of the future. If they do anything now and go against the government or the party, it will not bode well at all. So, we have to be pragmatic about these things.
“The election is around the corner. If they don’t listen to each other, the consequences are that the party may lose power. If we stick to principles and you lose power, you are out of power and all the indiscipline and mis-governance we experienced under the PDP will come and haunt us.”
Confusion all the way
Already, the party’s National Chairman, Oshiomhole, has been at loggerheads with some governors of the party over the recently conducted primary elections. Among such governors are Gov. Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State and his Imo State counterpart, Rochas Okorocha. The rage between the party stalwarts, according to sources, has begun to degenerate into affliction for the party ahead of the general elections. This is as Oshiomhole’s recent questioning by the men of the Department of State Service is also believed to be another indictment on the party as it prepares for the coming general elections.
In Bauchi State, a chieftain of the party, Alhamdu Shagaya, is currently threatening that President Muhammadu Buhari, the Governor of the state, Abdullahi Abubakar and other candidates of the party would lose the 2019 elections over alleged failure to conduct the party primaries in the state. He also accused the state governor of not fulfilling the agreements reached with some party stalwarts in the state in 2015.
Shagaya had accused the Bauchi governor of betrayal, saying, “I’m confident to open up that Dogara, Aminu Tukur and late Senator Ali Wakili, apart from us, were very instrumental to the emergence of Governor Abubakar as Bauchi State Governor in the 2015 election.
“However, I have with me documents showing the accord made to us if he wins the governorship.”
The state assembly aspirant maintained that APC primary election was a fraud due to irregularities, and advised the party to embrace internal democracy or risk being voted out of power in 2019.
“If the party deliberately failed to entertain complaints brought to it by aggrieved aspirants, it will definitely spell doom for the APC. It is a reflection of how PDP lost to it in 2015,” he warned.
Shagaya blamed the APC national chairman and APC governors responsible for all the party’s woes, lamenting that APC aspirants were duped and denied the chance to contest in 2019 as candidates.
He warned that President Buhari would not survive the 2019 election, stressing that the APC was being plagued by the lack of justice.
No crisis in the APC -KEYAMO
But the spokesperson of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, Festus Keyamo (SAN), said there was no crisis in the APC and there was no threat to the chances of the party’s candidate at the election.
In a chat with The Point on Sunday, Keyamo said, “All the major parties have problem concerning those who lost at the primaries. So, we can understand the frustration of a lot of these aspirants.”
Keyamo emphatically told our correspondent, “There is no crisis in our party.We know some members are not happy because they lost at the primaries but there would always be winners and losers.”
He , however, appealed to those who lost in the party’s primaries to rally round the party and its candidates during the elections.
“We are appealing to them that the issues would be resolved very soon,” Keyamo told The Point.
What is happening in our party happens in every political party -Nabena
His reaction came as a chieftain of the APC, Mr. Yekini Nabena, also maintained that the party had the chance to retain power in 2019, adding that the party is not in any way going through internal wrangling.
“What is happening in our party is what happens in every political party. But I can tell you that that is not an internal wrangling and our chance to come back in 2019 in brighter. Nigerians know what they want and I am sure they wouldn’t pick an option to go back into hardship of 16 years they had faced in the past,” Nabena told
The Point.
