APC: Growing concerns over vacant NWC positions

As the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) intensifies efforts to end the many crises plaguing its ranks across the country, ‘Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, reports that fresh concerns are mounting over the party’s vacant National Working Committee (NWC) positions.

Amidst a number of intra-party crises rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which have seen its national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, managing to retain his seat on a number of occasions, party sources reveal fresh signs of more troubles as pressure mounts on the leadership of the party to fill vacant positions in its National Working Committee (NWC). According to findings by The Nation, groups within the party are getting set for a showdown over the vacant positions, causing the leadership to approach the issue with caution.

For some time now, the party has had to do without occupants in some of its NWC positions in spite of agitations from within and outside the APC that the affected positions be filled with replacements. The positions of National Secretary, Deputy National Chairman (South), National Auditor and National Vice Chairman (North West), became vacant at different times in the recent past following the election or appointment of the last occupants into political offices. Hardly had these positions become vacant than agitations for their replacements commenced.

The position of the National Secretary had become vacant following the swearing-in of the last occupant, Mai Mala Buni, as governor of Yobe State. Also, the Deputy National Chairman (South), Otunba Niyi Adebayo, was recently appointed as the Minister of Industries, Trade and Investment. The National Auditor of the party, George Moghalu, has also been appointed as the Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority. The National Vice Chairman (North West), Inuwa Abdulkadir, was recently visited with disciplinary procedure culminating in his expulsion for anti-party activities

Checks by The Nation revealed that there is a general consensus within the party that the positions will be filled by replacements from the same zones that produced the former occupants. This, it was learnt, is in deference to the zoning agreements used by the ruling party earlier. Thus, the northeast geo-political zone will be allowed to produce a replacement for the position of Secretary General vacated by the Yobe State governor, Mala Buni.

“One thing that is concluded is that the northeast will produce the successor to the outgoing National Secretary of our party. As it is, our next Secretary can come from any of the states in the northeast,” a party source confirmed to The Nation during the week. Consequently, all the zones that produced the former occupiers of the offices are gearing up to produce replacements. But what remains unclear is whether these replacements will come from the same states as before.

The Nation gathered that it is this uncertainty over whether the contest for the vacant positions should be restricted to states that produced the former officials alone or other states within the affected zones should be allowed to participate, that has not only led to the delay in filling the vacancies, but has also led to growing anxiety over how the vacancies will eventually be filled. “The cat and mouse games that have evolved out of the simple need to replace the occupants of these positions are now creating unimaginable tension within the party,” a source added.

Anxiety mounts

Such is the concern being expressed over the delay in appointing replacements into these offices that the national chairman and his team have several times been accused of having sinister motives for not moving swiftly to address the issue. Last month, the forum of non-NWC chieftains of the APC accused the NWC of the party led by Comrade Oshiomhole of usurping the functions and duties of the Board of Trustees (BoT), which the APC has refused to constitute.

While demanding the constitution of the BoT at the headquarters in Abuja, the forum’s chairman, Nelson Alapa, said all vacant NWC positions must also be filled to allow the party’s leadership function effectively. “It is disheartening that NWC has usurped completely powers of the National Executive Committee (NEC), the negative effects of which are currently hitting back to all levels of the party, signalling serious dangers to the stability, coherence, unity, loyalty, commitment and preparedness for continuity in governance,” the forum said.

The group frowned at the delay in filling major positions within the party, saying the vacancies are militating against the status and operations of the ruling party. “We use this time to call on all the key stakeholders to ensure that Board of Trustees and or the National Elders Council as the case may be, are constituted within a reasonable time frame majorly to enhance our party status and operationalism. We also demand that all vacant NWC positions in the party should be filled appropriately to guarantee equity and fairness,” he said.

Recently, state chapter chairmen of the APC were also emphatic about the need to fill vacant positions in the NWC. The state chairman claimed the absence of officers in some of the vacant offices has adversely affected the running of the party at the national level. They only came short of blaming the appointments at the federal and state levels, which they claim did not favour dedicated and loyal party faithful, on the vacancies in the NWC.

Earlier, the forum of APC 2018 National Convention contestants has called on the Oshiomhole-led NWC to move to replace the vacant positions. In an open letter signed by the secretary of the forum, Frank Ossai, Oshiomhole was urged to follow precedence and party guidelines that saw Lanre Isa-Onilu replace Bolaji Abdullahi as National Publicity Secretary, to fill the vacant National Secretary, National Vice Chairman North-West and other vacant positions without delay.

Botched efforts

Contrary to claims by some of those expressing concerns that the NWC made no effort towards replacing the vacancies, it was gathered that the Oshiomhole-led national leadership had in the past reached out to concerned stakeholders to see how some of the vacant offices can be filled. The Nation learnt that specifically, the NWC reached out to the party in Yobe State on the need for a replacement to be appointed for Governor Mala Buni as the General Secretary of the APC.

Following Buni’s resignation, the party’s NWC appointed the Deputy National Secretary, Victor Giadom, as acting National Secretary. A statement by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, then specifically said Giadom from Rivers State would act pending when Yobe State nominated a replacement. Party sources claimed that the NWC at the time reached out to leaders of the party in the North-East to promptly fill the vacant National Secretary position in the APC.

But findings by our correspondent revealed that the zone is yet to nominate a replacement. This is in spite of the fact that not less than four chieftains of the party from the zone had indicated interest in succeeding the Yobe State governor as APC National Secretary.  Waziri Bulama, Kashim Imam, and a former interim National Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Tijani Tumsah, are said to be among those interested in the post.

The Nation also gathered that at a point, the Forum of State Chairmen of the APC in the zone openly endorsed Bulama as their preferred candidate for the position of National Secretary of the party. But the move probably didn’t receive the support of other organs and leaders of the party in the zone as no official correspondence was made to the national secretariat on the matter. “And you will agree with me that a mere newspaper and or social media expression of support is not enough for the NWC to act upon,” another source added.

“The position is zoned to the North-East and we had expected leaders from the zone to meet promptly and come up with their choice. But that never happened. As we speak, no nomination has been made by any of the organs in the concerned zone. Yet, the NWC is being accused of not wanting to fill the vacancies. It is important we make it clear that the NWC or the national chairman cannot just wake up and announce names as replacement for these vacant positions. There are ways to go about it.

“People are talking about how Lanre Isa-Onilu replaced Bolaji Abdullahi and I asked them if it was the national chairman that hand-picked Isa-Onilu as a replacement from the north-central. The leaders in the affected zone were prompt in meeting and agreeing on what needed to be done. That way, it became easy for the NWC and other concerned organs of the party to play their own roles. All those who need to do one thing or the other in order for these vacancies to be filled must show responsibility by acting promptly. The bulk passing will not help us,” our source said.

Real reasons

Findings by our correspondents, however, revealed that internal wrangling in the affected zones as well as ongoing litigations are the major reasons for the delay in filling most of the vacant positions. Speaking on the delay, the APC National Vice-Chairman (South-West), Bankole Oluwajana, said the party’s leadership is not to blame. According to him, “When the zones are ready they will come up with their nominations. Also, there must be proper communication at all levels of the party but that is not to rule out possible lobbying of leaders of the party by those interested. The states will send their nominations to the zonal convention and for onward transmission to the NWC for necessary action.”

Giving examples, a party chieftain, while speaking to The Nation on Thursday, claimed that the party’s expelled immediate past national vice chairman in the northwest, Inuwa Abdulkadir, has a case in court challenging his expulsion from the party and removal from the NWC. Last July, following the announcement of his expulsion, Abdulkadir had dragged the party before the court. He is challenging the decision of the party to expel him. He also gave the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Isa-Onilu, a seven-day ultimatum to retract an alleged defamatory publication against his person, tender a public apology and pay N500m as monetary compensation or be prepared to face legal action. The case, it was gathered, is still very much before the court.

Explaining his decision to approach the court, Abdulkadir said, “I asked the court to look at the appropriate risk of the steps taken by some party leaders; whether they have the powers to do what they said they did and whether they are right to discuss me, and whether they have the right to take any decision against me without hearing from me. This is fundamental because I have the right to be heard. This is a constitutionally guaranteed right of all citizens. You cannot just pass a resolution without hearing my own version.”

The Nation gathered that the leadership of the party is wary of taking any action that may be deemed contemptuous by the court regarding the case before it. “The case is already being heard and the party, in deference to the rule of law, is waiting for the right time to act on the need to replace Abdulkadir. This is one reason for the inaction on filling this particular vacancy. This is known to many of our leaders and I wonder why some people are saying the NWC is to blame for this too,” our source said.

Sources also explained that fierce disagreements among leaders of the zones on how to fill the vacancies are not making the replacement processes easy. “Look at what is happening in the northeast. Nobody expected the process of finding a replacement for Mala Buni to be this acrimonious. Forget the pretence on the part of these people; they have found it almost impossible to agree among themselves on who should occupy that position,” our source claimed.

The Nation also gathered that some conditions being insisted upon by certain groups and individuals within the party concerning the vacant positions may also be contributing to the delay in acting on the matter as some other groups and individuals are staunchly opposed to such conditions. “It is now difficult for the leaders in some zone to resolve this issue because some conditions are being bandied as necessities for any decision to be taken on the vacancies. Expectedly, there are those who feel such conditions are strange and mustn’t be considered.”

In a letter addressed to leaders of the party, the forum of ex-NWC contestants prayed that those to fill the vacant NWC positions must fulfil laid down procedures as stipulated by the APC constitution. Some of the provisions outlined by the forum in the letter signed by its Secretary, Mr. Frank Ossai, include that the prospective candidates must have obtained nomination forms, gone through screening, paid the requisite fees and campaigned for votes in the 2018 elective convention.

“We note with great satisfaction, the flexible and all-inclusive structure of the party’s national leadership in resolving issues that would ordinarily have led to crisis whenever there are vacant positions in the leadership (positions) of the party. We are convinced as individuals who have gone through the party’s electoral processes, that leadership positions should always be occupied by persons that are prepared and willing to serve the party selflessly,” the group has argued in its letter to the party on the matter.

The Nation gathered that the insistence of the group that “those to fill the positions must have gone through the processes” has been holding back the party from filling the vacant positions. According to party sources, at a meeting with the leadership of the party, members of the group from the various zones of the country have vowed to approach the court to seek redress should the party do anything contrary to what they outline in their letter. To them, the only way to ensure justice is to push forward part of those who participated in the process in 2018 as replacements.

“To tell you the truth, this position is unacceptable to many of the leaders in the affected zones. While the ex-contestants are backing up their claims with what the party did in Kogi in 2015 when Governor Yahaya Bello was drafted into the guber race following the death of the party’s candidate, those opposed to them are saying the ex-contestants were rejected at the polls in 2018 for some reasons and the reasons are still there. So, they shouldn’t be forced on the people who earlier rejected them,” our source explained.