APC: Tales of litigation and chaos

 Emmanuel Oladesu, Deputy Editor

 

THE All Progressives Congress (APC) is at crossroads. It is suffering from self-inflicted wounds. Hope of an imminent end to the protracted leadership crisis is slim. Although strict adherence to the party’s constitution could have averted the logjam, it appears the law is being twisted to serve personal agenda.

Party members are locked in confusion as certain elements are still bent on drawing the curtains permanently on the tenure of its combative chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. The latest flexing of muscles is the fall out of the battle for supremacy between pro and anti-Oshiomhole forces. The Edo APC primary only provided the impetus to the two antagonistic camps of warriors to fuel supremacy battle. In fact, some observers have suggested that APC gladiators were drawing their swords in preparations for 2023.

The National Chairman, Oshiomhole, is on suspension. Some disgruntled members of his rural ward chapter in the Edo countryside had momentarily become his albatross. However, he was not expelled or removed from office. He is only stepping aside in obedience to the Appeal Court verdict. Oshiomhole’s tenure has not expired.

The bone of contention in the party is interim succession. Who is the authentic Acting National Chairman of the ruling party today?

The battle for the number one party position has shifted from the national secretariat to the court. Curiously, APC is not learning lessons from the fate of the once promising Alliance for Democracy (AD), which was wrecked by protracted litigation arising from leadership tussles. The verdict of the temple of justice may tentatively resolve a political logjam through the interpretation of the law. But, the judiciary can never mend the cracks on the wall of political brotherhood.

Unless President Muhammadu Buhari, who belongs to nobody, but everybody, intervenes urgently, the leadership struggle will continue to take its toll on the platform ahead of the critical governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states. The crisis will continue to fester, leading to cumulative strains, to the consternation of the generality of party members.

Four chieftains seem to be laying claim to being acting chairman. The first is National Deputy Chairman (North) Senator Lawan Shuaibu, a foe of Oshiomhole, who was waiting for the resolution of the case in court before taking a step. But, it appears he is pulling the breaks in the light of new realities. His pursuit lacks constitutional basis.

The second is the former governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, National Deputy Chairman (South), who is indisposed. He clearly enjoys the support of the majority in the National Working Committee (NWC). His bid is backed by the constitution of the party.

The third, Hillard Ettah, National Vice Chairman (Southsouth), is not disputing the orderly and constitutional validated succession arrangement that favours Ajimobi. He acknowledges Ajimobi as the Acting Chairman, based on the APC constitutional provisions.

His argument is that, since Ajimobi is temporarily unavailable for the role, he is next in line of succession, in accordance with the provisions.

The fourth and indeed, the most contentious, is Victor Gaidom, former deputy governorship candidate in Rivers State and National Deputy Secretary, who according to the National Working Committee (NWC), had been sent packing from the leadership structure.

The position of the APC constitution is clear. It is the ground norm, which regulates the operations of the party and the basis for intra-party relationships among its structures.

According to Section 14.2(iii) of the constitution, Ajimobi is the authentic acting chairman. Thus, guided by the legal advice emanating from the APC Legal Department, the NWC decided to give operative content to the provision by pronouncing him as acting chairman.

Put succinctly, the section states that the National Deputy Chairman, North/South “shall act as the National Chairman in the absence of the National Chairman from his zone.”

Judging by the interpretation of the provision, since both Oshiomhole and Ajimobi are from the South, Ajimobi’s status as the acting national chairman is constitutionally valid as the next in rank to him from the South.

In Ajimobi’s unavoidable absence, Ettah was appointed to act for the acting chairman by the NWC, in accordance with the constitution of the party, which empowers it to appoint one of its members in acting capacity and stipulates that the acting national chairman must be from the zone of the national chairman. Sixteen of 21-member NWC agree with this line of thought.

But, Gaidom, who is now parading himself as acting chairman disagreed, leaning on the March 16, 2020 judgment of an Abuja High Court, which, he claimed, had earlier given him the nod to act as chairman, when Oshiomhole was suspended.

His claim is that Ajimobi should not be recognised as national deputy chairman. He has also consistently argued that, following the resignation of Mai Buni as national secretary, the position has been vacant. He said he will not recognise the new replacement from the Northeast, Waziri Bulama.

Gaidom has cancelled the earlier concluded Edo APC governorship screening and asked Governor Godwin Obaseki, who is now in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to reappear before the screening committee while ordering the Appeal Committee to set aside its report ratifying the exercise. So far, his orders had been dismissed by other NWC members.

Gaidom is not acting without the tacit support of some powerful and influential aggrieved chieftains in government who prefer to operate at the background, using him as a tool.

A new twist to the crisis was Giadom’s sack from the NWC on the basis of the fact that he had resigned to contest in his state during last year’s election, and there is no proof that he was re-nominated for his previous position in the NWC. In fact, the NWC has called for fresh nomination by his zone.

Giadom has attempted to pull off the rug from the NWC’s feet by obtaining an interim order extending an earlier order granting him to act as chairman.

Time is running out. Giadom’s attempt to superintend over the Edo APC primary is in conflict with the NWC’s directives, particularly the setting up of the Uzodinma Governorship Primary Committee and the Primary Appeal Committee.

There are three options for APC at this trying period.

The first is that the Supreme Court may offer a ray of hope, if Oshiomhole approaches it and successfully obtains an interim order stopping the execution of the subsisting Court of Appeal judgment on his suspension, pending the determination of his appeal against the verdict of the lower court, he may return to his position.

The second is for the NWC to approach the court for the determination of Giadom’s status, following the claim by the body that he had resigned.

The third is a halt to presidential aloofness. If President Buhari, who has not taken sides in the protracted dispute, intervenes by calling the two camps to order or brokering a successful reconciliation, peace may return to APC.