[caption id="attachment_57430" align="alignright" width="412"] L-r: Tinubu, Buhari and Oyegun[/caption] John Odigie Oyegun, the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress and the National Leader of the party, former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu may not jus destablise the ruling party with other potential dangerous fallouts. By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja It was a book launch, and if you like, an occasion to celebrate President Muhammadu Buhari whose biography is the cause for the gathering of heavyweights in Nigeria's socio-economic and political milieu at International Conference Centre, Abuja recently. But the guests, principally made up of government officials, politicians and governors across party lines among others were also on a look out for a cue that will indicate the state of what seem a brewing storm in the ruling party. However, those who expected the two protagonists in the "storm" APC's national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and John Oyegun to at worst, rain abuses on each other or at best, shun each other were disappointed. The two men warmly greeted and even hugged each other to the delight of many anxious party supporters as the cameras clicked away. However, the simmering crisis resurfaced less than 24 hours later at two places, Aso Rock presidential villa, Abuja and Abuja national secretariat of APC also in the capital city. A group of youths besieged the national secretariat of APC in protest at what they described as the “Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu ’s overbearing influence on party affairs.” The youths who described themselves as All Progressives Congress Democratic Youth Frontiers were armed with banners with inscriptions some of which read: “We are united in APC, Tinubu can’t separate us,” “Tinubu is not God,” “Greed is not democracy,” “No room for an emperor.” They were led by one Lookman Salaudeen who told journalists that there is need to curtail the influence of Tinubu within the party. He also accused the national leader of the party of sponsoring attacks against ministers and other appointees of the Presidents. “We call on Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu to either leave the APC, (or) curtail his greed (and) toe the line and exhibit the kind of loyalty needed for party cohesion whether from ordinary members or national leaders. Nigeria is bigger than Lagos State, where you control affairs like a god; whose words are sacred and must be obeyed at all times,” Salaudeen told journalists. Few hours after the protest, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on media and public affairs, Femi Adesina sent literarily sent the internet ablaze when he tweeted a picture of President Buhari laughing full heartedly at a meeting with the embattled chairman of APC. The picture in which Oyegun was seen holding a file revives discussion of the feud within the ruling party on the social media, with various insinuations of who of the two feuding leaders of APC the President is supporting. But Oyegun not only disowned the protesters at the APC Secretariat, he also tried to downplay the disagreement with the party’s national leader in a chat with journalists after his meeting with the President. “There is no rift with Asiwaju. We have difference of opinions, difference of perception and I think that is normal. Yes, I agree that the nature of the (Tinubu’s) statement was a bit harsh,” he said. However, when he was asked if he will resign as demanded by Tinubu in a letter published in many newspapers, the former Edo State Governor said, “The methods of getting rid of a national chairman, if that is what I will call it, are spelt out in the constitution. They don’t take place on the pages of newspapers.” Feuding associates The simmering feud between the APC National Leader and his long term associate, Oyegun boil to the fore when Tinubu about two weeks ago, in a letter asked the national leader of the ruling party to resign over his handling of gubernatorial primary of Ondo gubernatorial election. Ironically, it was famous lawyer and another long term associate of Tinubu, Barrister Tunji Abayomi who set off controversies over the primary when in an open letter, he accused the APC National leader of favouring one of the aspirants for the APC gubernatorial ticket, Dr Segun Abrahams. Abayomi who is also an aspirant in the primary had in the letter alleged that Tinubu summoned Ondo APC leaders to his Lagos home where he “told them who the candidate of the party would be and directed them to work for him assuring them of your (Tinubu’s) financial support. The lawyer who accused the former Lagos governor of involvement in series of undemocratic practices and dictatorial tendencies added that the summoning of party officials to a meeting and the instruction to them to support one aspirant, in his view “violated the right to fairness and “amounted to undue influence to unjustly favour an aspirant.” Abayomi further alleged that Tinubu imposed a candidate, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, on the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria in the 2012 governorship election in the state and failed, he should not repeat the mistake in the 2016 governorship primary of the APC. Abayomi described Tinubu as a “man who frustrates the democratic aspirations of Nigerians through his dictatorial tendencies,” in the letter which was first published on a popular website went viral within hours of its coming into public domain, eliciting different reactions within and outside the APC fold. But the former Lagos Governor fired back with his own letter, asserting that he reserves the right to back whoever he likes to emerge as candidate of APC in the Ondo governorship election. He did not deny his preference for Abraham among the hordes of aspirants for the gubernatorial ticket. Tinubu who described Abayomi’s letter as “an impetuous display unbecoming a man of your status and a man seeking the highest leadership position in his state,” added that the lawyer would not have complained if he was the one he endorsed. The allegations and counter allegations degenerated into crisis in the Ondo State chapter of APC with the 24 aspirants for gubernatorial ticket taking sides. The state Chairman of the party, Isaac Kekemeke who was accused of doctoring the list of delegates for the governorship primary to favour the emergence of Abraham was impeached by some party members who announced his replacement with Saka Ogunleye. Oyegun Moves in [caption id="attachment_55669" align="alignright" width="600"] Akredolu[/caption] To clam frayed nerves, the Oyegun led National Working Committee, NWC of APC invited the aspirants and other stakeholders in the governorship election to Abuja for a meeting few days to the primary. At the ‘peace meeting’ Oyegun assured the aspirants and their supporters that the leadership of APC has not favoured candidate for the gubernatorial primary. But he asserted that any member of the party has the right to endorse any aspirant and it will up to delegates to vote for who they want as their flag bearer in the election. To further assure the aspirants that there will be no “imposition,” the APC Chairman said a clean copy of the delegate list which will be used to conduct the gubernatorial primary will be made available to all the aspirants days before the election. This, he said, will ensure that the election is free and fair. True to that promise, the list of authentic delegates was released to the aspirants some days to the 3 September gubernatorial election. [caption id="attachment_57431" align="alignright" width="600"] Tinubu and Oyegun in "diplomatic" handshake at Buhari's book launch[/caption] A Contentious primary Thus, with the authentic delegates list in their possession, all the spirants had hoped for a fraud free primary election. Thus, when the results reflected a keenly contested race after the polls, many partly attributed it to strict adherence to the authentic list of delegates by Governor Mohammed Badaru led APC Electoral Committee. Against all expectations, Akeredolu was again elected candidate of the party for the November 26 governorship election, defeating Abraham by 34 votes. Olusola Oke who decamped from PDP to APC few months before the primary election also pulled a surprise, scoring 576 votes to come third, beating Ajayi Boroffice another favourite for the ticket to the fourth position with 471 votes. Abayomi, who set off the storm of a ‘favoured candidate’ turned out to be a lightweight, garnering only five votes in the primary election. Though the victory of Akeredolu was a shocker to many party members, including Abraham and Oke, there was general backslapping for a “job well done” by party members and other stakeholders at the end of the primary election. However, the toga of ‘transparency’ the election was clocked with began to unfurl less than 24 hours later with allegations of padded delegates list and recruitment of mercenaries who were paid about 10,000 to vote for the victorious candidate. The allegation of use of ‘mercenaries’ gained traction when some of the alleged participants were shown on national television, confessing how they were recruited, provided with party’s identification tag, assisted to gain entrance into the venue of the election and went on to vote in the primary. The allegation of rigging led to calls for revision of the primary by other leading aspirants in the primary. Abraham, through the Director General of the O’Abraham Campaign Organisation, Prince Olu Adegboro told journalists about three days after primary that the election was fraudulently conducted. While noting that as a democrat, he had congratulated Akeredolu, who was declared winner despite palpable disbelief and surprise on the outcome of the primary election by him and his supporters, Abraham said, “The news, however, is that, sordid and staggering facts have since emerged on how the process leading to the primary election was manipulated and compromised. It is now beyond doubt that the delegate list used on the day of the primary election was doctored and strangely injected with a mind blowing number of delegates who are neither who are executive members of our party nor statutory delegates.” Oke and Borrofice also toed the same line, calling for cancellation of the primary over allegations that it was rigged to favour the victorious aspirant. The Fraud in the Primary Election [caption id="attachment_57393" align="alignright" width="500"] Oke[/caption] The aspirants took their complaints to the Appeal Committee set up by the party to consider complaints emanating from the primary. It was gathered that the Committee was inundated with different petitions from participants in the primary and other Ondo APC chieftains, detailing allegations of fraud which riddled the election. The Committee received six petitions with three complaints coming from three aspirants; Chief Olusola Oke, Dr. Olusegun Abraham and Prof. Ajayi Boroffice; the Chairman of Ondo Central APC, Mr. Adegboyega Adedipe, his Ondo East counterpart, Mr. Akintunde Temitope, and Mrs. Toyin Ajinde, a delegate. The petitions include complaints that over 383 names were fraudulently injected into the delegates list that was used to conduct the primary election. They also alleged that over 300 delegate tags were issued to non-delegates to allow them to vote in the primary election as was discovered after the exercise. They also alleged that a new copy of the delegates list doctored to include the imposters was given to aspirants by the election committee of APC around 10.30pm. The aggrieved aspirants also though they rejected the new list, it was too late to pull out of the primary, hence their decision to participate in it. Based on overwhelming evidence of fraud, the Committee at the end of its assignment recommended the cancellation of the primary. The Committee pointed out that “serious and weighty identified irregularities,” in the primary cannot be ignored though there was substantial adherence to stipulated guidelines in the conduct of the exercise. The Committee therefore recommended that a rerun primary should be held immediately to beat the deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Committee, INEC. Also, to make the new primary a tidier affair, the committee directed the party leadership to come up with a properly harmonised list of delegates acceptable to all contenders. Indeed, it advised that delegates’ list, distributed to aspirants in Abuja shortly before the controversial primary should be used for the new exercise. It also said the list should be released early to aspirants. “In view of the change mantra of this administration, it is pertinent that the party blazes the trail by refusing to condone a less than perfect exercise,” noted the Committee. The road to emergence of a “rigged candidate” for Ondo election Akeredolu promptly rejected recommendation that the primary election should be cancelled resulted. In the same vein, members of the party’s National Working Committee were also divided on the recommendation. The division over what to do with the reports of the appeal committee, it was gathered, delayed the submission of Akeredolu’s name to INEC by the party. But the Oyegun led NWC eventually met on 22 September to consider the report. It was gathered that members of the NWC had voted five to six in favour of upholding the recommendation of the appeal committee nullification of the 3 September exercise and conduct of a fresh primary. But Oyegun was reported to have overruled majority of the NWC to submit Akeredolu’s name to INEC, thereby igniting the ongoing crises. APC National Vice Chairman (Southwest) Chief Pius Akinyelure identified Odigie-Oyegun, National Secretary Mai Mala Buni and the National Organising Secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso, as the persons behind the act the rigging of the delegates’ list and manipulation of the process to favour Akeredolu. [caption id="attachment_57432" align="alignright" width="350"] Tunji Abayomi[/caption] In the statement which the APC National Vice Chairman said was endorsed by six National Working Committee (NWC) members he accused the trio of using NWC meetings to usurp powers and unilaterally take decisions that their offices did not give them the power to take. Specifically, he accused Izunaso of single-handedly altering the list of delegates that was eventually adopted for the election in favour of Akeredolu. Izunaso, he added, acted with the support of Oyegun and Buni, though other members of the NWC opposed them. He added that following the complaints which followed the primary, the NWC decided to submit the name of an interim substitute to INEC as place holder until a fresh primary was conducted. But the decision, he said was neglected as Oyegun, Buni and Izunaso “blindsided the other members to submit Akeredolu’s name in spite of a six to five votes in favour of presenting the substitute name”. [caption id="attachment_37414" align="alignright" width="612"] Tinubu[/caption] Tinubu’s Concerns Tinubu lamented that in contravention of the NWC decision and in violation of all rules of fundamental decency, Oyegun decided to safeguard the fraud done in Ondo by perpetrating a greater fraud of submitting the name of Akeredolu to INEC as the candidate of the party. Thus, the National Leader of the party accused Oyegun of not only sabotaging majority, but working against all that the party stood for. “As party chairman, Oyegun was supposed to protect our internal processes and be an impartial arbiter, a person in whom all had confidence. Instead, he donned the garment of a confident man, duping the NWC, the party, and INEC in one fell blow. He has robbed APC members in Ondo State of the chance to pick in a fair manner who they believe is the best candidate,” said Tinubu. Odigie- Oyegun insisted last week that it is only INEC that can change the result of the gubernatorial primary despite the controversies. “It is only INEC (the Independent national Electoral Commission) that can make a U-turn on the Ondo primary,” the APC National Chairman told reporters. The Dangers Ahead The crises over APC primary reverberated in Akure, the Ondo State capital last week as supporters of Akeredolu and Abraham clashed during a protest in Akure, the state capital. Analysts contended that APC may have lost the Ondo election already especially if the three aggrieved aspirants refused to support Akeredolu. Indeed, the prospect of getting the aspirants behind Akeredolu dimmed last week with the defection of Oke to Alliance for Democracy, AD. This, according to analysts will affect the chances of the party in the Southern part of the State where Oke has over time proved that he is a force to be reckoned with in terms of garnering of votes. The two other leading aggrieved aspirants are also weighing their options as at the time of writing this story. Beyond the Ondo primary, analysts contended that the fight between Oyegun and Tinubu is a manifestation of the ongoing struggle between different forces to control the soul of APC ahead of the 2019 general election. The speculations was that at present, there at least three factions trying to control the party, with a group led by Tinubu being one of them. Tinubu was unarguably the major force behind emergence of Oyegun. But the two erstwhile comrades in political trenches, it was gathered have fallen out in recent times over decisions taken by the Oyegun led NWC. The former Lagos Governor began to part ways with the APC National Chairman following what was believed to be the shoddy manner he handled the crisis that characterized the process of selecting principal officers for the National Assembly. Of recent, Tinubu is also said to be angry with Oyegun over the APC NWC approach to the crisis set off by the death Abubakar Audu, the candidate of the party at the October 2015 Kogi gubernatorial election. In these and other instances, Tinubu, according to sources believed that Oyegun allowed himself to be negatively influenced by reactionary forces trying to gain control of the party. Hence, the National leader of APC said in his statement that, “Much more than the Ondo primary is at stake.” Tunubu who declared that to rescue the party rescue the party, Oyegun must go said the APC national chairman has shown the he cannot exist in the same party with democracy at the same time. “If the party could not justly govern itself, it would find it difficult to establish and maintain just government throughout the nation,” said Tinubu. The APC National Chairman has denied the allegations against him and insisted last that he will not be sacked on the “pages of a newspaper.” With each side digging in analysts said the party faced possibe implosion as members take side in the fight as it was already happening. This aside, there is also the fear that the infighting may weaken the party and aid the re-emergence of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party despite the ills associated with the party’s 16 years rule. In the same vein, the implosion of APC may signal the end of the kind of regional alliance that that helped to dethrone 16 years of PDP in power at the national level. The crises in the ruling party, may also divert government’s attention from efforts to tackle the nation’s present economic crises.