Politics

Convention: Will nPDP repeat history, walk out of APC?

 

By Mumini Abdulkareem

The recent threat by the members of the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) members who crossed over to the All Progressive Congress (APC) during the last 2015 election has raised many hypothesis that may define the 2019 election in the country and determine whether history will repeat itself or not.

It was least expected even though events before now among some blocs in the legacy parties that formed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) pointed to a semblance of such in the polity.

For some political analysts, the development nevertheless came suddenly and jolted the political landscape in the country like a thunderbolt and shook it to its very foundation when some members of the nPDP bloc in the APC issued what may now be regarded as the ‘last straw’ for the ruling party to address certain perceived grievances.

Although the aggrieved members did not state their next line of action if the party of the president failed to address their complaints, insinuations from high quarters have suggested a possible pullout from APC, which is already bedevilled by series of crises following rancorous congresses nationwide since penultimate week.

Since the merger with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), to form APC, this is the first time that members of the group will publicly complain about their “persecution” in the party.

Some members of the bloc in a lengthy letter signed by former acting national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje and former national secretary and ex-Governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinola and addressed to the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun gave the party a 7-day ultimatum highlighting certain injustices it wanted to be addressed.

While speaking with the press over the issue in Abuja, Baraje noted that despite the huge role played and sacrifices made in bringing APC to power in 2015, they have been neglected in the scheme of things by the administration.

According to them, none of their members was appointed into the Federal Executive Council, expect one who did not deliver his state in 2015 (an obvious reference to Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers and minister of transportation), no “significant patronage” and appointments to executive positions in various government agencies including that the party hierarchy even opposed members that showed interest in running for the offices of senate president and speaker, among others.

Going by the date of the letter of ultimatum to get an appointment with President Muhammadu Buhari who incidentally travelled to the UK for medicals when the statement was issued, the seven days ultimatum lapsed on Tuesday and has entered 10th day today people are therefore waiting with bated breath over the next line of action by the group.

But will the nPDP repeat history by pulling the rug off of the feet of the ruling party during its yet to be fixed convention just as it did about four year ago in Lagos during the national convention of the PDP held in Abuja then or will it remain in what appears to be a forced marriage. In any case, will the party remain aloof to the threat of group and allow it to go bearing in mind the catastrophic effect of such decision in the light of the 2015 election which saw an opposition party historically snatching power from a ruling party with all its power of incumbency? These puzzles among others have already started setting the agenda of discourse for the 2019 race.

Although neither he nor the president or any of the notable leaders of the party have come out to speak publicly on the issue, comments from some of their aides and cronies have left many gaps to be filled.

According to the Coordinator of the Buhari Support Group, Mallam Musa Abdullahi, although there is no disputing the fact that politics is a game of numbers and no party would like to lose even a single person, but it is better for the aggrieved members of the nPDP to leave now than later when the electoral contest would have entered a point of no return.

“The truth is we have to face the reality on ground, I think it is good for these members to leave now than to wait till the last minute before they pullout which would be a very difficult situation. There is no point to continue to hang on which could be more dangerous”, he added.

But the chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the APC and a Tinubu loyalist, Mr Joe Igbokwe during a TVC breakfast programme noted that although it would seem to some of them as a  kind of blackmail the way the group is going about the whole issue, “it would however be stupid for anybody to allow them to leave the party now or wave them off at this crucial stage of the party’s history especially considering their calibre and contribution to the success of the party.

Expectedly, the situation is already polarising the polity especially with the resignation of Oyinlola from the APC to join the ADC facilitated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo who incidentally has been in the forefront of the Buhari-must-not-be-re-elected campaign.

From Kwara State, the bells over the issue have not stop ringing with the submission of Hon Funke Adedoyin representing Irepodun/Oyun/Ekiti federal constituency. While flagging-off the 117 kilometres road expected to last five years and gulp N17 billion in Omu-Aran facilitated by her, the lawmaker who described the road as one that will benefit the entire constituency she represents, noted that the grievances of members of the new PDP is genuine and needed to be looked into to accommodate the aspirations of everybody.

According to her, “Basically APC is an amalgamation of different political parties and one of the challenges we had at the beginning was that we were so committed to coming together to win governance and some of these conditions were not properly addressed and we believed in good faith that all the parties will be fair and equitable. We have given it four years and we have seen that these guys don’t believe in fairness and equity, we are going to demand what we believe is our right as equal contributors to the success of the party”.

She however denied that there is no faction, adding that there is no cause for alarm since “we expected a level of justice and equity as core travellers in founding a new movement, we have seen that it is not prevailing and we have to make our position known that we feel we are being marginalised and not being treated fairly,” she submitted.

Furthermore, the deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives congress (APC) and member of the new People’s Democratic Party bloc, Timi Frank, declared that the group cannot be intimidated or taken for granted and warned that the leadership of the APC should learn from what befell the PDP while it was in governance.

When asked if they would allow new party leadership at the next convention before any action, he said it would be late.

He said the next line of action by the group is that the leaders would take further measures which would be made public if APC fails to respond to their demands.

Recalling what led to their departure from PDP, Mr Frank said the same situation is about to repeat itself and the PDP did not heed the group’s caution until it was too late.

However, the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, in an interview with the media on Tuesday said President Muhammadu Buhari will win the 2019 election without the nPDP although he spoke of the need to address their grievances.

 “What are we talking about? Who are these new PDP people that are threatening? This is Kwara, Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa, Rivers but I don’t think Amaechi is part of them.

“Buhari, then under ANPP won in all these four states. Go back to 2007, Buhari won in these four states. Even when Shekarau was running as a presidential candidate in 2011, Buhari defeated him in Kano. And, I have no doubt in my mind that even if the people threatening to leave, it will have absolutely no impact on the presidential election, the president will win Sokoto, Kwara and Adamawa easily.

“Kano is already in the bag, I mean if you saw the crowd that welcomed the president without the former governor Kwankwaso, Kano has always been the president’s base.

“To me that is not the issue, the issue is that they have written, they have expressed grievances, some of the grievances are legitimate and should be looked into.”

So will the nPDP pull out of the marriage or be amenable to recompilation going into the next election? The next few months will a very interesting one.

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