Why APC Chiefs Are Afraid Of Life After Buhari

By Chuks Ekpeneru

Recently the National Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Emmanuel Ibediro, came out to douse fears that the party will not survive a post-Buhari era.

Ibediro hinged his hope on the fact that the APC has built a strong institution which according to him can stand independent of the Buhari persona.

However, keen observers of recent events in the APC say the Imo State-born lawyer may be far from the truth.

They say the APC National Organising Secretary may be playing politics with the issues, especially when he is believed to owe his allegiance to one of the factions fighting to control the party.

Someone like the immediate past Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, may not agree with Ibediro. In 2019, Shittu warned that the APC might find it difficult to get votes in the 2023 general elections if the party failed to put its house in order.

The Senator representing Imo West, Rochas Okorocha, the state where Ibediro hails from has not hidden his fears about the survival, saying the APC might lose its current grip of power in 2023 if nothing was urgently done to reposition its leadership.

He insisted that if nothing was done to address the leadership style of the party, it may not survive after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.

The recent altercation that almost caused the APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole his job is a pointer that the party is still divided.

Despite the temporary relief, the Secretary to Edo State Government, Osarodion Ogie Esq., in a statement accused Oshiomhole of heating up the polity in the state by organising what has been described as ‘APC faction’s mock primaries’ through the Edo Peoples Movement (EPM) amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The primaries came in the face of what sources said was an agreement brokered by the late Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari between Oshiomhole and Obaseki in March just before he took ill with the sickness that killed him.

Apart from Edo, there will be election in Ondo, where Governor Rotimi Akeredolu is contending with a faction of the party which has the tacit support of ‘Abuja’. The former President of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) is up against the Unity Forum led by former deputy governor, Ali Olanusi.

Elsewhere in Bayelsa State, still smarting from their failure to take over government through David Lyon, some APC members are up in arms with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timpire Sylva. The say he has hijacked the party without any meaningful electoral success.

Another source of worry for APC members is the inability to break into the South-East. The worry is that even when that region was not useful in the party coming to power in 2015 & 2019, there is going to be a very big difference in the 2023 elections.

They point out that Hope Uzodinma in Imo State was clearly a judicial technicality, hence the party should not assume it has made inroads into that region.

A major issue which may punctuate the claims of Ibediro is what some party leaders say is ongoing plot by some in the national leadership to determine and bury the political ambition of those who are not their “boys”. They say as 2023 approaches, the fate of former Governor Akinwumi Ambode awaits some aspirants.

On return from suspension, Deputy National Chairman (North), APC, Lawal Shuaibu aptly conveyed the division of the top hierarchy of the party when he openly endorsed Obaseki as APC’s sure bet for victory in the already heated Edo Governorship contest.

“It does not make sense to bring another person to contest against the governor. Governor Obaseki is the strongest candidate of the APC we have in Edo State,” he said.

This endorsement will definitely irk the Oshiomole group, which some say show that APC leaders are tolerating each other for now pending a make or mar showdown.

Expectedly, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP is waiting in the wings to reap from what some say is the impending implosion in the ruling party.

According to the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Umar Ibrahim Tsauri, the possibility of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) breaking up in 2021 as result of its leadership tussle is not in doubt because the party is headed for the rocks.

He said: “APC is not a political party but a collection of interest. So, give them between now and next year, 2021; the party will dissipate and those interests will divide themselves. Nobody can claim ownership of the PDP but in APC, there are people who own the party.

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