The All Progressives Congress (APC’s moves to put its house in order ahead of its national convention scheduled for February, has meet brick wall across states as the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led reconciliation committee failed to make any appreciable head way.
In Kwara, Osun, Kano, Gombe, Ogun, Zamfara, Kebbi, Lagos, Ekitti and others where the intractable crisis festered overtime, feuding members refused to back down amid plea by the committee to them to do so in the interest of the party.
This is even as the many court cases against the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led caretaker committee are still pending in courts despite repeated appeals to aggrieved stakeholders to withdraw same.
How Adamu’s visits further exacerbated crisis in Kwara
The visis by the national reconciliation committee to Kwara on January 10, 2022, did not end well as faction loyal to the Minister if Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed accused the committee of openly supporting Governor AbdulRahaman AbdulRazaq’s side.
It was gathered that the committee met leaders of both factions and key members separately where he assured them of fair hearing.
However, the minister’s faction in a statement shortly after the committee exited the state, accused it of bias, saying Adamu’s remarks at the meeting were far from that of a supposed neutral umpire.
The statement jointly signed by the state secretary of the faction, Alhaji Isiaka Agboji, and the publicity secretary, Mr Ibrahim Sharafdeen, said:, “We view such a belligerent tone as a prelude to what should be expected as the outcome of his input to the committee’s report. It is our belief that anyone who uses reason to escape history will end up repeating history.
“As a prudent statesman heading a reconciliatory committee of this nature, we expect that he would have approached this assignment with caution and tact rather than resorting to emotions by referring to his primordial relationship with one of the parties to the dispute. This, we consider as a clear case of a judge descending into the arena of dispute.”
But the faction hope that, “Having done what is expected of us by articulating our position on the matter at hand and proffering what we consider as way forward to the committee, we hope the leadership of the party at the national level will do justice without fear or favour in the overall interest of the party.”
Oyetola and Aregbesola face-off conitunes in Osun
In Osun State, the Senator Adamu-led committee also met separately with factions loyal to Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and that of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola,where he urged them to sheathe sword and embrace peace.
At the meeting with the Aregbesola loyalists on January 8, the group demanded that Governor Oyetola must resign his appointment as a member of APC caretaker committee to give a level playing ground to all aggrieved members.
Chairman of The Osun Progressives (TOP), Mr. Adelowo Adebiyi, told journalists after the meeting that the resignation of Oyetola from the caretaker committee was key to resolving the crisis in the party in Osun, noting that, “he cannot be a judge in his case.”
Another conditions to achieving peace in the party in the state, he said, is for the national secretariat to recognise their members elected during the Ward, Local Government and State congresses.
Few days after the committee’s visit however, both parties have returned to war path.
During the inauguration of the Digital Nigeria Centre in Ijesa Muslim Grammar School, Ilesa on Friday, the minister of interior hinted at the division within the party in the state in his speech at the occasion.
He said, “For anybody who seeks to know, the APC is divided in Osun. We have APC of Rauf Aregbesola, which is chaired by Mr Razaq Salinsile, and the other. Everybody is doing his or her own, later, we will reorganise, we will rearrange everything.
“The caucus that produced our faction is called The Osun Progressives chaired by Elder Lowo Adebiyi. People who are in doubt, thinking whether I am part of the TOP or not should listen, I belong to TOP. I am happy that the Commissioner of Police is here. There are a lot of lies that are flying around.”
The Oyetola’s group was to hit back at the minister through the APC chairman in the state, Mr. ‘Gboyega Famoodun, through a statement he issued later in the day.
The statement reads in part: “The intra-APC opposition group, called TOP, which meets every Thursday in the Campaign Office of the Interior Minister in Osogbo has become a venue where barrage of insults are heaped on the person of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, the state leadership of the APC and the state government by the leadership of the said TOP.
“This disgruntled set of the APC members are peopled by members of the cabinet of Aregbesola during his two terms as the governor of the state who are now protesting their not being appointed by Governor Oyetola for the third term.
“Osun APC is too strong for Aregbesola to break. His recent statement in Ilesa reduces his status as a former governor and as a serving minister of a party he claimed to belong to. Aregbesola is an arrogant, selfish, self-centered, reckless, wicked and inconsiderate politician who wants the whole world to be his possession. It is not an overstatement to categorise Aregbesola as someone who prefers to rule in hell than to serve in paradise.”
Court judgment affect peace effort in Kano.
The party’s reconciliation committee’s hands are somehow tied following the outcome of the litigation which recognised the Senator Ibrahim Shekarau faction over that of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje in Kano.
The judgement came while the committee was on an assignment in the state in November.
Earlier in January, 2022, the case came up again in an Abuja high court, which again declined to void judgment upholding Shekarau faction’s congresses.
Gombe situation still dicey
In Gombe where the reconciliation committee held a night long meeting with Governor Inuwa Yahaya and party chieftains in the state early December, the discontent has worsens overtime.
At the December meeting, former Gov Danjuma Goje now Senator representing Gombe Central, a key protagonist in the conflict was absent.
The head of the party’s reconciliation committee, Senator Adamu told journalists that Gioje gave reasons why he would not be available for the meeting and that the committee intend to interface with the Senator at a neutral ground.
As the tension heightened, loyalists of the former governor in Yahaya’s cabinet have resigned and some defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
However, the party’s Publicity Secretary, Moses Kyari, said the reconciliation effort is bringing feuding members together and doused tension within the fold.
No respite yet in Ogun
The reconciliation committee visited Ogun State in continuation of its assignment of uniting the party stakeholders early January and met separately with both factions led by Governor Dapo Abiodun and Ibikunle Amosun during the visit.
However, the two factions are yet to come together despite optimism earlier expressed of amicable resolution of contending issues.
It was learnt that the conditions put forward by the Amosun faction for the return of peace to the chapter are yet to be met.
The faction had advocated for equal representation in the state chapter’s executive and appointment of its members in Abiodun’s cabinet among other conditions.
A source within the Amosun’s faction told our reporter that non of the conditions has been met to pave the way for peace to return within the state chapter yet.
Zamfara remains a tough nut to crack
Analysts agreed that the Zamfara situation is quite complex amid doubts whether the crisis is resolvable. Multiple courts cases, one by Governor Abdulaziz Yari and Senator Kabiru Marafa, compounded the situation.
In an interview with journalists recently, Senator Marafa said he was not even aware of the committee neither has he been contacted by any of the member.
Zamfara is one of the states the reconciliation committee lined up for a visit in the coming days. However, analysts believed that with the complex nature of the crisis in the state chapter there, the committee would not make any head way there.
The bubble bursts in Kebbi
The crisis in the Kebbi chapter is another headache which antidote the committee will finds difficult to find going by its timeframe. The crisis which has been subject of speculation all along became manifest recently when Senator Adamu Aleiro directed his faction to open parallel offices.
He said his faction took the decision of running a parallel APC in the state with a view to fighting injustice meted on some members who were removed unjustly from the party’s leadership.
Analysts said at the root of the crisis is the struggle for the control of the state in 2023 with key stakeholders wanting their loyalists to take change as governor.
It was learnt Governor Atiku Bagudu wants the Attorney-General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to succeed him, while Aliero is rooting for Senate Leader,Yahaya Abdullahi.
