Tasks Before the Re-elected APC National Chairman -By Edwin Uhara

There is no doubt that the national convention of our great party, the ruling All Progressives Congress has come and gone with the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda retained as the National Chairman of the party.

I congratulate him and the new members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party even as I enjoin them to brace up for the challenging tasks ahead.

However, it is important that I point out that the new NWC members are not going to enjoy any honey moon because the time frame for the conduct of party primaries are too short and as a result, the leadership must role-up it’s sleeves and hit the ground running because there is no time for a walk in the park this moment.

In this regard, it is important that the party adopts both proactive and reactive strategies in handling the post-primary election crisis which will most likely erupt.

I’m not a pessimist, but the new party leadership must anticipate crisis emanating from some states over conflicts of interest and make arrangements on how to strike a balance between the interests of longstanding members and the interest of new members who now enjoys the attention of the party.

This is where the proactive strategy will work perfect for the overall interest of the party.

The second strategy is that, the leadership must embark on genuine reconciliation immediately after the primary elections are over in order to establish modus vivendi within the party structure across states.

If this second aspect is not properly handled, anything can happen because politicians always go to where their nest would be feathered.

The Presidential Primary would not be an issue because the President would be given the automatic ticket of the party.

Next time when our party delegates will be coming back to Abuja would be to ratify the automatic ticket that would be given to Mr. President.

So, at the presidential level, the leadership will have a field day because there would not be much trouble in this regard but it will most definitely not be like that at the state level.

This is where the challenge lies and it requires high level negotiation abilities and conflicts resolution skills to overcome it.

Such challenge did not arise in Anambra, Ondo and other states that recently witnessed gubernatorial primaries because it’s a staggered primary with minimal interests.

This area is one of the most neglected aspects that led to the downfall of the former ruling party — the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 Presidential Election.

A lot of analysts focused on the immediate cause of PDP failure but refused to look at the remote cause which I want to highlight in this piece because I was part of the process.

Towards the end of 2014, the PDP conducted the worst party primary which it carried over to 2015 general election year.

Initially, the party encouraged interested members to buy the nomination and expression of interest forms at very high prices and promised that it would give every member a level playing ground.

But during primaries, the party went against its own rules and the leadership carried on as if nothing happened.

Because these aggrieved party members commanded huge followership among the electorates they decided to protest under the auspices of PDP Aspirants Forum (PAF) which I was one of it’s national spokespersons.

PAF wanted to engage the party leadership to amicably find lasting solution to the crisis but some hardliners within the party hierarchy who thought that the election would be business as usual frustrated every of our moves until we decided to go public.

Because our members refused to participate in partisan activities, their non participation started showing bad and dangerous signals for all the candidates including President Good luck Jonathan.

First, public opinion began to go against the candidates. Second, the electorates began to pelt the President with pebbles and sachet waters.

Third, blame and counter blames started creping in to the campaign train.

While all these were happening, General Buhari who was the candidate of the APC soared high as he became the main beneficiary of the internal party wrangling.

The Presidency and the PDP refused to recognize the political reality in the country and as well underestimated their main challenger, General Muhammadu Buhari and his party without knowing that APC had covertly engaged the services of AKPD which was the political consultancy firm owned by David Axelrod, President Obama’s Chief Campaign Strategist for 2008 and 2012 United States Presidential Elections.

Because Mr. Axelrod had the ear of President Obama, he was able to turn the heart of Mr. Obama against President Jonathan.

Accordingly, Obama mobilized David Cameron who was then the UK Prime Minister and other allies to work against Jonathan’s re-election.

When the Presidency saw the danger ahead, they decided to reach out to PAF by sending the Deputy Director-General of the Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organization, Professor Tunde Adeniran and the traditional ruler of Jonathan’s community in Ogbia, King Asara A. Asara to the group.

Professor Adeniran urged PAF members not to allow what some persons had done to cause them to leave the party or work against it during polls; noting that they were some party members on the campaign train who did not want President Jonathan reelected.

While speaking on behalf of the President, the Traditional Ruler of Akipelai Community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Chief Asara A. Asara, appealed to PAF members not to leave the party saying, “President Jonathan was deeply worried over the way and manner the last primaries were conducted, but, because the automatic ticket granted him by the party was yet to be ratified as at the time the various primaries were conducted, he was very helpless in intervening in the matter. He assured them that the President would soon meet with them.

On March 2nd, 2015 President Jonathan finally invited PAF members at the Presidential Villa but most of our members refused to attend.

Some members who honoured the invitation observed that everyone was already in the panic mode.

This was when the Director -General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Amodu Ali told us that the battle was not against Buhari but against the American Government.

Trying to justify his claim, Senator Ali said that Mr. Obama was angry with President Jonathan because he refused to allow same sex marriage to be made official in Nigeria but this narrative fell on deaf ears because the PDP had already lost the sympathy of many Nigerians.

For example, instead of running their campaigns on issues, the party decided to focus on Buhari making him the campaign issue.

So, after the popular Abuja peace accord, President Obama started sending his then Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry to Nigeria often and often signaling danger over any plot to rig the election.

After much filibustering, PAF dissected everything within the context of truth and observed that even if we decided to support the PDP, public opinion had already gone against the party.

For example, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu who was one of the governorship aspirants for Delta State said that elections were not yet conducted but some of the beneficiaries of the kangaroo primaries had started carrying themselves as if they had won the election already.

Other members like the Governorship Aspirant for Lagos State, Chief Babatunde Badamasi, Rivers State, Hon. Gabriel Pidomson, Benue State, Mrs. Rosaline Ada Chenge, Imo State, late Chief Bethel Amadi, the Senatorial Aspirant for Edo North, Chief Richard Lamai, Adamawa, Mallam Isa Tambaran, Anambra, Barrister Chike Madueke, House of Representative Aspirants like Hon. Pat Asadu, Lady Irene Ottih, Chief Mrs. Olivia Agbajo and over 150 Aspirants for various State House of Assemblies spoke in similar direction.

It was at this point that Buhari saw the opportunity and sent a high powered delegation to PAF members. Though he has been sending Senator Dino Melaye who was one of his campaign spokespersons to the group.

So, while some defected to APC including myself to support Buhari, others remained in PDP but to work against it during polls which in the end, Buhari gave PDP a very hard blow with a crushing defeat.

Ever since then, the PDP has never recovered from the Buhari blow and from the look of things, they will have no option than to adopt our President as it’s presidential candidate for next year’s election.

So, with the benefits of hindsight, insight and foresight, I write this piece to arrest things before there go out of hands.

Once again,
Congratulations to our Chairman and members of the National Working Committee of the party.

Comrade Edwin Uhara is a Political Operative, Public Policy Analyst and former Member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council.

He can be reached via email: edwinuhara@rocketmail.com