By Ray Morphy
The All Progressives Congress (APC) did what no other opposition political party has ever done in the political history of the country, when in 2015, against the run of play, it defeated the incumbent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a party that had held on to power for 16 long years. As a matter of fact one of the former PDP national chairmen, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, even boasted that the party would be in power for uninterrupted 60 years. The APC successfully bust their ego and the PDP is yet to recover from that onslaught! The success of the APC Tsunami that swept away the PDP from power was unprecedented. It was during the glory days of the APC with the former governor of Edo State, Chief John Odegun as the national chairman.
Oyegun it was who brought finesse to party administration. He led the APC to its biggest victory yet. A victory that was so overwhelming that overnight the hitherto behemoth PDP turned from being ‘the biggest party in Africa’ to a minority party gasping for breath. If Oyegun had been allowed to continue to steer APC’s ship after the historic victory of 2015 and up to 2019, perhaps PDP would have been buried by now. But some stakeholders had other ideas. They wanted Oyegun out. They thought they knew better. Enter the former governor of Edo State Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. While Oyegun was urbane and sophisticated in his man management, Oshiomhole was brash and erratic. While Oyegun was reconciliatory, Oshiomhole was autocratic. Under Oshiomhole the APC lost a lot of the gains of the party had made.
Under Oshiomhole the APC lost Zamfara State to the PDP. PDP took back Adamawa State because the intra-party squabble had weakened APC and the national secretariat UNDER OSHIOMHOLE could do nothing about it.
Bauchi was also retaken by PDP also thanks to failure of Oshiomhole to reconcile aggrieved party men. Rivers State that could have been won by APC, was lost ‘without firing a bullet’. This was because Oshiomhole failed to be an unbiased umpire in the crisis that rocked the Rivers APC. In the end the Rivers APC was disqualified from the 2019 general election. Under Oshiomhole the APC lost Edo, its only state in the South South, because of the unnecessary fight between the leader of the party in Edo State, Godwin Obaseki and the national chairman of the APC Adams Oshiomhole. In the end Obaseki was forced to leave the party to the PDP which eventually took over leadership of Edo State. The loss at Edo was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
The frustration over the sliding of the party to the abyss was unbearable. Oshiomhole had to go. In came the incumbent governor and chairman of APC Buni. In June 2020, the National Executive Council (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by President Muhammadu Buhari, dissolved the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, and appointed the governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni as the new caretaker committee chairman. A statement by Femi Adesina, special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari in media and publicity, said the emergency NEC meeting adopted all the recommendations by President Buhari, and appointed Governor Mai Buni, as Caretaker National Chairman, while Senator John Akpanudoede was designated Caretaker National Secretary.
Ray Morphy,writes from Abuja
