[OPINION]: Is APC Changing Ownership?, By Jibrin Ibrahim

I think the Yobe State governor, Mai-Mala Buni is currently the acting chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). For those of us who follow Nigerian politics on a day-by-day basis, it has been a whirlwind of a week. A few days ago, the party chairman was Adams Oshiomhole. Then a court threw him out. And we all know that courts have no basis in determining who runs parties; but this is Nigeria. Another court then decided that the acting assistant general secretary, one Victor Giadom, is the new acting chairman, which was rather confusing, as the party has a number of deputy chairmen, who, one would have thought, should takeover. This was the argument made by the former chairman’s group, who then appointed Deputy Chairman Abiola Ajimobi as acting chairman. It turned out that Ajimobi was in intensive care in a hospital and was not immediately available to take the seat. Given the situation, another deputy chairman, Hilliard Eta, we learnt, would act for the other acting chairman who was not available. Are you still following me, as I know that it’s all rather confusing? To consolidate this position, the Hilliard Eta group then expelled Victor Giadom from the party, remembering he had not too long ago resigned temporarily from his position to contest for another position in his State. I was trying to understand the appropriateness of this expulsion when I saw an announcement from President Buhari that the “expelled” Giadom is the legally recognised acting chairman of the party and he had called for a National Executive Committee meeting of the party for yesterday, which the president said he would be attending in his dual capacity as a loyal party man and believer in the rule of law.

Just after the President had called on all the National Executive Committee (NEC) members to attend the meeting, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party announced that the convening of the NEC was being done illegally by Giadom and that all loyal members of the party should boycott the NEC meeting. For a political scientist like me, it’s confusing for the NWC to call a meeting of its superior organ, the NEC, illegal, because it is the NEC that appoints the NWC to help it with the day-to-day running of the affairs of the party. Be that as it may, the NEC held, the president attended it, and the fifth chair of the party emerged in as many days. Wow! Not surprisingly, the NEC disbanded the NWC and appointed another one under the Yobe governor. The expectation is that this weekend, interested parties will rush to the courts to get the Yobe State governor, Mai-Mala Buni, removed as acting chairman of the party, as the struggle continues.

In a normal political system, this narrative would not make sense. Party organs, rather than courts, determine party leadership. If there are factional disputes that arise, party elders would intervene to create peace and negotiate a compromise. The reality is that we do not have a normal party system in Nigeria. The National Executive Committee rarely meets and the National Working Committee members are imposed by the chairman and leader of the party – the OWNERS. The ruling party does not even have a Board of Trustees and decisions were taken unilaterally by the former chairman, to displace or exclude others, leading to numerous rounds of crisis. For the past few years, two individuals had owned the APC – the erstwhile chairman, Adams Oshiomhole and the party leader, Bola Tinubu. I have asked party insiders whether the Leader is a formal position and the unanimous answer I have received is that the Leader means Owner. The narrative is that he has to keep total control of the party, as he has presidential ambitions for 2023, which can only be realised if he remains the owner of the party and has an effective chairman who can carry out orders.

I am aware that in normal political systems, parties are owned by members who elect or remove leaders as they please. Unfortunately, that is not the case in Nigeria. Adams had to go because other forces also want to be in contention for the presidency in 2023, after all the way we characterise our system is ‘godfatherism’. In this system, godfathers will remain in total control until another godfather is able to overthrow them and takeover control. That is what all the drama is about.

We should recall April 2011 when the elected governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, visited Oba Erediauwa of Benin to brief his Royal Highness that the godfather of Edo politics, Chief Tony Anenih had been defeated and sent into political retirement. Adams Oshiomhole returned to the theme of godfatherism on September 28, 2016 when he formally announced the complete termination of godfatherism in the State. The occasion was the defeat of Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by his own imposed candidate, Godwin Obaseki. He formally declared that he had eliminated all the remaining godfathers in the State, naming specifically, Tom Ikimi, Gabriel Igbinedion and Raymond Dokpesi, as the last eliminated godfathers after the earlier ouster of Tony Anenih: “We have humbled Chief Tom Ikimi, even in the local government he claimed to have created. We defeated Chief Raymond Dokpesi in his polling unit, his ward and his local government,” he said.

One person in the audience, newly elected Governor Obaseki did not understand the message. He thought the announcement was about the end of godfatherism. He was to find out soon that what was said was not what was meant. The message was that Adams was the new godfather. When the godfather gave instructions to godson Obaseki, who naively thought he was governor, the crisis began, which ended up with his disqualification for a second term and the upheaval that affected the entire party.

The problem around the politics of godfatherism is that the only interest that matters is that of the godfather. On the scale of godfatherism, Adams Oshiomhole scores high because of his three core competences – street fighting, transactional politics and the taking of no prisoners. These are the skills to be deployed to determine success for the widely speculated 2023 political ambition of a former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu. The problem is that the skills are used in a zero-sum game to totally eliminate the other and in the process the baby is often thrown with the bath water, as the party might not survive the process. For godfathers, however, survival of the party is not important as new parties can be formed, procured or stolen to continue the struggle for total power.

Let me be clear, the other side too is playing the same politics. A number of governors, such as that of Ekiti, Kayode Fayemi; Kebbi, Atiku Bagudu; Plateau, Simon Lalong; Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai; Jigawa, Badaru Abubakar; and Niger, Abubakar Bello, are working hard with some ministers, such as Rotimi Amaechi, to destroy Mr. Oshiomhole’s grip on the party and suffocate Bola Tinubu’s presidential ambition. That is their own pathway to power. Over the coming days and weeks, we shall see whether there are new owners of the APC or the old owners have kept their control. The only thing we know for sure about Nigerian politics is that when someone is defeated and another takes over, it is extremely difficult to tell who the winner is. This is not surprising, after all, the technical definition of political godfatherism is that the person with the power is not the person with the power. Are you still following?

RIP Abiola Ajimobi

Just as I was about to send in my column, I learnt of the sad death of Abiola Ajimobi who featured in my narrative. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.

A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development.