…Rival Group Seizes Party’s Organ
- Nobody Is Undermining Tinubu, Says Governor Bello
The dissolution of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the appointment of a Caretaker/Convention Committee chaired by Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni in its stead has thrown up uneasy calm in the camp of a National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Before now, there has been apprehension in the camp of the APC leader over speculations that a rival camp is scheming against it, but last Thursday’s decision reached at the National Executive Committee meeting of the APC underpins the power tussle in the APC ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The epic battle that resulted into the sacking of NWC members has been between the camps of former APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and that of Mr. Victor Giadom. While it is believed that the Oshiomhole camp has loyalists of the National leader of the party, Tinubu rooting for it, the Giadom camp has the backing of Governor Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti State), Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, among others.
Immediately after the dissolution of the NWC members was perfected at the NEC meeting, the anti-Tinubu camp (Giadom) backed the resolution after all, it summoned the meeting through its surrogate, Giadom. But the pro-Tinubu/Oshiomhole NWC members who have been relieved of their duties are currently weighing other options, including taking a legal action over the matter.
The New Diplomat recalls in March, as the plot to ease out Oshiomhole thickens, Tinubu had issued a statement saying the attempt to remove the national chairman was needless. He said at the time that removing Oshiomhole whom he said had toiled hard for the party would be an act of “ingratitude.”
Tinubu, rumoured to be nursing a presidential ambition in 2023, also lampooned party stalwarts fuelling the crisis because of the next presidential election. He accused them of being afflicted with disease worse than the rampaing coronavirus. He said Oshiomhole had “been a tireless campaigner and mobilizer for the party.”
“He has steered the party through difficult elections. His contributions should not be undervalued now that the bulk of elections are behind us. To do so would be an act of ingratitude,” he said.
Meanwhile, with the latest development which saw Oshiomhole out of the calculation, there are insinuations that Tinubu might have lost out in the bid to control the party at the national level ahead of the 2023 electioneering.
Also, the constitution of the caretaker committee is being viewed by political insiders as an action that has put the erstwhile Congress for Progressive Change and nPDP among parties that coalesced into the APC in 2014, in pole position to push for their agenda, including finding a successor for President Muhammadu Buhari and shopping for a new party Chairman ahead of APC’s national convention.
As Tinubu continues to weigh options, some of his supporters who are worried by the development are keeping their fingers crossed awaiting the direction the party leader would go even as some are not ruling out plan B in the 2023 presidency permutations.
As of the time of this report, Tinubu had not reacted to the developments in the party. He was expected to make his position known soon.
But Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has said that regardless of what transpires in the APC, Asiwaju Tinubu remains a father of the ruling party.
Governor Bello stated this while featuring as a guest on a Channels TV political programme, Friday evening. Bello who was speaking on the recent events within the APC stated that “Bola Tinubu has paid his dues”, adding that “nobody is undermining him”.
While noting that Tinubu continues to play a fatherly role, the governor stated that the APC needs the elder statesman.
