Hurdles as Ganduje moves to stabilise APC, capture more states

Like the proverbial cat with nine lives, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, a former governor of Kano State, defied protests and dark clouds to clinch the position of the party’s helmsman, but how he will manage the several hurdles before the ruling party has become a hot debate, Daily Trust Saturday reports.

Ganduje’s emergence as the chairman of the party raised some dust due to the fact that he was not elected at a national convention, which is the highest decision-making organ of the party. He was announced chairman at the party’s 12th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, on August 3, 2023. The NEC is the second highest decision-making organ of the party and its membership consists of the president, vice president, governors who are members of the party, National Working Committee (NWC) members, state chairmen of the party, among others.

While some party members questioned the legality of his becoming the party’s helmsman, others said it was in line with the provisions of the party’s constitution (as amended in 2022).

Our correspondent reports that the NEC relied on Article 13:3 (ii) of the APC constitution to make Ganduje the national chairman. The article states: “The NEC has the powers to discharge all functions of the national convention in between national conventions.”

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Shortly after his announcement as the chairman, Ganduje vowed that under his watch: “Internal democracy will be strictly adhered to with a deliberate policy to engage in wider consultations and make the party functional throughout the year.”

To become the sixth national chairman of the party, he was President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s anointed candidate, with the backing of governors who are members of the APC. But pundits wondered why the zoning arrangement within the party was jettisoned in favour of the North West where he hails from to the detriment of the North Central which was arguably supposed to fill the vacancy.

According to the party’s constitution, the former National Chairman’s (Abdullahi Adamu) replacement ought to have come from the North Central where he hails from, especially considering that he was forced to resign.

Expectations, hurdles 

Following the manner in which he emerged, the stakes and expectations on his shoulders couldn’t have been higher, especially considering that he inherited a crises-ridden and nearly broken party.

Aside from the political issues, our correspondent reports that before Ganduje assumed office, workers at the national secretariat of the party were grumbling over lack of welfare and thus cast a lukewarm ambience on the party’s national headquarters. But political watchers said his emergence once again triggered a beehive of activities at the secretariat, including courtesy visits by ambassadors of countries, governors who are members of the party, senators, ministers, former governors and many other groups.

Also, with three off-season elections coming barely six months after taking over, the jury had been out on how the APC would perform, especially considering the controversies that clouded the party’s victory in the general elections. But Ganduje led the party to victory in two of the three off-season elections held on November 11, in Kogi and Imo states.

Analysts, however, say with the November 11, elections gone, the challenge before the Ganduje-led NWC is how to win other opposition states before the 2027 general elections. 

But top party leaders say the Ganduje-led NWC has a game plan to capture some of the states currently under the control of the opposition in the off-season elections slated for 2024, 2025 and 2026. There will be off-season elections in Edo and Ondo in 2024, Anambra in 2025 and Osun in 2026. 

Anambra is under the control of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Edo is run by the PDP, while Osun is equally under the control of the PDP. Already, INEC has announced that the governorship election in Edo would be held on September 21, 2024, while that of Ondo would be held on November 16, 2024.

Since assuming office, political watchers noted that the Ganduje-led NWC launched a deliberate strategy to whittle down the structures of the opposition in some states. This triggered massive defection of members of the PDP, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Young Progressives Party (YPP) and others to the APC. 

Sequel to the influx of new members, the NWC announced plans to embark on e-registration of members and to establish a “progressives institute” as part of effort to ensure good governance and deepen democracy in the country. 

The NWC equally rejigged, and in some cases, dissolved the executives in some states to pave the way for the emergence of a leadership that would deliver President Tinubu in 2027 for a second term. One of such cases is in Rivers. Aside from this, it was gathered that the ongoing reconciliation of aggrieved members is part of the early scheming of the APC.

Anambra game plan

It was gathered that the party has put in motion a plan to make further inroads into the South East by taking over Anambra from APGA in the 2025 governorship election. 

On October 6, Ganduje said President Tinubu approved a blueprint for political liberation of the South East and urged political bigwigs in the region to unite and key into it.

The blueprint, Daily Trust Saturday gathered, included the welcoming of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah into the party as its leader in Anambra shortly after his defection during a ceremony at the APC secretariat in Abuja on October 11. Addressing the gathering, Ganduje, who announced Ubah as leader of the party in the state, said he would deliver the state to the APC in 2025.

He said, “This is the biggest fish we have caught since I became the chairman. Let’s see what is happening in the South East. With five states, three are controlled by different political parties. We have the PDP, Labour Party (LP) and APGA. The remaining two are the APC states. Now, where is the sense of unity in a geopolitical zone with five states controlled by four political parties? Is this a sense of collective decision to participate in national politics? No.”  

Some analysts say Senator Ubah will likely get the APC ticket to run against Governor Charles Soludo who would be seeking a second term in 2025.  

Rivers scheming

The Ganduje-led NWC dissolved the Rivers executives at all levels and appointed loyalists of a former governor of the state and current Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, led by Tony Okocha, into a caretaker committee to run the party’s affairs in the state. 

Pundits say, with this action, the APC structure in Rivers has been tactically handed over to Wike, who is said to be working for the APC to win the presidential poll in the state again in 2027. Recall that Wike said he won’t contest against Tinubu in the next general elections.

While Wike has an existing political war with his godson, Governor Sim Fubara, who he supported to win the March 18, governorship election in Rivers, analysts say he is on the verge of pitching tent with the APC as his key political allies, including 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, have dumped the PDP for the APC. 

Daily Trust Saturday gathered that Wike had been working for the APC since the crisis in his party, the PDP, deepened prior to the 2023 general elections as a result of his failure to secure the party’s presidential ticket and subsequently the vice presidential slot. 

Okocha, the new caretaker chairman of APC in Rivers, confirmed that the APC was wooing Wike into its fold and planning to make him leader in Rivers if he finally defected.

Analysts have predicted that if Wike’s feud with Fubara persists, he would dump the governor and produce an APC candidate in the state ahead of the 2027 elections.

But how the party will manage the rivalry between Wike and a former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who remains in the APC, remains to be seen. While Amaechi has been quiet since losing out his bid to become the APC presidential candidate, analysts say the former Rivers governor is only hibernating and strategising on how to regain his political dominance not only in the state and the Niger Delta, but across the country. This, it has been observed, may be a major clog in the wheel of the APC’s plan to gain control of Rivers through Wike.

Commenting on this, a former National Vice Chairman (North West) of the APC, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, said the plan was to allow Wike to produce the APC governorship candidate for Rivers in 2027 since it was expected that the truce between him and Fubara would be short-lived and the prospect of Fubara coming to APC was foreclosed.

Analysts, therefore, said while Ganduje had been able to manage the crises within the ruling party reasonably well since taking over, the Rivers drama might turn out to further test his people-management skills and how far the party would fare under him.