A Must Read-The Crisis Within APC

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 Their collective effort massively won them the  general elections,  but now  they are in disarray. This is  the story of a ruling political party in search of peace after the elections of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives of the 8th National Assembly respectively.

It is a  baptism of fire. It is happening early. No one anticipated it. They tried to cover it but it leaked out. They also tried to manage it, but it is escalating. And now, there is palpable aggression and deep seated animosity within.

The  development has  divided  APC leaders.  And  the blame game continues.  Was it really a marriage of convenience  that bought the APC leaders together in the first place? These are questions popping up now amid  the  crisis rocking the  APC.

Make no mistakes about it, all is not well for the APC. Not  at the moment. The reason is simple. The party lost the National Assembly leadership elections. Did I say the party? It is not really the party but some powerful persons in the party? How did this happen?

Soon after the party emerged victorious at the last general elections, the clamour on who become the Senate President and  Speaker of the House of Representatives began. Names started dropping and horse trading became  intense. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, from Bauchi State, who is now the Speaker of the House of Representatives; his closest rival in the election,  Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, from Lagos; Hon.  Mohammed Monguno, from Borno State; Abudulmuni Jubril;  Pally Iraise, from Edo State and Yusuf Lasun, from Osun, were among the early seekers of the office of the House Speaker.

Similarly, at the Senate, the names of Senator  Bukola Saraki, from Kwara State, who later got lucky and was voted the Senate President;  George Akume, from Benue; Ahmed Lawan, from Yobe, among others, came up for the presidency of the Senate.

With the various  interests, the National Working Committee, NWC, of the APC met twice   to streamline the interests, but the meetings were stalemated. This led to the party’s leadership meeting at the Rivers State Governorship Lodge in Abuja, held  on April 22.

Everyone that mattered in the  APC, including President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo,  were at the meeting.

There, the party subtly ceded the Senate presidency to the North Central  zone and Speakership to North East. Members had no qualms with the North Central having the presidency of the Senate. But tempers flared when South-West suddenly showed interest in the Speakership of the House after North East had been penciled down for the office.

Consequent upon the shouting match, a two-man committee was set up. The two men were Buhari and the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun. Their mandate was to think out the best way to accommodate the interests.

But there were doubts that the committee ever met to harmonize the interests. To lend credence to this, Buhari repeatedly sounded a caution when his name was dropped that he was backing a candidate for the top National Assembly position. He washed his hands off the allegation and later advocated free hand in the elections of the parliament leaders.

Now, when it became obvious that Akume’s candidacy would not fly for the Senate presidency in the emerging force of Saraki, a powerful man in  the party opted for Lawan from the North East in a calculated attempt to dislodge Dogara who was waxing stronger from the zone.

In Dogara’s stead, Gbajabimila was prepared  for the House speakership. Contenders tried to woo lawmakers  from the APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.