In a bid to quell the crisis that engulfed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole at the centre of controversy after the general election, a high-level ten-member National Reconciliation Committee headed by the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan was recently appointed.
The Committee has first (Interim) APC National Chairman, Bisi Akande as Vice Chairman; Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Ahmed Idris Wase; Umaru Tanko Al-Makura; Kashim Shettima; Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor; Nasiru Koki; Khairat Gwadabe-Abdulrazak; Binta Garba as members and John Enoh (Secretary).
It is empowered to address grievances of party members and resolve existing conflicts, all with a view to fostering unity and oneness within the party.
The setting up of the Committee was in line with the November 22, 2019 resolution of the Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
While APC was still savouring the victory it had at the February/March general elections, the party was stroke by a thunderbolt when Lawal Shuaibu, APC Deputy National Chairman (North) who demanded for nothing less than Oshiomhole’s resignation.
Shuaibu had in a letter dated May 27th, 2019 addressed to the Chairman, noted that in advanced democracies, people who fail to add value or build over and above what they met on assumption of duty show some civilised examples and “they honourably resign”.
Oshiomhole’s second in command accused him of leading the party to the path of extinction, emphasising that, “arising from the loss of a sitting APC Government, for example in Zamfara State, where you directly personally created the problem leading to the painful complete loss of APC’s electoral fortunes.
He said: “it is my honest opinion that your ability to ensure this party flourishes is deficient as you lack the necessary composure and you also don’t possess the capabilities and the requisite experience to run a political party.
“I write this letter to you with a very deep (sic) heart and high sense of responsibility. I write this letter thinking because I am a critical stakeholder in the APC project.
“I write this letter with my hands shaking, arising from the realising of my involvement in a project that is currently seen as failing, even before achieving the ambition of its founding fathers. I never found myself in any failed project.
“In advanced democracies, people who fail to add value or build over and above what they met on assumption of duty show some civilised examples, they honourably bow out.
“In that connection, therefore, I want to advise you to take the path of honour, to step aside and allow the Party to embark on the onerous task of reconstruction and rehabilitation in those States it was weakened by the effect of the last primary election exercises.
“From up to down, all these are uncontestable facts. You cannot exonerate yourself from what happened to APC (in) Zamfara State, thereby destroying the hopes and aspirations of 534,541 APC members and supporters”.
Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee of APC fought back by slamming indefinite suspension on Lawal and other party officials who were singing discordant tunes.
That move however, did not save APC and Oshiomhole as crises continued to brew in the party with top members, including governors demanding nothing but the National Chairman’s removal.
If not the intervention of Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum to kill alleged plot hatched by Governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa) and Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Oshiomhole would have been ousted at a recent meeting of some APC governors with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Zulum was reported to have foiled the plan when he saw that the four governors wanted to use the other governors to get the President’s backing for Oshiomhole’s removal.
It was said, the four governors told their colleagues that the President wanted to see them and at the meeting, the President sought to know the governors’ mission.
El-Rufai was said to have told him that the governors have resolved that Oshiomhole should go because he is not running the party well and they came to inform the President about their plan.
Zulum and other pro-Oshiomhole governors at the meeting including Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) and Gboyega Oyetola (Osun) were stunned by the disclosure.
In fact, Zulum countered, “Who are the APC governors with you? Where and when did we meet to agree that the national chairman should resign?” he asked El-Rufai.
This was just in addition to the perennial feud between Oshiomhole and his successor, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State which has escalated with a lot of violent clashes between supporters of the two APC kingpin.
It was in the face of this that the Lawan Committee was birthed but as it is yet to be inaugurated, there are doubts as to whether it will save either APC or Oshiomhole.
For instance, as soon as the Committee was inaugurated, Edo State Government has rejected it and accused some of the committee members of being people of “interests in the crisis rocking the ruling party.”
The Edo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Paul Ohonbamu and the Spokesperson to the state governor, Crusoe Osagie, described both the Senate President and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Wase as meddlers in the crisis rocking the state chapter of the party.
They faulted the right of the duo to serve as “adjudicators on the matter” when they presided over the plenary sessions where the motions to take over the state assembly were deliberated.
“We believe the committee does not only fall-short of the most basic of integrity tests, but is also a disservice to genuine efforts to bring a lasting solution to the crisis rocking different chapters of the APC across the country,” the Edo officials said.
“To the specifics, Senator Lawan and Ahmed Wase in the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively, presided over the plenary sessions where the motions to take over the Edo State House of Assembly were deliberated.
“They are also parties in the court case, in which the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt ruled that the National Assembly cannot take over the functions of the Edo State Assembly.
“The NWC, which constituted the reconciliatory committee, is presided over by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who is a key actor in the crisis in Edo State. With this move, it amounts to him also being the judge in his own case”.
“State governors in APC-controlled states who are critical stakeholders in the organs of the party were not carried along in the composition of the reconciliation committee, contrary to insinuations that there was wide consultation before the setting up of the committee. Any genuine attempt to reconcile aggrieved parties cannot excise such important stakeholders in the party,” the statement read.
