Buhari, Ume-Ezeoke and Shekarau The All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) once regarded as the strongest opposition party in the country in 1999, is gradually becoming the weakest, owing to a number of factors. Assistant Editor OLAYINKA OYEBODE and GBENGA OMOKHUNU chronicle the crises that have crippled the party, the personalities involved and the PDP involvement. They examine what it portends for the party in the 2011 elections.
The All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) is not a stranger to crisis, especially one involving leadership tussle. Since 1999 when it emerged as the strongest opposition political party till date, when its influence has abated, it has always hopped from one leadership crisis to another. Curiously, as many of the over 62 registered political parties in the country are busy preparing for the 2011 general election, the ANPP leadership is enmeshed in yet another crisis, which is seen as a potent threat to its preparations.
The current crisis started on May 15, at the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, when the leadership of the party under the immediate past National Chairman, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, fixed congresses for July 9. As the date was approaching, it was again shifted to July 17 and later July 31. And in all the instances, the explanation came from Ume-Ezeoke that the 21 days notice was not given to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as required.
Later, the party leaders could no longer arrive at any particular date for the congresses, which inadvertently meant no date for the party’s much anticipated convention. It was learnt that as the Ume-Ezeoke- led executives kept shift the dates for the convention, INEC had already provided materials to aid the conduct of the election. Not a few leaders of the party became worried by the continued shifting of the congresses by the National Working Committee (NWC) without any cogent reason. They felt that urgent steps had to be taken to save the situation. This led to the emergence of a faction in the party which fixed its NEC meeting for August 27, to decide on the convention date.
An attempt to hold the meeting earlier at Agura Hotel, Abuja was stalled by the then National Secretary of the Party, Seidu Kumo, who allegedly led a team of Policemen to the hotel to dislodge the group.
Determined to carry out their plans, the aggrieved party members relocated to Toprank Hotel, also at the Federal Capital Territory, where they eventually held the meeting. The state chairmen, secretaries and some national officers of the party present at the meeting, passed vote of no confidence on the Ume-Ezeoke executive and announced the sack the NWC of the party. The 88 members present unanimously said the party’s NEC, which was led by Ume-Ezeoke had outlived its usefulness in the party.
Constitutionally, the tenure of the Ume-Ezeoke –led NWC is expected to terminate on September 6. Delegates at the meeting also constituted a six-man committee to see to the affairs of the party until September 17 and 18, when the party is expected to hold its national convention. Members of the committee, which is chaired by Senator Muhammed Muhammed include Abdulsalam Sumaila, Dr. Vitalis Ajumbe, Prince Martins Bishop, Farouk Yahaya and Chief Abiodun Oyebolu. The faction announced the dissolution of the national executive committee of the party, following a vote of no confidence passed on the Chief Ezeoke leadership over alleged inept leadership and moves to illegally perpetuate themselves in office beyond the constitutionally allowed term.
Many participants at the meeting argued that the wanton postponement of the party’s national convention was meant to allow them stay beyond their tenure in office. They also mandated the Board of Trustees of the Party to recover all the party’s property in their possession since they no longer represent the party. At the meeting which was witnessed by two representatives of INEC, the group claimed that the number of delegates present was more than the required number needed to form a quorum in order to convey a National Executive Committee meeting as stipulated in the party’s constitution.
After the meeting Senator Muhammed Muhammed said in an interview with The Nation that he would lead the party to the path of glory. He said: "We will do everything possible under the sun to move this party forward. ANPP used to have a lot of potentials, but we will do everything to bring back those glories. We are poised to reposition this party. We are not going to sack people from the party but those who are working against the interest of the party will be allowed to go. Those who want the progress of the party will always want us to win elections. However, the agent of other party masquerading as members of our party has to leave us. Let them go to where they belong."
A former Governor of Edo State, Chief John Odiegun-Oyegun described the event as victory for the people. He said then that the ANPP had been snatched from agent of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who he said, were working to destabilize the party. The former governor, who is also aspiring to succeed Ume-Ezeoke as the chairman of the party said: "From now on, we have ceased from being the appendix of the PDP; we are now the party of the people. It is indeed victory for the people." With that development Ume-Ezeoke however described his sacking as wishful thinking.
But, Ume-Ezeoke, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic told The Nation that the authentic members of the party’s NEC would meet on September 2. He said the issue of his tenureship would be trashed at the meeting. He said: "I can assure you that those who took that decision were unknown to the party. The real executive will meet on September 2, where decisions will be taken."
True to his position, On September 2 , the Ume-Ezeoke- led exco held its NEC meeting amid tight security. The party also set up a nine-member Transition Management Committee (TMC), headed by a former Minister of State for Defence, Alhaji Abdulrahman Adamu from Yobe State, to pilot the affairs of the party from September 6 when the tenure of the national officers of the party expired. The committee members are to hold sway until new national officers of the party are elected. The party equally resolved to hold its national convention on the 17
th and 18th of this month at the Eagle Square, Abuja with the Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Geidam as the Chairman of the convention committee.
The NEC meeting unlike that of the other faction was attended by the Governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sherrif, former Presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC and leader of the party, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, National Secretary, Alhaji Saidu Kurmo, former Governor of Kano State and serving Senator, Alhaji Kabiru Gaya, Leader of opposition in the House of Representatives, Alhaji Mohammed Ali Ndume and former National Secretary of the party, Chief George Moghalu. Some of the elected members of the party in the National Assembly, State Chairmen and other NEC members were also present. The NEC meeting equally resolved to adopt the option of indirect primaries in the choice of its presidential flag bearer for the 2011 elections, while the party’s candidates for Governorship, Senate, House of Representatives, State Houses of Assembly, Chairmen of Councils and Councilors would emerge through direct primaries. The Six key members of a faction of the party, led by Senator Mohammed A. Mohammed, who had earlier announced the sack of Ume-Ezeoke and other national officers of the party, were suspended at the meeting. Ume-Ezeoke alleged that the other faction was sponsored by some persons whom he did not name.
But, members of the Senator Mohammed-led ANPP Transition Committee, described their suspension as unconstitutional and null and void.
The faction headed by Senator Muhammed Muhammed, at the weekend, filed a suit seeking an interim order stopping the newly inaugurated TMC of the party.
In the beginning
But Buhari’s exit is also traced to Ume-Ezeoke’s perenial disagreement with
Ezeoke was Buhari’s running mate for the 2007 election and the embattled national chairman was believed to have manipulated some events to achieve that.
When Buhari went to court to challenge the result of the election, Ume-Ezeoke was not comfortable with the option, especially as the administration of the late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua had started dangling the Government of National Unity (GNU) carrot before the ANPP and two other prominent opposition parties- The Action Congress and the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA).
Buhari, owing to his resolve to pursue the petition did not show any interest in the GNU. But Ume-Ezeoke felt otherwise. Using the party apparatus, Ume-Ezeoke mounted pressure on Buhari to withdraw the case and when the former head of state remained adamant, Ume-Ezeoke dissociated the ANPP from the case, thus leaving Buhari, like an orphan, to fend for himself.
While Buhari was busy with the presidential election tribunal, the ANPP led by Ume-Ezeoke joined the GNU, resulting in the appointment of some members , including Ume-Ezeoke’s son, to the government.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had put the total number of votes polled by the ANPP and the AC at 6, 605,227 and 2,637,848 votes, while it credited Yar’Adua with 24,638,063 votes to emerge winner of the April 21, 2007 election. Thus, the president’s offer to the parties was in a bid to ostensibly run a broad based national government and assuage the feelings of those who felt they didn’t get a fair deal in the election. But many saw it as an attempt to hoodwink the two parties to join the GNU and in the process, prevail on their respective candidates to drop their legal battles Challenging Yar’Adua’s election.
Both the ANPP and the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA) joined the GNU, while the AC stayed out of the pact. The GNU succeeded in widening the scope of support for the then new administration. The two parties, in turn, were rewarded with some ministerial and special adviser slots.
However, the political fortunes of the ANPP appears to have being on the decline since its participation in the GNU.
As countdown to the 2011 election commences with the release of the election time table by INEC, ANPP has gradually moved from its enviable position as the biggest opposition party to just one of the parties. Much of blame for the party’s waning political relevance stems from its participation in the GNU.
The ANPP with its enormous numerical strength and national spread as demonstrated in the outcomes of the 1998, 1999, and 2003 elections, lost much grounds to the PDP in the 2007 election. The party has lost much more between 2007 when it embraced the GNU till date.
One major demerit of its GNU participation, as pointed out by many of its leaders, especially Buhari, was the fact that ANPP lost its enviable position as the main opposition party in this dispensation. The AC, with just two states and a handful of lawmakers in the National Assembly is playing the role of main opposition party now. While the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) is also playing opposition role on behalf of parties.
The presence of ANPP in the Yar’Adua government prevented it from being able to oppose some of the obnoxious policies of the administration.
As the GNU romance thickened, more ANPP lawmakers lost their identities, sometimes pursuing PDP agenda at the National Assembly with vigour. Governors elected on the ANPP platform later caught the bug, leading to the defection of two of them to the ruling party.
In a feeble defence of the GNU, Spokesman of the party under Ume-Ezeoke’s leadership, Mr Emma Enukwu said that there was no GNU in the actual sense of the word.. "What we have is a situation where the President merely invited some parties to be part of government. In a normal arrangement, there should have been discussion where the various positions would be shared based on agreed formula. But we were only given two meagre ministerial slots and other positions, so we can’t really say we are part of the government."
Enukwu who insisted that the ANPP embraced the GNU with good intentions, said that one of the party’s agenda in the government was to ensure that the administration come up with an electoral reform.
With the defection of the governors of Zamfara, Alhaji Aliyu Shinkafi and his Bauchi State counterpart, Mallam Isa Yuguda, to the PDP, the ANPP, which had nine state governors in 1999, is now left with three- Modu Sherif (Borno), Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano) and Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe)
In contrast, the PDP increased its number of states to 28, having lost two- Ondo and Edo- to annulment by the Appeal Court. The PDP has also gained Abia and Imo states, following some back hand arrangements.
The PDP however believes that it has no hand in the ANPP’s misfortune, despite the party’s participation in the GNU. The National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Prof Rufai Alkali, was quoted in a recent interview as saying that the disintegration in the party had been long foreseen. Alkali described it as an evidence that the party could not be entrusted with government of the country.
Within ANPP fold, many have also come to the conclusion that the crisis in the party had remained intractable owing largely to the inept leadership of its NEC. Earlier in the year, a stakeholders forum in the party, had alleged that the Ume-Ezeoke leadership had failed to hold the party together. The forum had accused the leadership of anti- party activities. Rather than support its candidates in their electioneering campaigns and litigations, the party according to the forum, " has done a good job of frustrating them and facilitating their failures at the election tribunals."
The group says, "The case of its Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, Gubernatorial candidates Barrister David Umaru in Niger State, Senators Ibikunle Amosun in Ogun State, Abiola Ajimobi in Oyo; Usman Albashir in Yobe, Prince Abubakar Audu in Kogi, Barrister Solomon Ewuga in Nassarawa are cases in point."
Governors in power struggle
The healing needed by ANPP to bounce back is also being threatened by the internal power play by the remaining three governors in the party.
There is no gainsaying that fact that the governors, as the remaining financiers of the party, are tired of the situation. And in an attempt to provide alternative leadership , have also fallen victim of the overriding power which they once criticized.
It was gathered that the governors, in the absence of any centrally coordinated presidential campaigns, have diverse stands on the coming election.
While Shekarau has never hidden his desire to fly the ANPP flag in the 2011 election, he needs the backing of the two other governors, who interestingly are also from the Northern part of the country. That request for assistance, it was learnt is not fort coming from the Shekarau camp, a development which has also made many of the governors to give some endorsement to other aspirants.
Giaedam is said to be in support of the presidential aspiration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP, on the condition that he, he will be supported for a second term in return. Sherif who is serving out his second term is also said to be backing the president, on the condition that his succession plans are not truncated by the PDP machinery.
Ume-Ezeoke, on his party, is said to be committed to ceding the party’s ticket to former Military President, Ibrahim Babangida, as it is becoming increasingly difficult for him to pick the PDP ticket. Before emerging as ANPP chairman, Ume-Ezeoke, had nurtured the United Nigerian Peoples Party (UNPP) as a platform for IBB in 2003. after the plan failed, his faction of UNPP merged with APP to form the ANPP.
Before the cookie crumbled
Regarded as a party that lost much of its political goodwill and relevance to its insatiable appetite for crass opportunism the ANPP has since 1999 been under the shadow of PDP.
In the 1999 election, the APP (as it was then known) opted for alliance with the Alliance for Democracy (AD), under the much celebrated APP/AD alliance with its candidate- Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi running as Vice Presidential candidate to Chief Olu Falae of the then AD.
Also, with all its promises and potentials as demonstrated in the 1999 elections, the party has also dwelt so much under the shadows of the ruling PDP since 1999. Its pioneer national chairman, Alhaji Mahmud Waziri, accepted to serve in the capacity of a Special Adviser (Inter party affairs) to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo shortly after the 1999 election. The party also appeared short-changed when it merged with the UNPP to form the ANPP, leading to a situation where leaders of the UNPP occupied strategic position in the new alliance.
After Waziri, two former chairmen of the party had also found their ways into the PDP. They include Chief Alani Bankole (father of the Speaker, House of Representatives) who served as Acting National Chairman after Waziri’s tenure. A former Petroleum minister, Chief Don Etiebet, also served as the party’s national chairman before returning to the PDP. Former governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Atahiru Bafarawa who also occupied the seat briefly is now the main sponsor of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP).
As 2011 approaches, the travails of ANPP has called to question the state of the opposition political parties.
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