Is APC Better Off Today Than 2 Years Ago?

Oshiomhole

In the final week of the 1980 presidential campaign between Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Republican nominee Ronald Reagan, the two candidates held their only debate. Going into the Oct.28 event, Carter had managed to turn a dismal summer into a close race for a second term. And then, during the debate, Reagan posed what has become one of the most important campaign questions of all time: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago? ”Carter’ s answer was a resounding“ NO, ”and in the final, crucial days of the campaign, his numbers tanked. On Election Day, Reagan won a huge popular vote and electoral victory. The“ better off” question has been with us ever since. Its simple common sense makes it a great way to think about elections and in assessing every elected official or political leader.

It is therefore important that in the assessment of the tenure of the All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole so far that we pose the question; “Is the APC better off today than two years ago? ”

It would be recalled that it was about two years ago, precisely on 23 June 2018, that Adams Oshiomhole emerged the national chairman of the ruling APC after the party leaders succumbed to pressure and sacked the former national chairman of the party Chief John Oyegun, who led the party to its famous victory in 2015. It was the year history was made, when an opposition party defeated an incumbent President’ s party and took over government democratically. In that general election the APC did not only win the presidency, it won 19 governorship positions contested for and overnight turned to the most dominant political party in Nigeria, a position held by the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) for 16 years and in which the PDP had taken for granted, until the shocker that it received after the 2015 general elections. The APC buoyed by its victory thought that it had arrived politically and thus has no need for intellectual politician like Oyegun to continue to lead it.

The party opted for the combative former national president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to lead it. Oshiomhole, who is also the former governor of Edo State, led the APC to the 2019 general elections, in which the APC ought to have used to consolidate its control of the country.

Sadly for the APC, even though it retained the Presidency as President Muhammadu Buhari was reelected for second term, the party lost big in states like Adamawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Rivers, Sokoto and Benue states that could have been easily won by the party. In the case of Zamfara and Rivers states, the APC was deemed not to have candidates for the elections because Oshiomhole failed to address the internal party crisis that made it difficult for the party to conduct primaries in the two states that are acceptable to all the contending interest groups. Oshiomhole’s failure to resolve the quasi leadership tussle between the obvious leader of the APC in Rivers State and minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi and the former senator representing Rivers South East, was largely to be blamed for the failure of Rivers APC to present candidates

for the elections. Rivers APC thus did not have candidates

for the election, following the court’ s determination that it failed to fulfill the necessary requirements to field candidates

for the elections.

Similarly the failure of Oshiomhole to rein in the former governor of Zamfara State, Abdul’aziz  Yari and Senator Kabir Marafa who were leaders of the two factions of the APC in Zamfara cost the party the state.

Reprieves came the way of Oshiomhole when against the run of play, the APC in November 2019 won the governorship election in Bayelsa State, a stronghold of the PDP

for 20 years and home state of the last PDP president, President Goodluck Jonathan and followed by the Supreme Court upturn of the election of Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State and declaration of Hope Uzodinma of APC as the governor of Imo State.

In the case of Bayelsa the reprieve was short - lived

for Oshiomhole as the victory of the party was upturned by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court nullified the election of Bayelsa State governor - elect, David Lyon, and his running mate, Biobarakuma Degi - Eremienyo, because the deputy governorship candidate of the APC forged the academic certificates he presented to INEC for the election. Meanwhile, the PDP has gone back to the Supreme Court to challenge the declaration of Uzodinma as governor.

Oshiomhole is also being blamed for the loss of Bayelsa, because according to his critics, he failed to do due diligence in screening the deputy governorship candidate for the election.

Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN) said the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress deserves to be blamed for the loss of the party’ s governorship seat to the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Bayelsa State. Sagay said the APC leadership led by its national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole should have done proper verification of the certificates of its candidates before submitting their names to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“First and foremost, I think the party leadership is at fault. They did not do any verification. If you cannot do it for

National Assembly members, why don’ t you do it for governors and their deputies which is just a small number of people ? It shows they were lazy”.

The former governor of Edo State could not even maintain peace at his backyard. Oshiomhole is at war with the state governor, Godwin Obaseki. The quarrel between Oshiomhole and his ‘god son’ is overheating Edo State and the state is on the edge as it heads towards the forthcoming governorship election in the state this year. How APC will win Edo governorship race under the bitter acrimony between the incumbent governor and Oshiomhole, remains to be seen.

It is obvious that Oshiomhole’ s two years in the saddle, as the APC national chairman has brought more losses than gains. It is therefore safe to say that APC is not better off today than it was under John Oyegun. Things are going from good to worse and the only person who can halt the slide is the leader of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari.