By Emmanuel Oladesu
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) moved a step forward in its grand preparations for next year’s polls after organising a peaceful national convention.
No opposition party has been able to do the same. Their paths are laced with thorns. They bleed from self-inflicted wounds.
Last year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was unanimously endorsed as the ruling party’s standard bearer. Party faithful also opted for consensus leadership at the ward, local government, state, zonal, and national congresses. Although there are reservations about the option in some states, districts, and constituencies, the ruling party is forging ahead and looking ahead to 2027 with relative confidence, leaving struggling rival platforms behind due to their faulty calculations.
It was a convention like no other. The Eagle Square in Abuja was filled up on a day the APC decided to showcase its strength, dominance and determination to retain power.
At the end of the national congress, the fragmented opposition was further intimidated by the strong electoral machine of the ruling party, its vast potential, prospects and capacity to withstand the rivals’ storm, if they still have any wind left in their firmament.
It is not that APC is insulated from partisan challenges that usually arise from intra-party competitions and sundry squabbles. In these days of ideological vacuum, the parties, more or less, are same of the same. The difference between the ruling party and the opposition is leadership. APC’s strength lies not only in its acclaimed status as the largest party in Africa but in the incumbency it wields at the centre, the management of diversity, the performance of the government it midwives, and the strategy of its dynamic leadership.
With 31 governors from six geo-political zones, an overwhelming majority in the parliament, men of capacity in the federal cabinet, and solid party structures across 774 local governments, the party faces the next general election with much optimism and unrivalled confidence.
The convention offered an opportunity for a reunion of stalwarts; the company of ex-governors, ministers and diplomats, and other notables who rode to political fame on the illustrious platform.
Unlike other parties that are beset by protracted crises, the APC faithful gathered in one accord to take stock and make projections into the future. The party has enlarged its coast between 2022 and this year when it held the last convention, and insiders confided that APC is still targeting two more governors.
Indeed, opposition leaders have a lot to learn from the ruling party. The ward, local government, state, and zonal congresses that preceded the convention were peaceful. Instead of adopting an acrimonious method of leadership selection, APC opted for consensus, following agreements across the six zones. Thus, nearly all the members of the National Working Committee (NWC) retained their positions.
They were not re-elected for any tea party. The National Leader, President Tinubu, intimated to them the challenges ahead. Noting that they were put in positions of responsibility, he charged them to “carry this trust with humility, fairness, and unwavering commitment to our party’s ideals”.
The President urged the officers to woo more Nigerians into the ruling party. The future of APC, and Nigeria’s democracy, he added, depends on their leadership. Therefore, he advised them to “lead with courage, lead with integrity, and lead with vision”.
Unlike the APC, the opposition parties appear clearly unfocused on what they want to do except blame the ruling party for everything, including their inability to operate a cohesive internal system. The President, his son, Seyi of the City Boy Movement, the party’s leadership and other structures are mobilising ahead of 2027. But ADC and the residue of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are whipping up futile emotions. Makinde’s PDP is running from pillar to post, trying to settle for last-minute alignment in critical distress and seeking collaboration with people who were unceremoniously edged out of the platform by the G-5. For now, the Labour Party (LP), conscious of its limitations and contending with intra-party friction, is quiet after resolving the argument over the zoning of the presidential ticket to the South.
Instead of concentrating on the ongoing court cases to halt the recognition of its interim leadership, ADC leaders and rivals in the proposed intra-party shadow presidential poll – former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, and Rabiu Kwankwaso – are on the streets protesting.
The foundation of their borrowed party has been faulty from the outset. While avoiding the hectic labour of establishing a brand new party devoid of an identity crisis, they stormed ADC with influence and huge resources. Those displaced from leadership structures are fighting back, pushing the party into three polarised camps or factions: the disputed and de-recognised interim NWC, led by former Senate President David Mark, the amoebic-committee of Nafiu Gombe, which is neither here nor there, and the interim committee of state chairmen/National Executive Committee (NEC), led by Kogi State Chairman Kingsley Temitope Ogah. They built a false edifice on a porous foundation. Now, it is crumbling. They hijacked a land. Now, another person with the certificate of occupancy is around to eject them. The greatest act of deceit is self-delusion.
There is confusion in the party, making the state chapters now unsure of the validity of congresses, to put them on hold. Yet, time is running out; the end of May is the terminal date for the conclusion of the presidential conventions.
In reality, opposition parties are in turmoil. But the ruling party should also sleep with one eye closed. There are hurdles to cross, and these challenges are imposed by the consequences of nomination politics, which may spark cracks in some state chapters, senatorial districts and constituencies. Although the leadership has laid a veritable example of consensus at the national convention, where party officers were selected through voice vote, there is an increasing resistance to the option, which some members in some states see as systematic imposition of preferred candidates and exclusion of non-caucus members.
Except in states where there are leaders who command the loyalty of a vast majority of party faithful and who can effectively guide the process, consultations and discussions leading to consensus may run into a brick wall.
In states where governors who recently defected are now automatic party leaders, there is a need for the harmonisation of party structures. An equitable sharing formula, rather than extreme domination, is ideal and critical to ensure unity in those chapters.
