Akanni Alaka
President Muhammadu Buhari beamed with smiles as he stretched his hands to receive a letter adopting him as the presidential candidate of Allied Peoples Movement, APM, from Mr. Yusuf Dantale, the national chairman of the party at a brief event held at Aso Rock presidential villa on Monday, 24 December. Mr Dantale was led to the presidential villa by Governor Ibikunle Amosun, who ironically also holds the Ogun Central Senatorial ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
There was no indication of what the president told his visitors in the reports of the visit published by the media. But the convivial atmosphere in which the presentation of the ‘letter of adoption’ was held as portrayed in photographs of the visit released to the media indicated that President Buhari was happy with the prospects of having another of the over 90 registered political parties in Nigeria in his camp. “You will recall that just last week we made public that APM has adopted President Buhari as their presidential candidate. I had promised to bring the letter they had given me to present to him and that is what we came to do today,” Amosun told journalists of his mission to the presidential villa after the meeting.
However, analysts will see the ‘endorsement visit’ to the presidential villa as another vista in efforts by the governor to get the support of the president in his battle against the Adams Oshiomhole-led leadership of the APC over the choice of Ogun governorship and House of Assembly candidates for the 2019 general elections. The governor and his party had organized a parallel congress in which Akinlade was declared as the APC governorship candidate.
But Amosun had insisted on Akinlade and in his bid to have his way, made several visits to Buhari during which he tried to convince the president to intervene on his behalf to ensure that the leadership of APC accepted his choice gubernatorial candidate. But the leadership of APC insisted on Abiodun and it was not certain if the president made any move on Amosun’s behalf, except his generic directive to the APC National Chairman to ‘clear up the mess’ that characterized APC primaries across the country about a month ago.
READ ALSO: The truth about my ‘Hilltop Mansion’ – IBB
However, in Ogun State, the possibility of compromise was foreclosed as Amosun insisted on his preferred choice for governorship and other positions while the NWC of APC also stuck to their guns. With no headway in APC, the aggrieved loyalists of Governor Amosun, had about a week to the visit of their principal to the presidential villa confirmed speculations that they will run on the platform of APM for various elective positions in the upcoming 2019 general elections.
The 26 State House of Assembly aspirants who failed to get APC tickets also announced that they will run on the platform of APM on that occasion. Akinlade, who is currently representing Yewa South/Ipokia Federal Constituency at the National Assembly, was presented as the gubernatorial candidate of Ogun APM at a press conference addressed by the party’s state Chairman, Mr. Patrick Oyatayo.
The unveiling was followed up with the flag-off of the party’s campaign for 2019 general election where the party announced its adoption as the APM presidential candidate.
The APM said it adopted the president as its candidate because it was impressed with the way Buhari’s administration is fighting corruption. Governor Amosun had insisted that he had no choice but to allow his loyalists to defect to another political party to realize their ambitions having been shut out of APC.
But while he was also still holding on to the senatorial ticket of APC, he had also insisted that he will ensure that the president wins in Ogun in the presidential election. He repeated this when he flagged off his campaign for the Ogun Central Senatorial seat, in Abeokuta, last Thursday.
The situation is not different in Imo State where former chief of staff and Son-in-law to Governor Rochas Okorocha, Mr Uche Nwosu has also defected and secured the gubernatorial ticket of Action Alliance (AA) for the 2019 election. Nwosu had also lost out in the primaries conducted by a panel set up by the APC NWC. Nwosu said having exhausted all options, including going to court to reverse the declaration of Senator Hope Uzondinma as the APC gubernatorial candidate by the APC, he had no option but to defect to AA to realize his governorship ambition.
READ ALSO: APC, PDP threat to NIGERIA – BALARABE MUSA
Nwosu claimed that the entire APC structure, except those supporting the senatorial ambition of Governor Rochas Okorocha, had defected to AA. And just like in Ogun, Nwosu promised that AA will work with the APC to ensure re-election of Buhari as Nigeria’s president and his father in-law as a Senator”
Unlike Amosun, Governor Okorocha who also made several visits to Buhari to change the decision of APC leadership on the choice of Imo gubernatorial candidate is yet to visit the presidential villa for the presentation of a letter indicating the adoption of Buhari by AA. But it will not be a surprise if he made a similar visit in the next few days.
Governors Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State and Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State are also among the league of governors who are still aggrieved with the outcome of the primaries conducted by the panel constituted by the APC NWC in their states.
Indeed, disagreement about the mode of the conduct of the primaries between Governor Yari’s faction of APC and the NWC of the party had led to a stalemate in the conduct of the primaries. But the governor as well as the national chairman of APC had been insisting that the primaries were indeed conducted though they differ on who the winners of the various tickets were. The APC had already dragged INEC to court over the issue.
In Ondo, the disagreement of Governor Akeredolu with the NWC was over the over Ondo North Senatorial seat. While the Governor wanted one of his loyalists to replace the incumbent Senator Robert Boroffice, the NWC supported the continuation of the senator in office by giving him automatic ticket.
The governor, just like his Zamfara counterpart said in spite of the disagreement, he will work “assiduously” for re-election of President Buhari’s whom, he said, is loved by the people of Ondo who see his re-election as a “patriotic duty.”
The four governors who are seen as loyalists of President Buhari had also futilely tried to rally their colleagues for removal of the APC national chairman from office. There is no argument that there is no love lost between the four governors and the APC national chairman.
And in spite of their declared commitments to re-election of President Buhari, Oshiomhole had argued that the actions of Amosun and Okorocha in supporting their loyalists to fly the flags of other parties against APC candidates amounted to anti-party activity.
To cut the grounds off the feet of the two governors, the APC NWC has already dissolved the state executives of the party loyal to them and replaced them with caretaker committees.
READ ALSO: Ambode appoints Hakeem Muri-Okunola as new Head of Service
There have also been reports that APC may expel the two governors from its ranks over their actions.
Besides, Oshiomhole said on a national television programme just before Amosun’s visit to the villa that APC would write a letter of complaint to the INEC over the continuous use of photographs of the APC presidential candidate to campaign by loyalists of the two governors who are contesting on other platforms.
However, Okorocha and the Ogun APM gubernatorial candidate had dismissed the threat of Oshiomhole to report them to INEC. While the Imo State governor dismissed Oshiomhole as a noisemaker, Akinlade who spoke through Sarafa Ishola, the head of his campaign organisation urged Oshiomhole to seek advice from the APC’s national legal adviser for the interpretation of their action.
There was also a report last week that the leadership of APC has perfected plans to ensure that the two governors were not allowed to play any cogent role in the campaign for re-election of President Buhari, which kicked off last Friday because of their alleged anti-party activities. According to the report, Amosun and Okorocha will not be nominated into the yet-to-be constituted APC Campaign Council over their dubious allegiance to the ruling party.
Yet, the open access granted the governors by Buhari into the presidential villa in spite of their running battle with their party’s national chairman has led to speculations that the president is undermining efforts of Oshiomhole to instill discipline within the party.
But Lanre Issa- Onilu, the National Publicity Secretary of APC told The Nigerian Express through a text message last week that the relationship between Oshiomhole and President Muhammadu Buhari is perfect.
Onilu said in the text message. He also said he was not aware of plans to sideline any member of the party in the campaign for re-election of the president.