QUESTION: Is Tinubu vs Oyegun the beginning of the end for APC?

The crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) reached its height on Sunday when Bola Tinubu, national leader of the party, called for the resignation of John Oyegun as chairman.

Oyegun had allegedly overruled the panel, which annulled the exercise that produced Rotimi Akeredolu, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), as candidate of the party in the November 26 governorship election.

Citing alleged irregularities based on the petitions submitted by some aspirants, the panel recommended a fresh poll, but Oyegun allegedly submitted Akeredolu’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The PDP experience

The face-off between both leaders of the party is not the first in its history. The APC always had a way of redeeming itself, at least in the eyes of the public. This time, though, it’s hard to imagine the party proving its critics wrong.

APC was established two years before it ended the 16-year reign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Till date, a strong argument can be made that the ruling party benefited from the cracks within the PDP.

The five governors who staged a walkout at the PDP convention, alongside some of the former party’s bigwigs, had laid the foundation of the end of the PDP’s dominance. The party later regretted not resolving its crisis.

Saraki, Kogi…. The path to perdition?

Is the APC also going the same direction? Shortly after forming government at the centre, the party was at war with itself over the leadership of the 8th assembly. Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara beat the preferred candidates of the party to the leadership of the assembly.

Months later, when he made history by being the first senate president in Nigeria to enter the dock over charges bordering on alleged corruption, Saraki blamed it on his party men. He insists he is being persecuted by some powerful persons within the APC.

Another issue that shook the party to its foundations was the Kogi state governorship election. The decision of the APC to replace the late Abubakar Audu with Yahaya Bello generated a storm.

James Faleke, Audu’s running mate, felt he ordinarily ought to have inherited Audu’s vote since they ran on a joint ticket, but the party did not entertain his argument. Just last week did the litigation that followed the development end at the supreme court, but clearly the resultant cracks in the party have not dissipated.

It is normal for members of political parties to have misunderstanding, but there should be a way of resolving them. For the ruling party, it is one crisis too many. The 2019 general election may still be far, but is closer now than it was last year, yet APC keeps showing signs of disunity.

Despite excuses of doing its possible best to tackle the effects of the alleged maladministration of the PDP, Nigerians are fast losing hope in the APC and this Oyegun-Tinubu distraction is capable of further reducing what is left of the party’s goodwill.

Perhaps it will even end up preventing APC from retaining federal power beyond 2019. Only time will tell if Tinubu’s open call for Oyegun’s resignation is as big as the massive PDP governors’ convention walkout that marked the beginning of the end for the most dominant party of Nigeria’s fourth republic.