Kogi APC and its endless peace c’ttees
Within four months, the National Working Committee of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has constituted two separate committees to bring peace to the crisis-ridden chapter of the party in Kogi State.
The ‘states’ chapter of the APC has been enmeshed in fierce internal wrangling for over the last one and a half years.
The crisis was a fallout of the emergence of Alhaji Yahaya Bello as governor, following the sudden demise of Prince Abubakar Audu, the initial APC governorship flag-bearer in the November 21, 2015 gubernatorial election.
Audu had polled 240,867 votes to lead his opponent, the incumbent governor, Idris Wada, who was trailing with 199,514 votes.
However, Audu died on November 22, 2015, before the final results were announced and expectedly, this development created what analysts called “serious constitutional dilemma” that was not envisioned by the Nigerian Constitution.
But at the end of the day, the election was declared inconclusive and the APC was asked to get Audu’s replacement.
Alhaji Yahaya Bello eventually emerged governor of the state after being nominated by his party, the APC, to replace Prince Audu and the rest is now history.
But over one and half years of his assumption in office, the crisis that hit the party, following Bello’s emergence has remained largely unresolved.
The state executives of the party and other party stalwarts that reportedly worked for the victory of the party are said to be particularly aggrieved over the alleged failure of the governor to involve them in the scheme of things.
They accused the governor of appointing people that never worked for the party into his cabinet, while sidelining those that really put in their resources and energy for the victory of the party.
Apart from the issue of political appointments, the party executives are also said to be aggrieved over the non payment of allowances due to them.
The governor and some key stakeholders of the party such as Senator Dino Melaye and James Abiodun Faleke, amongst others, have also been at loggerhead.
Following the lingering internal wrangling in the party, the national chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun set up a fact-finding committee headed by Chief Tony Momoh on April 17, 2017.
The Tony Momoh committee submitted its report to the national chairman on June 7, 2017 with far reaching recommendations on how to end the internal wrangling in the Kogi APC.
The Chairman of the Committee, who submitted a-300 page report to Chief OdigieOyegun-led APC NWC, identified ruptured party government/governor relations as well as poor stakeholders’ consultations as factors responsible for the crisis.
Chief Momoh also mentioned skewed appointments against the APC, political reconciliation with Audu/Faleke group, workers’ salaries, internal security, poor House of Assembly relations, dictatorial governance, corruption allegations and exclusive continuous membership registration which the governor was said to be doing without consulting the party.
Other factors responsible for the crisis which was highlighted included anti-party activities during the elections, poor-governor party relations and the complicity of the APC national headquarters.
Months after the report of the fact-finding committee was received, the Oyegun-led national leadership set up yet another sevenman reconciliation committee chaired by Gen. Idris Garba on August 21, 2017.
Other members include Chief Don Etiebet, Rt. Hon. Patricia Etteh, Gp. Capt. Rufai Garba, Alh. Umar Lawan Kareto, Gp. Capt. Joe Orji and the Party’s Deputy National Secretary, Hon. Victor Giadom, who serves as the secretary.
At the inauguration ceremony, the APC National Chairman said the move was in its bid to bring peace and settlement in the Kogi State chapter of the party.
He said, “The situation in Kogi is unique. And we want to give every possible opportunity for a settlement. What triggered the events in Kogi was very tragic in their nature.
“So, for us as a party, we are bending over backwards to say, yes we understand your feelings; we understand what you have been through; we understand the work that you have put in to get the APC elected; we understand also that God who disposes of power, brought somebody at the last minute to be the beneficiary of all the work and labour that everybody obviously has put in.
“So, we are bending over backward and we have assembled this very top-level team so that those on the ground, they will see that we mean everything we say when we say we want peace in Kogi state. So, your responsibility is a very great one.
“Fortunately, we had a fact-finding committee that has done a lot of the basic work and submitted a report which will be made available to the reconciliation committee.
“We know the principal parties in the various groups in Kogi. We know what their grievances are. The issue now is really to call just the principal groups and say look, this has to stop, how do we go about it? The governor, of course, will be there to say his piece and give you all the assistance necessary to make your task successful.
“We want peace in Kogi State. Events there have been very very unusual. But like I said, given the emotive nature of the event that led to it, we have decided to stretch the opportunities for reaching peace.”
The APC Kogi State reconciliation committee chairman, Gen. Idris Garba, thanked the party for selecting the committee members for the assignment and expressed the resolve of the committee to bring peace and settlement to the chapter.
Meanwhile, some stakeholders have described the reconciliation move as belated, maintaining that the committee must be down to earth in tackling the root of the crisis if there must be lasting peace and genuine reconciliation amongst the aggrieved parties.
An APC stalwart and former speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Abdullahi Bello, said the second committee set up by the APC to reconcile the warring factions was a waste of resources and efforts.
According to him, it smacks of lack of transparency and sincerity on the part of the national leadership of the party who, he said, knows the root cause of the crises but yet beats about the bush.
Bello said, “Who does not know the solution to the crises in Kogi? Is it the national secretariat that is not aware that we worked and some other persons are reaping from where we labored. What is the committee coming to say now? That we are guilty for working for the APC?”
He said with the thorough and comprehensive work done by the Tony Momoh-led committee, all the national leadership needed to do was to implement their report, saying there was no need for another committee.
On his part, the APC State Secretary, Barr. Tom Adejoh, said the party executives have confidence in the calibre of people saddled with the responsibility. Adejoh, however, pointed out that the governor must be ready to shift grounds and remedy some of the “obvious anomalies” if there must be a lasting peace in the party.
“It is a welcome idea, just like I have always said, there is nothing that is better than reconciliation.
“The reconciliation of a thing has taken too long though, but the move is a welcome one. The chairman of the committee has been part of the Tony Momoh’s panel. He is very much abreast with the happenings in Kogi State and knows how best to bring about lasting reconciliation in the party in the state.
“The whole thing now lies squarely on the shoulders of the governor because, if he doesn’t cooperate with the committee, I don’t think they can achieve anything at the end of the day.
“He was the one who made the appointments of the commissioners, special advisers, senior special assistants and the rest of them. If he is ready to make room for the party, good and fine,” he said.
He advised that stakeholders of the party who had lost so much for the success of the party should be given due consideration just as he said that allowances due to party executives should be given to them.
The Director General of the Prince Abubakar Audu Campaign Organisation, Mr Dan Isah, said if the committee fails to ensure justice in the crisis, the party would face the negative consequences in the next election.
Meanwhile, Governor Bello has welcomed the reconcilliatory move and expressed his readiness to cooperate with the committee.
Bello, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Mrs Petra Akinti-Onyegbule, said the governor as a responsible leader was ready to ensure peace reigns in the party.
Akinti-Onyegbule said that the governor was not at war with anybody, saying that he had earlier made himself available to the Tony Momoh-led committee.
The feud between Governor Bello and Senator Melaye in Kogi State is currently generating tension, particularly as the move to recall the embattled senator seems to have been temporarily stalled in court. Before the latest development, the governor has been at loggerheads with the state party leadership which has now pitched tent with Senator Melaye. Already, there is an insinuation that the latest peace initiative is meant to unite Bello and Melaye.
With this notion, observers are now keenly waiting to see if the new committee would be able to address all the lingering issues to ensure that all the aggrieved camps of the party come in unison before the next election.