Why Oshiomhole should be supported to reform APC

Since Adams Oshiomhole took over as APC national chairman, he has been all over the place trying to ensure that all members of the party submit to the principle of party supremacy and respect party rules guidelines.

He is also bothered about building a structure that would not only endure elections, but provide impetus in quality governance in a way that would inspire confidence.

It is in the bid to ensure that that the APC national chairman has chosen not to keep quiet and pretend that things are okay with the party when things seem to be going wrong, but has been all over the place trying to assert to the authority of the party by instilling discipline and the principle of fair play and leaving no one in doubt where the party stands on all issues.

By sheer doggedness and commitment, Oshiomhole has within a short time succeeded in stemming the tide of defections at the National Assembly, ensured internal democracy and hemmed in those who were out to destroy the party.

Though he has not yet succeeded in reclaiming the seat of the Senate president and the speaker of the House of representatives, he had sent a clear message across that he is not intimidated by their antics which has helped to stabilize the APC in many states.

But where the leadership style of Oshiomhole has reformed the party most is his bid to see that state governors do not hijack the party and his insistence that governors being members of the party be made to submit to its authority for the benefit of all members.

This is very important given that it was the impunity of governors and their bid to manipulate everything both within and outside their domain that had cost the PDP its status as a ruling party in 2015.

Governors by their positions want to control everything from the state government to party affairs from the election of ward executives, to local government exco, to states while also determining who gets what from the state and at the national levels.

This is in addition to being allowed to pick local government chairmanship candidates of their parties, appoint their commissioners, appoint boards of state government agencies, nominate members and chairmen of boards of federal parastatals from their states, ministers, ambassadors etc.

The greatest challenge Oshiomhole faced was how he handled the primaries of the ruling party to elect the governorship candidates.

In Benue State, he tried to re-accommodate the state governor, Samuel Ortom into the party who was daggers drawn with his estranged godfather before the latter started running down the actions of the APC led federal government which made Oshiomhole to wash his hands off the matter.

In Lagos, he had almost succeeded in mending fences between Ambode and Bola Tinubu until the latter held the press conference which rubbished the efforts being made for a truce by the party at the national level.

In Kaduna State, the APC national chairman retained the loyalty of Shehu Sani for the party at the time it mattered most until it was clear that the difference between the senator and his governor were irreconcilable and El-Rufai was allowed to have his way.

So Oshiomhole had been fair even to the governors. He is only having problem with some of the APC governors because he has insisted that all party governors to bring their sons or sons-in laws to succeed them.

When the party got the hint that the then Adamawa State governor Murtala Nyako was trying to bring his son to succeed him, the party resisted it.

Even in Plateau State, where the then governor tested the waters by saying the people should accept whoever he brings to succeed him even if it is his son, the PDP made it clear that it would not accept that and the party did not survive it even when the governor brought his cousin.

In Abia State, Theodore Orji due to resistance from other party members could not sponsor his wife to the House of Representatives while he was going to thr Senate and his son was going to the House of Assembly.

Oshiomhole is well aware of these cases and that is why he has made it clear that he would want to have the APC run differently.

Of all these, the case of the governor of Imo State, who wants to be allowed to hand over to his son-in-law is the most bizarre and Oshiomhole must be commended for trying to save the party from a scandal that would have affected the image of the party negatively and set a dangerous precedent for others.

Because if this type of nepotism is allowed then we can be sure that in 2023 no second term governor would allow anybody not close to his family to succeed him and we may start having only sons and sons-in- laws as governorship candidates of the ruling party.

Some have said there is nowhere in the Constitution that disallows such people from contesting but it is the duty of any leader not to only look at the statutes but the morality of an issue before taking decisions.

Michel Obama was quite popular towards the end of her husband’s tenure and would have easily won the ticket of the Democratic Party in the US if she had contested but the moral burden it would come with made her to make the sacrifice of quitting the state with her husband.

The governors must remember that after the elections, there is going to be governance and if the ruling party cannot ensure fairness in its own affairs, how then can it assure the larger populace that it has the capacity to be objective to others. This I think is what Oshiomhole is trying to guard against and he must be supported by all including the governors.

Nakande is a former minister of state for information and communications