For almost two years, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Gombe state has been without leadership due to the unending crisis among different interest groups within the party. Chuwang Dung writes on the situation
The defection of former Minister of Transport, Barrister Abdullahi Umar Idris; former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) youth leader, Habu Muazu; former Senator representing Gombe North, Saidu Alkali; former Deputy Governor James Yoriyo; former chief of staff, Abubakar Tikare and many political heavyweights as well as some founding members of the PDP in Gombe state to the All Progressives Congress (APC) was described by many political observers as the end of PDP in the state. There decision to join the APC also sparked the decision of many politically active men and women to return to the APC.
Some analysts were of the view that with Habu Muazu, a youth mobiliser ganging up with his erstwhile boss, Senator Danjuma Goje, in the APC the political stage of Gombe State is set for a major change with the chances of PDP to retain the state said to have become slimmer but the PDP in its usual style proved this assertion wrong during the February 25th local government election in the state by winning all the 11 council areas and the 114 electoral wards.
Given this poor outing, one would have expected that Gombe APC would by now have reorganized itself from the losing to a party that can win future elections, but there is no sign of that. Instead, what is on ground is intra-party crises among factions that are wrestling for the control of the soul of the party.
Although Habu Muazu, said the “dubious” local government elections should not be used to measure the chances of the APC come 2019, considering the fact that there was no election held in the state. “That was a daylight robbery perpetrated by PDP in connivance with the state electoral body.”
He said he is optimistic that the opposition APC would turn the table against the ruling PDP in 2019, noting that the PDP in Gombe is “left with lightweight politicians who have no political clout.”
He however admitted that the consistent reconstitution of caretaker committee to oversee the affairs of the party in the state is portraying the party in bad light, noting that the committee members are outsiders who don’t really understand the political challenges in the state.
“Although we don’t have any issue with the caretaker committee, the development is not portraying a good image for the party”.
Muazu then appealed to the National secretariat of the party to organise a mini-congress for the leadership of the party to be elected in the state, even if it will be for the four major positions of Chairman, Deputy chairman, Secretary and Legal adviser.
He said if the right persons are elected they will be in a better position to manage the party and also mobilize grassroots support.
The present caretaker committee chairman Idi Barde, is from Yobe state and a serving commissioner in the state.
It would be recalled that immediately after the 2015 gubernatorial elections, the APC in Gombe was divided along political interest with parallel leadership each led by a serving Senator.
While former governor and now Senator, Danjuma Goje, leads a faction comprising of the party’s flagbearer for the April 11th governorship election, Inuwa Yahaya, a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and the current Senator representing Gombe North, Bayero Nafada leads the other faction that has the former state party chairman, Magaji Doho and some members of the state working committee.
The situation resulted to serious accusations and counter-accusations with each group issuing suspension and even expulsion on the other.
Insiders said the infighting has nothing to do with nurturing the party to be strong, rather it is a battle for who controls the party structure for personal gains.
The Goje group first suspended Nafada and some of his loyalists accusing them of anti-party activities.
Some of the individual that were suspended alongside with Nafada were the state chairman of the party Mr. Doho, a former Minister, Murtala Aliyu, a House of Representatives member, Khamisu Mailantarki, Abubakar Aliyu and some members of the state working committee.
Similarly, in a swift reaction the then suspended party chairman, Mr. Doho also convened a press conference announcing the expulsion of Goje and his loyalists from the APC.
He said Sen. Goje ceased to be a member of the APC as from July 1 2015. “One of our senators representing Gombe-South, Danjuma Goje, is grossly involved in anti-party activities and we have therefore, decided to expel him from the party from the first day of July, 2015 to instill discipline in our great party,” he said.
The group also accused Goje of working against the interest of the national secretariat of the party by supporting Sen. Bukola Saraki to emerged as the Senate President
The ugly development forced the NWC to intervened by setting up a caretaker committee with the hope of ending the crises but barely two years since the setting up of about three different committees the crises seems to have no end.
First, the NWC constituted a caretaker committee under the chairmanship of Alhaji Lawan Shettima, an indegene of Yobe state, after convincing the leadership of the two factional groups to resign for peace to reign.
A statement issued by the National Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, also announced Captain Bala Jibrin as deputy chairman, Alhaji Sule Yakubu as secretary and Barrister Joseph William as legal adviser.
“The NWC of our party, in exercise of its power contained in Article 13.4 (xvi & xvii) of the party’s constitution, resolves to accept the resignation of Mr. Karu Ishaya and Mr. Sallau Manu Pindiga, as state deputy chairman and state secretary respectively, and relieved Barrister Muhammed Magaji Doho and Barrister Dauda Manu, as state chairman and state legal adviser respectively,” the statement said.
According to the statement, “the party waded into the matter to reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable differences among the top hierarchy, which led to the factionalisation of the party in the state.”
Few months after the tenure of Lawan Shettima his deputy Captain Bala Jibrin took over from him after he was appointed as Commissioner in Yobe state.
Amidst the confusion and crises, members of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), mobilized and also formed a group under the aegis of “Adalchi” under the leadership of a former member of House of Representatives, representing Gombe, Kwami and Funakaye constituency, Hon. Khamisu Mailantarki.
Mailantarki said the CPC members decided to regroup to resist the activities of party leaders in the state, who they accused of jeopardising the efforts and policies of the Buhari-led federal government and marginalising them in the state.
He noted tthat, though the APC emerged from the merger of three political parties, members of the defunct new-PDP in Gombe hijacked the party from ward to the state levels.
He said non of the CPC member was allowed to contest in any position during the general election in 2015.
Barely few weeks before the conduct of the February 25th local government election in the state, the NWC again dissolves the Captain Bala Jibrin led caretaker committee and reconstituted a new caretaker committee led by Idi Barde Gubana, citing “irreconcilable differences” among members of the previous caretaker committee.
While Inaugurating the new committee in Abuja, the Deputy National Chairman North, Sen. Lawali Shua’bu, said “We have had a lot of challenges running the Party in Gombe state, challenges which I narrated when we inaugurated the first caretaker committee. We got to a stage where a consensus was reached as to how we can move the Party in Gombe state forward.
“Arising from that, we constituted a caretaker committee, the caretaker committee did a wonderful job, but along the line we observed some irreconcilable differences among the members.”
Shua’bu said observing that there was no way they could reconcile themselves and their personal differences the NWC decided to ask them to step aside and reconstituted a new committee.
He further noted that the new committee is not appointed to do anything except what the National headquarter has asked them to do based on the resolutions reached with stakeholders from Gombe during its meeting with the NWC.
“Any other thing should be left for the NWC to handle. We can handle every challenge if we have the cooperation of the stakeholders. Stressing that, “the newly constituted caretaker committee have a mission, a mandate and they are only expected to discharge their mandate not any other thing.”
Other members of the present caretaker committee are Alh. Sani Haruna (State deputy chairman), Bello Kasimu Maigari (State Secretary) and Barr. A.B Lusa (State Legal Adviser).
He explained that the caretaker function will be for an initial renewable period of three months commencing from 17th February 2017 unless otherwise terminated by the NWC
Even though some party stakeholders are refusing to accept that the ugly development affected the performance of the party during the councils polls, political observers maintained that no doubt the crises are affecting the party in many ways as most of the interest groups are refusing to work in harmony.
LEADERSHIP reliably gathered that Senator Goje and his loyalists refused to participate nor contribute morally or financial to the party during the election process. His ultimate mission, critics say, is building an empire while undermining other leaders, which they vowed to resist at all cost.
But Comrade Adamu Modibbo, a former Secretary and Spokesman for Inuwa Yahaya dismissed the insinuation, disclosing that Goje actively supported the party during the election.
He explained that before the election Sen. Goje summoned a meeting of stakeholders at his residence in Abuja which was well attended by leaders of all the interest groups, according to him a committee was setup with the directive of designing strategies to win the election. And every group was represented in the committee.
He said the inability of Goje to be present physically during the campaign process and during the election was due to his engagement at the National Assembly being the chairman of the Senate appropriation committee.
Comrade Modibbo, however did not disclosed the financial commitment of Goje to the election process.
Inuwa Yahaya who linked the crises rocking the party to the outcome of the 2015 gubernatorial primary said some of those who contested against him refused to accept the outcome of the primary in good faith and decided to work against the interest of the party.
“Some of those who contested against me refused to take the outcome of the primary in good faith and decided to work against the party and betrayed us so that we will lose the election and they succeeded. They connived with the PDP and since then, the party has not taken appropriate steps to sanction some of them, that is why we are still a divided house.”
He said efforts by the national secretariat to solve the crisis is not yielding result because of their refusal to go into the root of the matter. “When appropriate sanction is not meted out to wrong doers, you can never expect that those putting in their best and operating in good fate will just fold their hands and watch. Things has to be done appropriately. He said.
But while most political watchers have stated that the political development in Gombe is not a surprise given the fact that former governor Goje, is bend on controlling the soul of the party in the state against all odds, recent findings showed that the gubernatorial ambition of some of the PDP members that decamped to the APC might create more divide in the party.
Recently, members of the party appeared to be sharply divided along the line and interests of the aspirants they are supporting, thereby creating more disunity within the party.
According to investigation rather than welcoming the new members overwhelmingly and give them a sense of belonging, the party has been lukewarm and, in the process, created barriers for full integration of new members who undoubtedly have the financial strength and followership.
LEADERSHIP reliably gathered that efforts to organise a massive reception for them have been thwarted severally by some forces.
Apart from the two major contending forces within the party, some of the new entrants with rich political credentials are also forces to be reckone with, a situation which political observers said, if not properly manage it might result to further division within the party because most of the PDP returnees join the APC with the aim of actualising their 2019 political ambitions.
A political observer, Nurudeen Mohammad, who has been following the development told our Correspondent that for a party that truly wants to win Gombe, it is important that new members are treated with fairness and the respect they deserve.
He said if this divisions is not resolved it will be harder, if not impossible for APC to win Gombe in 2019.
He said the crisis among the members of the APC in the state is affecting the growth of the party, especially in the grassroots and is also jeopardising the chances of those that worked hard to ensure victory for the party from getting federal appointments.
He cited the recent appointment of Suleiman Jada as a clear example. “Before the appointment of Suleiman Jada everybody in the state believed that Inuwa Yahaya will be appointed as Minister but because of the prevailing conflict the President decided to pick someone that no one even thought of.” He said.
Nurudeen who commended the recent selection of Suleiman Jada as a Ministerial nominee, said as a member of the Federal executive council and one who is non-aligned in the crisis, Jada is well positioned to unite the factions within the party.
“I most commend the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari in selecting a neutral figure to fill the vacant Ministerial position, this is the only way to restore peace in the party.”
He then advised the new Minister to take up the challenge without any further delay to justify his selection.
Speaking on the efforts make so far the chairman of the caretaker committee, Idi Barde said from the consultations made so far with stakeholders from both factions there is clear indication that the end is near for the crises.
He said there is even agreement in principle that both parties will dwell more on common grounds that will aid the reconciliation rather than dwell on any divisive matters.
“We met with all the stakeholders to finetune ways of resolving this issue amicably, and I want to assure you that I am optimistic that with the commitment demonstrated by both factions this misunderstanding will soon be a thing of the
He assured that the party would come out stronger and more determine to take over the leadership of the state in 2019 and create a new platform for development.
Barde then appealed to party members not to allow outsiders woodhink the reconciliation process, saying it would not be in the overall interest of the party.
He further advice them to close their ranks and take over the leadership of the party in the state rather than allowing outsiders to run affairs of the party which is counter productive to the party in the state and the nation at large.