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All Progressives Congress, APC’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, has raised the alarm that some elements within the party are plotting his removal. There are many reasons why the party appears to be ending so quickly for the ex-Edo State governor. Scriptures say those who live by the sword die by the sword. Oshiomhole became chairman on the heels of the plots, treacheries, and betrayals that yanked John Odigie-Oyegun off the chair for Oshiomhole to take over. Oyegun and Oshiomhole are from the same Edo state. Oyegun fought tooth-and-nail to retain his seat but Oshiomhole and his supporters were unrelenting. In the end, Oyegun lost while Oshiomhole prevailed. But, as they say, what goes around comes around. The Law of Karma is a wheel that grinds inexorably. Therefore, it is the turn of Oshiomhole to drink of the same cup he had served Oyegun. Had he been Yoruba, Oshiomhole would have heard of the Yoruba adage which says that the cane that was used to whip the senior wife is kept in waiting for the younger wife when the honeymoon is over. But for Oshiomhole, the honeymoon ended quicker than expected. Despite all his failings, Oyegun would now appear a better leader than garrulous Oshiomhole. Why this is so is not far to fathom.
Politics is a game of interests. According to A. Appadorai, it is a game of who gets what, when, and how? Geraint Parry, in his study of political elites, posits that small minorities play exceptionally influential roles in political and social affairs. George H. Sabine, in his history of political theory, states that theories of politics are themselves a part of politics. A political operator bereft of the theories of politics or that treats them with disdain, like Oshiomhole appears to have done, will some day come to grief. In A Grammar of Politics, Harold Laski expresses the view that the modern state consists of a relatively small number of persons who issue and execute orders which affect a larger number in whom they are themselves included. Had Oshiomhole understood and applied these time-honoured political truisms, he would not have come so quickly to grief. The sins of Oshiomhole are not just the ones he himself itemised in the press statement his media aide issued on his behalf, to wit, that the impunity he was trying to cage is now fighting back. On the contrary, he has himself been accused of being the champion of impunity. In an attempt to cage impunity – if that, indeed, was his mission – he has engaged in acts of impunity that have rankled many influential members of the party.
Politics is a game of interests. Thus, where interests are not protected, the aggrieved act to upturn the system or persons working against their interests; in the last resort, they seek greener pastures elsewhere. So many APC stakeholders have had their interests injured by the actions and inactions of Oshiomhole. The primaries of the party had been rancorous. The party was not firm enough but bent the rules here and there. In the process it lost traction and will-power to do justice regardless whose ox is gored. Direct primaries here and indirect primaries there, all in an attempt to serve special interests, ultimately created a quagmire from which the party has found it difficult to extricate itself; whereas level-playing ground and a firm commitment to do justice to all would have better served the overarching needs of the party. For Oshiomhole, the primaries were the last straws that broke his camel’s back. He stepped on the toes of powerful interests, which included the wife of the president. Aisha Buhari, outspoken as ever, wasted no time and pulled no punches in taking Oshiomhole to the cleaners! The story is told of how Aisha prevented Oshiomhole from seeing the president at home. Go and see him in the office and not in my home, she must have told the loquacious and grandstanding Oshiomhole! If it has got that bad, then, know it for sure that the party chairman’s days in office are numbered. Even if he manages for any reason to cling to office, he will remain a General over divided troops. And that is dangerous! The First Lady accused Oshiomhole of impunity. And she is not the only influential person railing against Oshiomhole. Gov. Abdullaziz Yari, the powerful chairperson of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, is at daggers’ drawn with Oshiomhole; so also is the long-standing friend of the president, Gov. Ibikunle Amosu of Ogun State; not to talk of the legion of Senators and House of Representatives members who have failed in their return bids. The shenanigan in Lagos, in which the team sent by the APC headquarters at first said there was no primary election but later made a volte-face, has lowered the party’s integrity in the estimation of right-thinking Nigerians. The issue is not as much as the failure of contestants in the primaries but their perception that the process was rigged; and that special interests, allowed by the chairman, snatched the tickets from their hands. This was after many had been promised automatic return ticket by the party in the heat of the “impeach Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara” project. Oshiomhole swore that Saraki and Dogara would be impeached and promised automatic ticket not only to the party’s law makers but also to defectors from other parties. In doing this, he failed to take into reckoning two-term governors eyeing the Red Chamber. There also were House of Representatives and other party stalwarts who wanted to step up. Automatic ticket was, therefore, a sure recipe for disaster.
In a democracy, no party chairman may act like a dictator or sole administrator. Oshiomhole, however, talked down on governors, who resisted him and immediately were on their guard to clip his wings. As governor, did Oshiomhole accept the party supremacy he now wants to force on everyone? Oshiomhole bellowed orders at Ministers and those ones talked back at him. Not even the president escaped his scathing rebuke and vitriolic tongue. Remember he said if the president would tolerate indiscipline from party leaders, he, Oshiomhole, as party chairman will not! Such reckless statement and such audacity! That was the day Oshiomhole lost it. No political party in a democracy properly so-called, even its caricature as we have here in Nigeria, can be administered the way Oshiomhole set out to. That man nearly set the country ablaze with the DSS invasion of the National Assembly, all in an effort to remove the NASS leadership by hook or crook. Party chairmen in the United States, after which we modelled our presidential system, do not run the way Oshiomhole does here. There is a temperament befitting party chairmen – Oshiomhole does not have it. There is a level of understanding of the nuances and theories underpinning the workings of party politics – unfortunately, Oshiomhole is bereft of them. He has, thus, acted on his own whims and caprices; acting as Lord of the Manor. It is tragic that this is the kind of leadership APC has at this critical point in time with General Elections just months away.
But the party has few options. The procedure of removal may not be easy as those who have benefitted from Oshiomhole’s impunity are likely to stand by him. Time is also of the essence. Having been elected for a determinate term of office and at a party convention, Oshiomhole may have become the proverbial fly perching dangerously on APC’s scrotum. Care must be taken to extricate it. A better option may be to apply party machinery to whittle his power and cage him. The APC NEC and the BOT must be alive to their duties and responsibilities. They must henceforth prevent Oshiomhole from acting as if he is the CEO of APC. The yellow card being flashed in Oshiomhole’s face is enough warning signal that he has led the party in the wrong direction. Even if the chairman is the reformer he claims to be, he must have the understanding that the buy-in of critical stakeholders is still a sine qua non for the success of any reform he intends to bring on board. He can neither lead other leaders by the nose nor breathe down their necks. One of the virtues of political elites is that they act as bulwarks of democracy, protecting it from the dangers of totalitarianism. Had Oshiomhole known this, he would have been advised that his autocratic methods and audacious means would be resisted by other influential leaders and power centres in APC.
