APC national chairman’s arbitrariness killing party —Abdulkadir, APC Vice Chairman, North-West

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APC national chairman’s arbitrariness killing party —Abdulkadir, APC Vice Chairman, North-West

RECENTLY, you fell out with your party, the APC. What happened?

I did not fall out with the party. What you see is just a manifestation of how our party is being run. It’s not falling out. If you say so, you may be giving an impression of a structure that is working well and that you are being in isolation, you had some infractions and you fell out; probably. That’s how you are seeing it. But the fact of the matter is that we, the leadership, are dashing the hopes of members of APC. Really, it is a very unfortunate situation, because what is happening is that you have a leadership that has no consideration whatsoever for the rule of law. No consideration for basic and simple principles for doing the needful or, rather, following due process, respecting or observing the rule of law as enshrined in the party’s constitution as it is practised by political parties all over the world.

When the party announced your expulsion, you rejected it because you said the case was in court. What is the situation now concerning your membership of the APC?

I am not the one to make this comment because the matter is in court. It is subjudice, which means when you took a matter to court, you should allow the court to do all the considerations from presentations by you and the other side so that the court can make a pronouncement. But for the purpose of clarity and the reason we are in court, you see, we have a constitution, which we gave to ourselves, but in conformity with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Act. We are required to observe these same rules that we gave to ourselves and it is compelling to, certainly, comply with the Nigerian constitution and the Electoral Act. So, there was the complaint against me, so to say. It was not communicated to me, although somebody complained against me, a member of the party in my ward. That is the beginning of it and this was a buildup, a kind of resolution by the Sokoto State executive committee of the APC. They passed a vote of no confidence in me, which I am challenging. Nobody communicated to me and nobody invited me to any meeting of the state executive committee of which I am a member, a bona fide member. No matter what, by virtue of my position and by virtue of the constitution of the party, I am a member of the state executive committee; I am a member of the local government executive committee. So, am I not entitled to a notice of meeting or to attend meetings? I am. And I am not aware of any meeting. Equity demands that I should be vigilant. So, I wrote to the National Chairman of the party and he did nothing. I had to shield myself. I had to go to court because the court listens to everybody and that’s what they are meant for, to listen to you and adjudicate. So, I approached the court. I was in court when all these things started unfolding. All the processes were served on the party and they have a representation in court. There is a lawyer representing the party and there is a lawyer representing other parties, including the state chairman, only for me to hear that there was a meeting of the National Working Committee and that the National Working Committee had decided in one breath to expel me, according to media reports. After some hours, they said they could not expel me, but that it was suspension. The same acting National Publicity Secretary issued the statements.

When I got the full text of the statement, he was saying that the NWC had upheld the decision of my ward and the state executive committee of the party. I read the resolution, which was widely circulated in the media and elsewhere. But what they were saying was that they had passed a vote of no confidence in me and they were asking the national leadership to do the needful. Does that amount to suspension? What are you upholding? If you are upholding the resolution of the Sokoto State chapter of the party, you are saying that you, the NWC, is endorsing their passing of a vote of no confidence in me. But in another breath, you say you are also referring the matter to the National Executive Committee (NEC of APC) when, already, you have taken your decision. What do you expect NEC to do? So, you can see these obvious contradictions.

What I am trying to stress here is that because there was no meeting of the National Working Committee, I am a member of the National Working Committee, nobody invited me for a meeting of the National Working Committee where this decision was taken. If there was any meeting of the National Working Committee, I should be invited to that meeting legitimately, and if there is a matter that concerns me, at least, I should be put on notice that they are going to discuss my matter, and I should excuse them. But there was no meeting of the NWC because there was no invitation for that meeting. There was no notice for that meeting and the meeting was not held.  So, it is just to show you the level of arbitrariness of the National Chairman. You just call the National Publicity Secretary and order him to issue a statement.

What is your relationship with the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. From what you are saying, he failed to do what he should have done in your case. Does he have personal issues with you?

I have no personal issues with the National Chairman, but it is just a reflection of what has been happening. It has happened to many others in the past. It has happened to (Governor Rotimi) Akeredolu, it has happened to (former Governor Rochas) Okorocha and others, in respect of suspension, expulsion or whatever. But other decisions that became so contentious in the past one year from Adams are like that. It is not as if he has personal issues with me or I have personal issues with him. But it is just his way and manner and his exhibition of the way he runs the affairs of the party, which is very wrong. So, the way it happened to me, it will happen to so many other people.  That’s why you see even the primaries that were conducted by the party were the exact reflection of how he operates. He may have other considerations, [but I have no personal issues with him].

APC’s former National Legal Adviser, Muiz Banire and the Deputy National Chairman (North) Lawal Shuaibu, have spoken in this light against Oshiomhole. Is it just the character of the National Chairman or the entire national leadership of the party that is unable to put its house in order?

I think you may be absolutely correct because, I used to say this and I will continue to say it. Even the meetings of the NWC and the NEC of party, that when you talk about the leadership of the party, what is that leadership? Yes, I agree that there could be some de facto leadership, but we are the de jure leadership of the party. We were elected to run this party overall at the national level. When we convene a meeting of either the NWC or the NEC of the party, you don’t look outside of the hall and say you are looking up to the leadership. Which leaders? We are the leaders. So, we either do the right thing or the wrong thing. Whatever we do reflects the decision of the leadership of the party because we have the mandate of the members of the party to lead them. And you don’t have others. Yes, by courtesies and compliments, you look at others like the president, the governors and some key members of the party who have brought to bear their pedidegree or influence in the success of the party and you call them leaders of the party by virtue of their positions. They are de facto leaders, because they are carrying the mandate of Nigerians on behalf of the party. Like the president, there is no way you can say he is not the leader of the party. But there is nowhere in the constitution of the party where you see that the president is the leader of the party or anybody else for that matter. Look at the constitution of the party. But they are part of the leadership. Like the president, he is a member of all organs of the party. So, you cannot look at him and say he is not a leader. By his own right, he is a leader.

So, what are we doing? Because of the psychology of how parties have been run in this country and wrongly too for that matter and some antics of those who emerged as leaders of the party, you see a kind of ineptitude in terms of how the affairs of the party are being conducted. I will give you an example. As you rightly mentioned, it is the way the National Chairman who should take the lead in the leadership is conducting himself. That is why we are where we are,  if you don’t call meetings as they should be called. What I mean is, there is a procedure for calling meetings. You give notice, whether it is an emergency meeting, whether it is a regular meeting. If it is a regular meeting, it is stated there on the constitution. This is what is required to call it, whether it is NEC or NWC and in emergency situation because of the urgency, this is the period within which you should give notice to members, whoever is eligible and entitled to attend meetings. And you don’t do that. You just sit down in your house or in your office, at times, in your private office where you may be having some conversation with some people who are around including non-members of NWC, and you asked the publicity secretary to just issue a statement that this is the view of the party, as if the party is him or he is the party. That is the beginning of the problem.

Of course, people will ask, why don’t you raise this issue? We are not going to fight; we are gentlemen. We are matured people. We are managers in our own right. We were trained. A number of us in the NWC, we were trained and we have experience in managing the affairs of human beings and organisations. So, we have to bring that to bear in handling matters. You don’t expect me, maybe, to get more involved in washing our dirty linen in public. The point I am trying to make is that, you see…I’ll give you a typical example. You must recall that for quite some time, especially during the primaries, almost every other day, there was a statement by the APC concerning one form of primary election or the other – this one is disqualified, this one,  new committee is being set up. All these things were done arbitrarily by what he (Oshiomhole) may even call by himself, as his own cabal. He is even proud of that and we tried to point this out. But don’t forget, we were facing election and our role as leaders of the party is, when there is conflict, because it is obvious that it is normal to have conflict among human beings, to intervene. It is our responsibility to intervene and create consensus and resolution of those conflicts. But not to be dismissing people in terms of, you have grievances, you are not a loyal party member. Whether you are loyal or not, what is important is that you are a party member; you are entitled to be treated equally. We took an oath when we were elected to treat all manner of people without fear or favour, affection or ill will. At what point do you determine who is loyal and who is not loyal? So, this created a lot of confusion and disaffection among the general membership of the party during the primaries. And that’s why we had a very dismal performance in the elections. Nobody will say that our performance was what was expected from our members. It was not impressive at all. It is avoidable. We could have performed better than what we did. So, this is the kind of leadership we have in terms of what it is – arbitrariness. There is no inclusiveness. You see, there are so many things that could be sorted if you have a dialogue between contending members of the party. This could be in every state, in every constituency because it is natural that people will aspire. When they aspire, they have their own supporters, they have their own leanings and certainly, only one person will represent the party in the election. So, even where you have near correct primaries, there is bound to be some disaffection. So, what you do, the role the party should play is to try as much as possible to go into elections more united than divided.

So, that did not happen. I want to you to check. Since Adams came into office, there was never an attempt anywhere to reconcile people. There was never, no effort, in fact, to the extent as widely reported that Adams was saying that whoever feels uncomfortable in the party should leave. Which means our support base would have already reached the brim. So, we no longer need other persons. Is that how to conduct the management of the affairs of a political party or an assemblage of human beings? Not only the affairs of political parties. You can’t say so.

Former National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, is among those crying foul over the attitude of Oshiomhole, particularly his conflict with Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo, playing out in the crisis in the state House of Assembly. If there is a problem with Oshiomhole’s ways like you seem to believe, how then do you think his antics can be checked to spare the APC of the headaches?

I think you got that right. You see, if you look at it along with what I have said concerning lack of inclusiveness, you see, it is a simple matter that we have but because of ego and complex, he doesn’t want to listen. He doesn’t want to listen; he doesn’t want to even read. He cannot listen, he cannot read, which is a disaster for the party. Like what you are saying in the instance of Edo State, you see, these are constitutional matters. No matter what is happening, he (Obaseki) is the governor. It is the prerogative of the governor in line with the constitutional provisions to issue proclamation on the resumption of the House. And that is the beginning of it. So, you do that, if there is any conflict, which at times is unavoidable, you as a leader, I always say this and will continue to say it, your role as a leader is to intervene in the event of crisis. You use your good offices to sort out things, to create a situation of dialogue between the contending members of the party. That is what you do. Not even to bring in your own personal interest into it. Because what is clear is that he is an interested party in this matter. And this is what we have been trying to draw his attention to right from the beginning of the primaries. You have to insulate yourself as a leader in these kinds of matters. Insulate yourself because there will be the possibility of people wanting to…but now, in this situation, who is going to intervene? Who is going to mediate at the national level when already you have declared your own interest? When you take side among your children, your members, the other side that you are not inclined to, will not see the rationale or will not reason with whatever you are saying, no matter how factual, no matter how truthful you are because, already, you have declared an interest in it. In the normal cause of events, assuming that what is happening in Edo happened without him declaring an interest, it will come here (NWC). Even at that point, he (Oshiomhole) may insulate himself, allow us to intervene and do the needful. Why is this matter so topical in the National Assembly? This is a simple matter among members of the APC, members of the Edo State House of Assembly and between them and their governor. It’s for the party to intervene. How did it become a national matter? Because he (Oshiomhole) knows that he is losing or he has lost moral ground to intervene. And even what the National Assembly has resolved is a wrong approach, because the National Assembly knows that this matter is subjudice. It does not have the jurisdiction to direct a governor to do something. What they can do at best is if the House of Assembly as constituted is not capable of performing its functions as related to the constitution, the constitution says they (National Assembly) can take over and perform such functions. Which means they consider their lawmaking, any executive bill coming from the governor, budgetary matters, etc., of which we have not reached that stage.

And you can see now if you compare the noise he had been making about other places, why don’t you handle your own state? As a chairman, you have to try as much as possible in that leadership to first and foremost earn the respect of those who you are leading and that’s when they will repose confidence in you and that’s when you can lead them into achieving anything successfully.

Complaints against Oshiomhole by party members have been on for some time and people are wondering why President Muhammadu Buhari has not attempted to moderate his ways of running the party. What do you think?

In fairness to the president, he is a person that doesn’t want to be seen as an interloper, getting involved in matters that are ordinarily not his responsibility. He is conscious of the fact that the party has its own functions, there are leaders elected for the party by the convention and as far a party matters are concerned, they should lead and take decisions on behalf of the party. So, he doesn’t want to interfere and leave the sense that the Presidency says the party should do this and that. That is Buhari for you.  So, what people expect is that the president should come and use his might as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria because he is a member of the party and directs what party should do even including the excesses of the leadership of the party. People are expecting all stakeholders of the party to get involved if there is anything at all to be done. There were calls for the removal of Oyegun, the president did not intervene, because he didn’t want to be seen as doing the wrong thing. So, the issue is that the national chairman of the party is on the path of rocking the boat of the party. He is not a person that is so good in dialogue at all.

APC national chairman’s arbitrariness killing party —Abdulkadir, APC Vice Chairman, North-West
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