Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Uneasy calm, appears apt in describing the current situation in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State following the release of time-table for the 2019 elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Daily Sun gathered that unless something urgent is done to arrest the situation, the delicate peace in the party may snowball into a sort of implosion that may affect the chances of APC in the state in 2019.
A group within the party known as Pro-Lamist that is loyal to former governor of the state, Alhaji LamAdesina, is warming up to battle another group known as SENACO, which is an acronym for Senator Ajimobi Campaign Organisation. The two groups have been battling for the soul of the party.
But a third force emerged in the party recently, which has added a fresh twist to the internal wrangling within the party. Political pundits see the third force as comprising the political heavyweights that defected with their supporters from opposition parties to the governing APC in the state recently.
Daily Sun can report that their defection has been causing friction within the party, from the first day they joined.
The frontline politicians that moved to APC recently included a former governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala and former Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin. The list also comprised a former deputy governor in the state, Taofeek Arapaj; a serving House of Representatives member, Segun Odebunmi; and the immediate past Chairman of the PDP in the state, Mr. Yinka Taiwo.
An ex-chairman, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Ademola Ojo; a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Asimiyu Alarape; Chief (Mrs.) Olanrewaju Otiti; Brigadier-General Brimoh Yusuf (retd), five serving state lawmakers and a former secretary to the state government, Ayodele Adigun as well as former chairman of Oluyole Local Government, Alhaji Kehinde Olaosebikan among others, were part of the defectors.
The new entrants, it is believed may get the ticket of the party to run for positions they may have been eyeing ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The four major elective offices that may tear APC apart in the state are the three senatorial seats and the governorship seat.
The current governor, Ajimobi, who was in the senate from 2003 and 2007, before he became governor in 2011, will complete his second term in office in 2019, and may contest the Oyo South senatorial seat.
Investigations also revealed that the current leadership of APC in the stare are angry that the government have sidelined them.
The APC executive under the chairmanship of Chief Akin Oke, has also fashioned out strategies to tackle the situation, so as to ensure that the LAMISTS group in the party is not relegated to the background.
The LAMISTS are those that have been in the APC since it was founded as Action Congress (AC) up till when it became Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Members of SENACO are those that followed Governor Abiola Ajimobi from All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to ACN prior to the 2011 general elections.
Ajimobi had contested the 2007 governorship poll on the platform of ANPP and lost to Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, who governed the state from 2007 to 2011. Alao-Akala, however, lost as an incumbent to Ajimobi in 2011.
Before the coming of Ajimobi to ACN, it was said that people have been looking up to Senator Olufemi Lanlehin to run for the governorship on the ticket of ACN. But the popularity of Ajimobi based on his antecedents in the political arena, particularly in the state probably made him the preferred candidate. But Lanlehin, was then compensated with the senatorial ticket in 2011 and he won the poll.
Prior to the 2015 general elections, Lanlehin moved to Accord, where he re-contested for the Oyo South senatorial seat, but lost to Senator Adesoji Akanbi of APC. Lanlehin has also moved to PDP.
In APC however, there are some aspirants that have been eyeing the governorship as well as the senatorial seats, who are not comfortable with the coming of Alao-Akala and others into the party. They reasoned that the pedigree of the defectors in politics and the large followership many of them command, could actually deprive them of getting the ticket of the party to run for elective offices in 2019.
Within the party, where scores of people have indicated interest to run for the governorship, it is being speculated that Alao-Akala may actually be the preferred person to run for the office. If he is not interested in the governorship, the senatorial ticket of Oyo North will be reserved for him, it was further gathered.
At the official reception organised by APC for Alao-Akala and others, a former governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu said “we have a stainless kitchen and we can accommodate as many cooks as possible and because we have a variety of menu in the political kitchen of planning this future, we love those bigwigs and we can accommodate them all. It is in the same forest that you find a hippo that you find an elephant and you will find a rabbit. On political platforms, you must look for the addition not the minus.
“You can see that the opposition is finished in Oyo State. It is finished for them all. All of you that joined will also join in building the party. The APC house is great for all of us. We are proud of you for joining us. APC is the only progressive party in Nigeria and Africa.”
But a source within the party told Daily Sun, “It is like we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder in this party. If care is not taken, the power sharing may force those that have either been in the party for long or those that are just joining to move out and work against APC.
“If you feel the pulse of many members of the party, you will discover that they are only laughing, but deep down inside of them, they are brooding.” Another ranking member of APC, who did not want his name in print, also raised the alarm that “there is crisis in APC in Oyo State presently, but we are trying to patch up.
“There are existence of different groups within the party, with major ones being SENACO and LAMISTS. The problem started when SENACO members were being favoured above other groups in the party.
“The SENACO alone has 90 per cent appointments as commissioners, special advisers, senior special assistants, special assistants, even caretaker chairmen of local governments and local council development areas.
“You would recall that an ugly scenario occurred sometime last year at the governor’s office in Ibadan when some APC members protested and were chased out by thugs with cutlasses and other dangerous weapons.
“Though the governor had met with leadership of the party on several occasions to ensure that there is stability in the party, the problems created by the manner in which some APC leaders from Oke-Ogun were disgraced out of the secretariat with some of them beaten mercilessly has not totally died down”
Investigation by Daily Sun revealed that Ajimobi wanted to take over the party’s structures so that he would have a say in who will be the governorship candidate of the party next year.
Governorship aspirants on APC platform include Minister of Communications, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu; a legal luminary, Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN); and deputy governor of Oyo State, Otunba Moses Adeyemo.
Shittu, who vied for the governorship on the platform of Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) in 2011, became a member of APC after a merger of some political parties that formed the mega party prior to 2015 elections. He also contested for the party’s ticket with Ajimobi in 2015, but lost. He believes he can use ‘federal might’ to get the party’s governorship ticket for 2019.
But the Public Relations Officer of APC in the state, Mr. Olawale Sadare, simply told Daily Sun that “the APC in Oyo State is one big family. There is no SENACO or LAMISTS. We are one. We have a potent mechanism to resolve any crisis within the party. So,there is no cause for alarm.”
Executive Assistant on Political Matters to Governor Ajimobi, Dr. Moronkola Thomas, in an interview with Daily Sun also dismissed the speculation of an impending danger in the party, saying “there can never be an implosion in APC in Oyo State. I have been hearing of an impending implosion since 2014 even before 2015 elections. But it has not happened. If it takes for years to happen, I think it may never happen.
“In every political party or any human organisation, there are always different tendencies, which people literally called factions. When there are factions, there are cleavages. They are just for the purpose of certain things.
“In the APC, people talk about SENACO and LAMISTS. Is Governor Ajimobi still a senator? And, where is Lam Adesina now? Lam Adesina is gone, he has done his bits. What people use all of these for is to their own selfish ends. When people want to seek a particular patronage, they would want to raise a sentiment of ‘I am a LAMIST or I am a SENACO.’ When they don’t get it, they would say they did not get it because the person that was given is a LAMISTS or SENACO.
“If that be the case, I am not sure that an implosion is pending in the APC. I am not sure that APC will be divided or polarised. Every organisation depends on the type of leadership it has. In the APC in Oyo State, Governor Ajimobi is providing effective leadership. He himself is a father of all and the leader of all.
Thomas stated that most of the appointments in the current administration were shared on the basis of zones and senatorial districts, not on the basis of factions, saying: “there are eminent people, that you may like to call LAMISTS that are in this administration; people you want to describe as SENACO in this administration, even the newly received members to the party, some of them have their people appointed, like a former governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala’s son is the chairman of Ogbomoso North Local Government. Is he SENACO? Is he LAMIST? Kayode Fagunwa is the Chairman of Ibadan South Local Council Development Area. Fagunwa is a protege of a former deputy governor of the state, Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja. He is neither SENACO, nor LAMIST.
“A number of board membership, membership of governing councils have been made; people Like Chief Lanre Otiti, who is a former senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Parry (PDP)in the 2015 elections, is she a SENACO or LAMIST? They are appointed on the basis of their capacity and on the basis of the zone and senatorial district they come from.
“More importantly, what can they offer,what values can they add to the administration? That is the key. There are people who are not even in politics that have succeeded in their various fields, who are in this government.
“As for those who have joined the party, they are very good politicians, they are veteran politicians. They are people, who understand the terrain. Most of them have already fused into the party. A large number of these people were with us in Alliance for Democracy under Lam Adesina between 1999 and 2003. So, their coming back to APC is like home coming for them. Luckily, they are neither SENACO or LAMISTS as people would say, and they have not formed a group of their own.
“Former governor Akala served as local government chairman on the platform of the All Peoples Party that later became All Nigeria Peoples Party under Lam Adesina. He became a governor on the platform of PDP. He is in APC now. Akala has traversed the political terrain. So, people like Akala, Senator Teslim Folarin, who is an Ibadan son, are working in tandem with the governor to pursue the interests of this party.
When the time comes for a new executive to emerge, you will see that all the tendencies in the party will be represented, which is what the governor is doing now, even with the little appointments here and there.
“I want to believe that in Oyo State today, there is no credible alternative to APC. For any good politician, who knows his onions will not take any political gamble to risk his political career from derailing, by thinking that they will move out of APC. The PDP is not a credible alternative because the PDP has been hijacked by the Accord Party. What we have seen is the metamorphosis of the remnants of PDP into the Accord.
“ So, it is not the original PDP that we are seeing.”
The Public Relations Officer of PDP in the state, Mr. Akeem Olatunji said that 90 per cent of the so-called political heavyweights that defected from opposition parties to APC in 2017 “have ceased to be PDP members more than two years, while the remaining 10 per cent are politicians who make their living through politics and hence the need to be in the ruling party at all times because they lack ideologies and principles.”