AS APC 'brings' Order from Chaos

IF YOU have ever visited
a typical chain of brothels
then you will understand
how chaos and disorder
functions in real life
situation.
This is because
traditionally, the red
light district is a house
of ‘sin’ and the ancillary
activities that go with
commercialized sex
works such as smoking
and drunkenness. In the
house of commercial sex,
commotion and noise are
the order of the day.
The aforementioned
anti-social behaviors of
drinking of alcohol and
smoking of a range of
cigarettes amongst others
can’t be consumed in
tranquillity.
The brothels whereby
commercial sex hawkers
practice their infamous
trade can be likened to a
house of commotion.
It is in a typical brothel,
that all kinds of infighting
take place just as the
brothels especially in our
clime is seen as harbingers
of all kinds of criminal
syndicates.
Knowing the above
facts, can anyone truly
convince the audience of
the potency of finding
orderliness in such a
chaotic environment such
as brothels in a typical
Nigerian township?
The graphic picture of
the chaotic scenarios that
are daily occurrence of
brothels and intra party
feuds going on within the
ranks of the political party
that controls the Federal
government of Nigeria
known as All Progressing
Congress are like Siamese
twins.
Ideally, the name All
Progressives Congress
connotes aspirations that
most Nigerians yearn
for in politics namely
progress and unity. Unity
amongst members of
political parties with
clearly defined agenda of
development of the society
brings about progress
and rapid expansion of
happiness amongst the
greatest percentage of the
populace.
The Utilitarian
philosophers say that the
achievement of the greatest
happiness of the greatest
percentage of the people of
a given society is the essence
of politics. i agree.
But if those who happily
voted for president
Muhammadu Buhari’s
party had hoped to witness
tranquility and unity of
purpose amongst the top
chieftains of the ruling party,
they may have to wait for a
long time to come.
Right from the day
president Buhari assumed
office on May 29th 2015 till
date; his political family has
yet to experience peace.
His frequent foreign
medical tourism has
compounded these chain
of chaotic infighting and
uncertainty.
The squabbles going
on amongst the APC
stakeholders can be likened
to the self-destructive fight
that occurs when a bunch
of hoodlums have retired
to their hide-out to share
their loots and there is a
slight discord regarding the
sharing formula.
A typical example was
the story told by the police
about Evans the billionaire
suspected to be a kidnapper,
that the bullet wound that
can be seen in his hand
was sustained when in one
occasion, quarrel ensued
amongst his gang members
on the sharing formality
and these armed hoodlums
exchanged gun shots to
settle their difference just as
it was told that Evans was
about the only survival from
that battle for the loots.
Although it may be
uncharitable and way too
unsophisticated to compare
the political infighting
within the APC to the
typical boardroom bullets’
exchange between between
quarrelsome members of
a crime syndicate, but the
genesis of the crisis in the
ruling party is known to have
started with the selection of
leaders of the parliament.
So if a conspiracy theorist
compare the various
squabbles in APC as that of
members of an organised
crime syndicate, it must be
understood from the context
of the extent of frustration
that Nigerians are feeling
because of the apparent
inertia in the governance
of the Country by the
quarrelsome politicians
belonging to APC.
It would be recalled
that the party faithful’s
loyal to president Buhari
championed by the disgraced
secretary to the Federal
government Mr. Babachir
Lawal wanted some other
person but Bukola Saraki to
become senate president.
But most of senators of
the APC supported by those
of the people’s Democratic
Party thought otherwise and
went for Bukola Saraki and
the PDP’s Ike Ekweremadu.
The emergence of the
opposition PDP senator as
Deputy Senate President was
taken as a political slap in
the face of an ‘all powerful’
APC produced president for
which both of them in the
Senate leadership would be
subjected to the bitter pills
of federal government’s
sponsored persecution.
The emergence of Dr Saraki,
the two terms governor of
Kwara State and the eldest
son of the second Republic
leader of the senate did not
end the infighting amongst
the supporters of the new
leadership and the remnants
that backed the presidency.
That infighting boiled out to
a ferocious legal prosecution
of the senate leaders in both
the Abuja high court for
alleged forgery of in-house
rule book of the senate
and the recently dismissed
prosecution of Bukola Saraki
before the code of conduct
Tribunal.
With all these fights going
on and threatening the
foundation of the ruling
party, the national hierarchy
appeared very weak and
partisan.
However, the national
hierarchy of the ruling
party has spectacularly
failed to provide the needed
effective leadership by
example by failing to rise
to the occasions to resolve
conclusively the various
contentious supremacy
battles that the different
State chapters between
are engulfed particularly
beyween influential senators
and their State governors
who feel threatened by the
national visibility of these
outspoken senators. The
national leadership is also
at war with itself because of
what the Deputy National
Publicity Secretary saw
as a fraud in the failure to
niminate him as substantive
spokesman of the ruling
party to succeed the
National Publicity Secretary
Mr. Lai Mohammed who
went on to become Minister
of information. The National
Chairman isn’t comfortable
with the Deputy National
Publicity Secretary stepping
in as the official mouthpiece
of the party. The state
chapters have also not
fared well due to infighting
between inflential Senators
and their governors who feel
threatened by thenational
visibility of these outspoken
senators especially as 2019
approaches and they aren’t
sure of a return tickets.
From Kogi, Kwara, Kano,
and Lagos and even Rivers
state, the internal battles of
supremacy have threatened
the cohesion of the national
ruling party and these
various challenges boiling
up at the leadership fabrics
at the national level has
affected the implementation
of the party’s manifesto.
This is shown by the failure
of the APC to even accept a
major promise it made in its
manifesto on restructuring.
Recently, the Kogi State
governor, Yahaya Bello,
attacked a senator from
the state, Dino Melaye,
saying the lawmaker was
not properly nurtured into
adulthood by his parent.
The comment came as
a political feud between
the two former allies
deteriorates, following an
outbreak of violence at a
political rally in Kogi, for
which the two politicians
blame each other. The Kogi
state governor is accused
of budgeting over a billion
Naira to prosecute the
recall of Senator Dino who
hurriedly obtained a court’s
injunction to slow down his
recall by the Independent
National Electoral
commission.
Mr. Bello said it had
become apparent that
Mr. Melaye’s “reckless”
behaviour could be traced to
his childhood, admonishing
Nigerian parents to do their
utmost and ensure that
their children were properly
cultivated.
“You see, I would rather
admonish Nigerians that
By Emmanuel Onwubiko
As APC ‘brings’order from chaos
when a child lacks
proper parental care
and upbringing, he
constitutes social menace
in the society,” Mr. Bello
told journalists in Abuja.
“And if the society
does not take steps to
check and correct such a
child, they can take into
criminality, then it will
be left to government to
check such criminality.”
But the senator fired
back, telling the press in
what is described as an
unusually swift response
to a request for his
reaction to his governor’s
jibe that he is a victim of
his own rise to political
prominence.
Mr. Bello is “afraid
of anyone with rising
profile, a characteristic of
one suffering superiority
complex and intellectual
stagnancy,” Mr. Melaye
said. “He is shooting the
moon and boxing the
wind.”
The governor also
scolded senators for
doing little to rein in
alleged exuberance of
their colleague, saying
they risk being viewed as
cut from the same cloth as
Mr. Melaye.
“I think it is necessary
that that wonderful
house (Senate) should,
as matter of urgency
and as a matter of fact
check, any social deviant
that exists within them
(sic) before they could
be adjudged birds of the
same feather,” Mr. Bello
said, but quickly added:
“I know they are not of
the same feather.”
Kogi State Polytechnic
confirmed a student died
in the fracas, which broke
outside the school’s
campus where the rally
was held.
Two State Security
Service agents attached
to Mr. Melaye were also
said to have been injured
during the fracas, and
Mr. Melaye’s SUV was
defaced by bullets, the
News Agency of Nigeria
reported.
Mr. Bello accused Mr.
Melaye, who represents
Kogi West district,
of hurriedly putting
together the gathering in order to beat back an
ongoing effort to recall him
from the Senate.
In Kaduna State, the
misunderstanding between
Senator Shehu Sani of
Kaduna central and the
state governor has even
degenerated to allegations
of sponsored assassination
plot targeting Senator Sani.
Indeed, the Kaduna
face off in the APC is not
limited to senator Sani and
Governor El Ruffai because
the last fracas involved the
two senators representing
Kaduna North and Central
Suleiman Hunkiyi and
Sani who were allegedly
attacked by supporters of
the governor who quickly
denied the claim.
The armed hoodlums in
their 10s reportedly attacked
Kaduna Constituency
Office of Senator Shehu
Sani destroying property
and made attempt on the
life of Abdulsamad Chima
Amadi, Personal Assistant
on Special Duties to the
Senator.
The attack occurred when
members of the social
media team of the Senator
were having a meeting at
the office located at No 1
Junction Road by Stadium
Roundabout, Kaduna.
An eyewitness who saw
it happened narrated that
the youth with cudgels,
machetes, sticks, among
other dangerous weapons,
went to the first floor of
the building chanting “ina
shegen” (meaning where
is the bastard) in Hausa,
dispersed those meeting
and broke anything
breakable in the office.
A Newspaper vendor who
witnessed the incident said
the boys came from the
side of Cabala Costain and
after the attack also went
towards same direction.
The Vendor who
identified himself simply
as Adamu said the weapons
brandished by the youth
scared many people leading
to stampedes that saw
many injured in the process
of trying to escape from the
hoodlums.
Another eyewitness
who trades goods close
to the office who pleaded
anonymity for the fear
of what the youth could
do, said what surprised
them was that as the
pandemonium happened, a
Police Van with personnel
was packed across the
road and the men watched
without any attempt to
disperse or apprehend the
hoodlums.
At Magajin Gari Police
Station, Kaduna North
Local Government Area
where Abdulsamad Chima
Amadi went to report the
case, he told New Nigerian
Newspapers that the
hoodlums actually came for
him.
Abdulsamad said he
was in the inner chamber
of the office and saw the
hoodlums wreck the havoc
with one of them holding
a Pistol and asking of his
whereabouts.
He said it was a grace
of God that save him as
the hoodlums were really
prepared to mow him to
death. “We are here to
officially report the case to
the Police” he stressed.
It would be recalled that
on Friday 2nd December,
2016, some youth led a
protest to the resident of the
Senator’s late mother with
attempt to touch it.
It took the prompt
intervention of the police
to disperse them using tear
gas as an opposing group
mobilize to save the house
by confronting the first one.
The frosty relationship
between Senator Shehu Sani
and Governor Nasir Ahmad
el-rufai is getting worse on
daily basis with accusations
and counter accusations.
The Special Adviser
Political to Governor Elrufai,
Uba Sani has always
being pointed as the brain
behind attacks on the
Senator and his supporters.
Last weekend, Senators
Sani Hunkiyi and other
factional leaders of the
Kaduna State chapter of
Apc were holding a press
confab at NUJ center but
were attacked with many
journalists getting bloodied.
There was also report that
some of the armed thugs
went for senator Shehu
Sani who was immediately
whisked off by his personal
security.
In Lagos State, the home
base of the national leader
of APC Senator Bola Ahmed
Tinubu, his political family
has imploded following
allegations that last
week’s local government
election was rigged by
supporters of the governor.
The controversy led to
the announcement of the
purported suspension of
the National Legal Adviser
of APC Mr. Banire who was
however cleared by the
National hierarchy.
The Controversy in
the wake of purported
suspension of APC’s
legal adviser Muiz Banire
has pitched the party’s
spokesmen in Lagos and
Abuja against each other.
APC’s publicity secretary
in the FCT Adaji Usman
asked his Lagos counterpart
Joe Igbokwe to retract his
statement that the party’s
national publicity secretary
Bolaji Abdullahi could not
speak for the party or face
sanction.
Abdullahi had in a
statement issued last Friday
announced the decision of
the APC National Working
Committee (NWC),
annulling the purported
expulsion of Banire.
Igbokwe, in a swift
reaction, said since
Abdullahi was not validly
elected, he could not speak
for the party.
He also described the
NWC decision as hasty and
an assault on democracy
for faulting the right of the
local chapter of the APC to
recall a party member at the
National level over alleged
anti-party activities.
In Rivers the only APC
senator Magnus Abe is
having a running battle
with one of the financiers
of Muhammadu Buhari’s
2015 election campaign
Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, the
immediate past governor
of Rivers State. Amaechi is
said to be scared of the rising
profile of the Senator who
is nursing governorship
ambition for 2019 against
the wishes of Amaechi who
prefers another crony.
The South East branch of
APC is not left out in this
bonanza of factional battles
for supremacy.
Enugu State chapter
has two factions which
have recently announced
suspensions of each other.
In Anambra State where by
the governorship election
will come up in November,
the APC already has over
three dozen members
seeking to be nominated as
the candidate to challenge
incumbent.
The worrying infighting
within APC has created
doubts in the minds of most
Nigerians that this party
is incapable of providing
good governance because
a house divided amongst
itself can surely not stand.
Again, given that Nigeria
is too sick to have a party
of commotion governing
it, most Nigerians have
expressed frustration that
the APC has indeed failed
the litmus test of leadership.
Two years down the line,
the central government’s
incompetence has foisted
economic recession even
as social and economic
crimes have ballooned out
of control. The APC must
buckle up and redeem itself
or they would be thrown
out come 2019.
* Onwubiko is Head
of HUMAN RIGHTS
WRITERS ASSOCIATION
OF NIGERIA (HURIWA)