AS tension continues to mount in the perpetually embattled All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, the end is not in sight as the race for the 2007 presidential election is at the root of the crisis, a crisis which has pitched governors against governors and party chieftains against party chieftains. And in a polity where things are not as straight forward as they may appear, extraneous pressures are also playing influential roles in the crisis. This report examines where all this would lead the ANPP, a party still walking on crutches.
IN January 2003 when Obot Don Etiebet emerged as the consensus candidate for the position of the National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, in Abuja, the leaders of the party then had only one thing in focus: To mobilise a nation-wide platform for the emergence of its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, as the elected President of Nigeria.
Buhari then was celebrated by the party leaders as a man of towering moral and disciplinary character that could get the country straightened from the mess into which it had been pushed, and from which the Peoples Democratic Party-led administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo had not and still has not been able to rescue it.
Etiebet, it would appear, came with vision and vigour to actually build a solid opposition party in ANPP. His zeal was buoyed by the fact of his exit from the PDP, which he held in derision. At that time, all the governors elected on the platform of the party were speaking with one voice and had one vision: Be an opposition deserving of that calling.
However as events unfolded, one thing led to another and the party embarked on a descent down the precipice of doom.
The first stress that set on discordant tone within the party is the failure of a number of ebullient governors of the party to get re-elected. Two stand out in this wise: Mohammed Lawal of Kwara State and the ever flamboyant Abubakar Audu of Kogi State. With the failure of these governors, the financial purse of the party shrank; and money being the root of all evils, the root of mischief, all manner of scheming tapped on the grounds of ANPP. Things would never remain the same again.
Following the failure of the duo of Lawal and Audu at the polls, the Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, became the life-line of the party while the other governors of the party who got re-elected, for whatever reasons known to them, tightened the noose round their wallets.
This however did not daunt Bafarawa from continuing to finance the activities of the party both at the centre and the states. He mobilised the state chairmen to hold regular meetings where various issues concerning the party were discussed. Throughout this period, the other governors were still in slumber. They must have seen the regular financial handout from Bafarawa as imprudent.
A year later, events suggested them that they were faulty in their thinking and assessment of Bafarawa. By 2004, the reality of 2007 became clearer and suddenly, the governors realised that in politics, no one goes on holiday and recess, as far as planning is concerned.
2007 is the year of electoral turn-over in the country. By that year virtually everyone holding any elected office across the country would have to give way for new persons to come in. Perhaps the most attractive office in the country is that of the president and it is on this office which ambitious governors and other politicians alike have their eyes.
It is on this office that Bafarawa and one of his colleagues have set their eyes. And it is this office which informed the regular financial handout being given by the former to oil the party machinery while his other colleagues were sleeping. It is the office that is now pushing the party overboard. The ambition and scheming as to who occupies the Presidential Villa in 2007 suddenly roused the other governors in the party to realise that their interests are at cross-purpose with that Bafarawa’s. While Bafarawa was initially scheming to head for the Presidential Villa himself, stronger forces later made him to shove that ambition aside to allow a possible realisation of Ibrahim Babangida’s, who is strongly interested in becoming the President.
The ambition of Babangida became a sore thumb for the other governors who in any case are sympathetic to the interest and ambition of incumbent Vice President Atiku Abubakar and are working hard to realise that.
Thus when they suddenly realised that Bafarawa was preparing the ANPP for a possible soft-landing for IBB in the event of his not getting the ticket from the PDP, they considered the move by Bafarawa an affront.
The result is the pooling together of resources to fight him within the party.
Although the plot of the other governors was not to prepare the ANPP for a possible entrance of Abubakar, they were out to work for an Abubakar presidency within the ANPP by making the party present a feeble candidate against the former after he must have emerged as the flag bearer in the PDP.
This conflicting interest has emasculated the party and, as things are today in the party, things have fallen apart and it would need the miracle of God to make the centre hold.
Already the party has been bifurcated into two main groups, one led by the National Chairman himself, the other by the Deputy National Chairman, North, General Jeremiah Useni. Both factions had engaged each other in suspension and counter-suspension, in an attempt to be the sole controller of the party and all attempts made so far by the Board of Trustees of the party appeared to have failed.
At the last meeting of the party’s Board of Trustees, the Board Chairman, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu and the secretary, Gambo Magaji, urged both parties to desist from issuing any press statements in respect of the crisis in the party. All suspended officers and members of the party were ordered reinstated while each faction were to desist from holding separate meetings on the crisis. The BOT added that it would convey a joint BOT/NEC meeting of the party for the 29th of this month in Abuja
As recent events have shown, the resolution of the BOT was a mere enunciation because not only have the two factions continued with their separate meetings, both were also engaged in surreptitious moves to hold separate NEC meetings. The Etiebt group which had earlier called its own NEC meeting for Maiduguri November 26, has finalised all arrangements for the successful conduct of the meeting and from the way things stand, the group appears to be riding high in popularity. Already most chairmen of the party from the South West and South South caucuses, who were initially antagonistic to him have indicated that they would attend the Maiduguri meeting.
A statement issued by the South West Zonal Chairman of the party, Bode Abdullahi and his Secretary, Bola Ogun, in fact cast aspersion on the joint BOT/NEC meeting summoned for November 29 by the BOT Secretary, Gambo Magaji, scheduled for Admiral Aikhomu’s House. By that position, the Etiebet group might have re-gained substantial ground lost in the wake of the crisis and the Maiduguri NEC meeting may turn out to be the huge success that the Etiebet group and the other governors of the party need to assert their control on the party.
According to the resolution of the South South caucus, all plots by the Bafarawa/Useni led group were targeted at disparaging leaders of the party from the zone. The statement signed by state chairmen of the party in the zone added, "we have watched carefully, followed the difficult milieu which the Chief Don Obot Etiebet led National Executive has been operating and we are satisfied that they have worked tirelessly, responsibly and honestly for the growth and good image of the party under the prevailing circumstances. "We shall therefore attend the NEC meeting of our great party to be held on the 27th of November 2004 in Maiduguri, Borno State under the Chairmanship of Chief Don Obot Etiebet."
Thus by December this year, it is expected that the ANPP would have resolved its crisis one way or the other, either by remaining factionalised, in which case the Useni group would hold-on to its gun or by accepting the resolution that will come from Maiduguri NEC. If they stick to their gun, then most of the governors of the party who are already being speculated to have their eyes on joining the PDP to complement the campaign efforts of Vice President Abubakar’s presidential bid may finally have a good reason to jump boat.
This scenario appears to be the likely reality at the end of Maiduguri because the Bafarawa/Useni group members appear not willing to accept any resolution that will sustain Etiebet and his executive in office.
