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AD survival battle and convention of relevance
By Felix Ofou, Group Politics Editor and Habib Aruna,
Assistant
Politics Editor
Dr Hamed Kusamotu is no doubt a frontline politician who has
had his time in the sun. The former chairman of the defunct National Republican
Convention (NRC) is old and experienced enough to know quite well why the
political terrain continues to be foggy and unpredictable.
Speaking recently at his Ikirun, Osun State country home to
a horde of journalists who paid him a visit, Kusamotu could not hide his
disdain for how politics in the nation has turned out to be. He expressed
sadness with the failure of the political class to coalesce into two national
political parties, which would be able to match each other in strength and
influence.
He went down memory lane to narrate how, together with his
political soul mate, Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, they approached the late Chief Bola
Ige and convinced him to join hands with them to form a strong party that would
face the then emerging PDP. He said with the help of Ige, they were able to
co-opt other progressive elements to come together under a platform.
Surprisingly, according to him, Ige and others were weighed
down by criticisms that followed the press conference held at the Airport
Hotels, where the likes of Chief Lamidi Adedibu; Senator Arthur Nzeribe sat
side by side with Ige and Chief Ayo Adebanjo. Both camps had agreed to
cooperate in the formation of the All Peoples Party (APP), but later chickened
out because, according to some of them, they should not be seen with Nzeribe
and Adedibu, who worked for the late Sani Abacha and against June 12 election.
“That was when we lost it,” laments Kusamotu.
“A party is supposed to have people of different characters, it is now
left for the leaders to harness these for the betterment of the society.
Adedibu and Nzeribe have a lot of influence and support in their states.”
It was not long after this that Ige and his group assembled in Abuja and
decided to form another party, which they christened Alliance for Democracy
(AD).
Since its formation in 1989, which many have described as
shoddy, the party has not been new to controversy. Indeed, it has moved from
one controversy and leadership crisis to another. The current one between Chief
Bisi Akande, former governor of Osun State, and Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa
had its roots from the 2000 national convention, when the division
metamorphosed into two major factions: The Alhaji Ahmed Abdulkadir faction,
regarded as the mainstream and supported by Ige, and the Ambassador Yusuf
Mamman-led pro-Afenifere faction. The seed of discord sown at that convention has
continued to flourish to the detriment of hope and unity, which are supposed to
be the bulwark of the party.
But barring any hitches, the party will again today be
holding another convention, the third in its chequered history. Today’s
convention, in the views of observers, might well be its last if not well
managed and if the factions and their leaders stand their ground and refused to
shift.
Forces against a united party
The convention is coming on the heels of crisis and clash of
interests that has characterised the party in the past one-year and which, from
all indications, is not about to recede. Many interests have been identified to
be working against the coming together of the AD as a mainstream political
party and its continued deterioration, in the politics of the Yoruba nation.
“The AD has found itself in the middle of the chess
game of ambitious political gladiators,” says Kamal Badamasi, a public
policy analyst. “The way things are presently, there are many interests
competing for the destruction of the party because that is the surest route for
influencing the minds of people in the region as the countdown to 2007
elections begins.”
But the crisis that is now about to consume the party
actually started last year when the AD leadership could not agree to organise a
convention, with the exit of its erstwhile Chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Abdulkadir,
who was appointed a special adviser by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Interestingly, Abdulkadir was variously accused for working
against the party during the 2003 general elections. To the surprise of many,
the former chairman had declared shortly after the elections won by Obasanjo of
the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the results were satisfactory to
the party, even when there was no forum where the matter was discussed.
Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State was in the forefront of
those who faulted the perceived role Abdulkadir was said to have played, which
to them was at variance with the interest and objectives of the party. Worse
still, when Obasanjo was to receive the certificate of victory from the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the former AD leader was
among the coterie of politicians that witnessed the ceremony.
His
presence thus validate the impression that, in the midst of protests by most of
the parties, Abdulkadir had tacitly endorsed Obasanjo’s reelection for a
second term. Trouble was to erupt when the former chairman, to the chagrin of
members, accepted to serve under Obasanjo. Move to
suspend him, however, failed as the Central Working Committee could not
arrive at a decision.
A group led by Tinubu thus insisted on his expulsion
and the setting up of a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the party,
since they argued the leadership could no longer be trusted. But
Abdulkadir’s supporters maintained that the appointment was based on the
PDP/AD accord and that censuring the former leader would deny the AD more appointments
in the future.
The opposing groups thus set the stage for the
flexing of muscles. And sensing that he was going to be inauspiciously removed,
to retain some leverage, Abdulkadir appointed his deputy, Chief Michael
Koleoso, as the acting chairman. Koleoso’s emergence was seen as a deft
move to neatly ease out the party leader without creating acrimony to both the
party and himself.
How
Akande became chairman
Few hours later, an emergency meeting was held in
Lagos with all the former governors in attendance. The meeting culminated in
the appointment of Akande as the acting chairman. Also, it disregarded the
elevation of Koleoso, adding that: “Abdulkadir could no longer continue
to act as the national chairman of the party, since he has ceased to be the
chairman with effect from 22 July 2003.”
Though the Lagos version of the convention had many
of the party leaders in attendance, it failed to secure the recognition of
INEC, whose officials did not attend both conventions. The electoral body,
however, advised the factions to sheathe their swords and work for the common
interest of the party, failure of which it warned that the commission might be
forced to wield the big stick.
Apart from Alhaji Lam Adesina, former governor of Oyo
State, who was conspicuously absent, other former governors attended the Lagos
convention with their supporters. But the Akinfenwa faction has insisted that
they are the authentic leaders of the party, maintaining that the Lagos
convention was a ploy by Tinubu to put the party under his firm control.
Curiously, the senator has the backing of some notable leaders of the party who
fell out with the governor after the April 2003 general elections.
“Our position is that Tinubu should leave the
party for the members,” says Alhaji Mufutau Ajisebutu, an AD chieftain in
Ikorodu. “You cannot control everything; he should concentrate on how to
improve the welfare of the people of the state rather than engaging in the
marginalisation of some of us who worked day and night to put the party on
sound footing.” The AD leader argued that there is no way the Akande
chairmanship would stand, since in his words, it falls short of the
party’s constitution.
The
Tinubu factor
But this is not the only fight Tinubu would have to
contend with in his avowed mission to redeem the party and make it the most
progressive in the country. He had also been at loggerheads with the leadership
of Afenifere,
many of who see him as becoming too abrasive and domineering. Before the 2003
elections, Tinubu was in the forefront of those calling for a wall of
distinction between the party and Afenifere, the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural
group. The group had received more than enough knocks for putting the AD under
its thump. Afenifere’s influence in the AD stemmed from its control of the South West,
the only zone under the control of the party until the last elections when it
lost five of the six states.
In fact, as was recently noted by a major actor of
the Abdulsalami Abubakar transition, it was Afenifere’s hold on the South West that
forced the transiting military regime to amend the party registration rules to
accommodate the AD in 1998 as the third of the three parties allowed to field
candidates for elections.
What
role for the Afenifere?
Though affected by the turn of events, Afenifere has tried to intervene in a bid to
resolve the AD crisis to no avail. After series of meetings with the
combatants, the leaders surprisingly, at a meeting in Akure, endorsed the
faction led by Akinfenwa saying he is the authentic leader that should be
recognised by the people.
This was predictably met with criticisms by the
Akande faction, which accused the leaders of acting beyond their mandate, which
they argued was to find amicable solution and not to recognise any of the
factions. Besides, vexed by what
they regarded as usurping what does not belong to them, the leaders were
berated for acting in consonance with a written script written by a third
party.
Their reservation was based on two areas: one, that
Chief Olu Falae’s alleged involvement was to pave the way for his old
pal, General Ibrahim Babangida, said to be in need of a platform for the
consummation of his perceived presidential ambition. Yet another area of
concern was the objection raised by Lam Adesina that the likes of Chief Ganiyu
Dawodu, who had defected from the party, should not have participated in the
deliberations on how to resolve the crisis.
“Of course, there is no way Dawodu and others
would be impartial going by their long drawn battle with Asiwaju,” says
Lateef Raji, Lagos State secretary of the party. Of course, Dawodu had a grouse
against Tinubu and would want to, as he has always argued, deny the governor
the opportunity of using the party to negotiate his post-2007 political future.
Not even the intervention of the Yoruba leader,
Senator Abraham Adesanya, could force the factions to come to a roundtable and
find ways to end the crisis.
The
make or mar convention
So, as the party’s future remain bleak and with
the hope for a reunion tickling slowly away, today’s convention will
either make or mar the existence of AD as a viable force in the democratic
process. Some members have even suggested that the two faction leaders should
give way for a consensus candidate. “I believe very strongly that the duo
are not the only credible leadership materials in the South West. There are
many prospective party leaders all over the place,” says Chief Niyi
Afuye, one of the 24 “wise men” invited by Adesanya to resolve the
crisis.
Meanwhile, Akinfenwa and his group have maintained
that the convention is a needless one, while calling on its members to shun it.
“It is important for the members to stay away from the convention under
the Akande/Tinubu group because such exercise would be in futility and just a
waste of time, money and energy,” the faction said in a statement.
As it is, the convention has the backing of Koleoso,
who took over from Abdulkadir. But it is not quite clear how this would be
received by INEC. The stakes are high, but it is a forgone conclusion that the
forces behind the crisis have not gone to sleep.
Will
INEC recognise today’s convention?
As stated earlier, it was INEC that asked the AD to
unite before October 31 or risk the possibility of not being recognised as a
party. With Koleoso said to have backed today’s convention, coupled with
widespread concern for peace to return, the expectation is that INEC would
endorse the outcome of the exercise.
But, politics in Nigeria is not known to be that
simplistic. Interests are bound to play out different shades and colours. In
which case, we may expect a new twist to the brouhaha. Already,
Akinfenwa’s faction has stated that it was staying away for the simple
fact that the electoral body would not give its blessing to today’s convention,
a hint that it may be working in tandem with certain persons high up in the
INEC hierarchy.
However, there is no doubt that the role of INEC
would be critical in resolving the crisis. Indeed, there can be no hope of
early return of peace if the commission fails to send observers to the
convention. After all, it was the failure of INEC in sending its officials to
monitor either conventions in Lagos or Abuja last year that gave rise to this
festering crisis.
If Dr Abel Guobadia were truly sincere in seeing an
end to the imbroglio, the least that would be expected from him would be to see
to it that credibility is given to today’s exercise. Unless of course he
is convinced that the Akinfenwa group has legitimacy. Again, it would be better
to take a decision one way or the other. But, it would be doubtful if the
Akinfenwa group would get the due recognition since those elected on the
platform of the AD have thrown their weight behind the Akande faction.
Yet, INEC must act since it has the ace to lay to rest the
ghost of this present crisis. Now is the time to act. Will it do so or watch AD
descend to nothingness and permanent inertia? The weeks ahead would tell how
the pendulum would swing.
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