•Lagos APC Stakeholders Demand Fair
Primaries
• Accuse GAC Members Of Cornering Appointments For Family Members, Cronies
• Say President Must Intervene Before It’s
Too Late
If President Bola Ahmed Tinubu successfully waded into the party crises in Rivers and Ondo states, members of the Lagos State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) are hopeful that he would use his wisdom to resolve some salient issues that may jeopardize its chances of winning future elections.
This was much expected by party members during Mr. President’s vacation in Lagos for the Eid-el-Fitri celebration held within the week.
There are many lingering issues that placed the party on the precipice after the 2023 general election. However, members feel that the kind of internal animosities, which the Lagos APC faced during the February 25, 2023 presidential election that gave the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi, victory over Tinubu and which also forced the party to struggle for victory in the March 18 governorship poll must not be allowed to fester, especially as the state prepares for the next council elections.
Several members of the party who confided in The Guardian expressed hope that President Tinubu would seize the opportunity of his vacation in Lagos to call a stakeholders’ meeting where all gray areas that may further weaken the party’s base and structure ahead of the local council elections and next year’s congresses would be discussed and lasting solutions reached.
Findings showed that many aggrieved members, who have decided not to leave APC until they reap the dividends of their labour, are bent on fighting to the end with some elders and leaders, who they accused of turning the Lagos APC and its fortunes into their family heritage.
If leaders of the party would face the truth, the Lagos APC is currently more or less like a graveyard following the last general election.
Many of its members are not only angry but are also spoiling for action against those they described as Shylock leaders and elders, who they alleged cornered every benefit to themselves and their stooges.
It was gathered that some aggrieved members, who believe they were badly treated after their efforts to salvage the party in Lagos during the 2023 elections, are uncomfortable with members of the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), who are in their 70s, 80s and 90s. These elders are being accused of having cornered most benefits and as well positioned their children, in-laws, children of their friends and stooges for juicy appointments.
Occasional visits to the party’s secretariat at Acme Road, Ikeja, also showed that political and other activities have been abysmally low in the last 10 months. The secretariat, which used to be very lively, with enthusiastic members trooping in and out for one activity or the other, is more like a ghost town now.
A source said: “Lagos APC has always been on the precipice since after the 2023 elections. It is now like a graveyard with a lot of unresolved issues. It is a situation whereby the big cocks in the party would not allow the small ones to crow or breathe.
We would appreciate it if Mr. President looked into this. It would not be out of place if he calls a stakeholders meeting to iron things out.”
The source said the excesses of APC leaders in the state and their insensitivity to members’ plights are the opposite of what Mr. President stands for.
The source added: “The major issue of concern, which Mr. President is expected to address, as he would be receiving visitors, is what the aggrieved within the party describe as excesses and high-handedness of the GAC and other leaders.
“President Tinubu should understand that the
GAC is not known to the law and therefore its members cannot continue to dictate and enforce what they want on the constitutionally recognised executive of the party to implement. With the mode of things, this may backfire in the coming council polls.
“Again, looking at the various local council chairmen, State Assembly, House of Representatives members and others, it is not a coincidence or an accident that the names of the children of the so-called leaders, in-laws, cousins and their stooges are prominent.
“While members are crying for a free, fair and equal process of selecting candidates for the party, the philosophy of these leaders and elders is different.
There is confusion on whether political positions in Lagos APC are hereditary or if the leaders and the GAC members are the only ones making things happen in the party during elections.”
It could be recalled that the primaries for the 2021 council poll in Lagos APC was very controversial.
There were allegations that the leaders manipulated the process to favour their stooges, children and or preferred candidates. A similar scenario played out during the selection of candidates for the 2023 polls, resulting in the wrangling some party members carried into the 2023 polls, which nearly cost the party victory.
“This time, Mr. President is advised to call all Shylock leaders within the party to order, otherwise there might be a backlash in the fast approaching council elections,” the source warned.
According the source, the President is also expected to probe the reason the party performed abysmally in the last presidential and governorship elections, considering the fact it has a governor, senators across the three senatorial districts, 57 local council chairmen, 377 ward counselors, 40 members of the State Assembly and all the House of Representatives members.
The party also controls all the supervisors at the local councils just as it has in its kitty all the markets, artisans and members of the NURTW.
“It is then unimaginable how it lost the presidential election and at the same time recorded less than a million votes in the gubernatorial election.
“The popular aspirants, who are people’s choice, are in most instances not allowed to win primaries, especially at the council levels, where the elders are alleged to always want to plant their stooges for easy patronage,” a source explained.
Another party member, who also preferred anonymity, noted: “It is such an irony that these set of leaders fought the late former governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, to a standstill over alleged similar high-handedness but they are doing worse things. They have been holding the progressives party in the state by the jugular for the past 25 years. What happened in the last presidential poll in Lagos ought to have been an eye opener but it didn’t open anything. For instance, as soon as Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu survived his re-election, it has been business as usual and this is exactly what has been giving the opposition parties in Lagos some hope that someday, sooner than later the bubble would burst.
“What President Tinubu is also expected to realise is that if the current Electoral Act is enforced, it has actually made it very easy for votes to count.
So, APC may not enjoy the kind of undue privilege it had enjoyed since 1999 in the next polls, especially as new local council elections are nearby.
“The danger ahead of Lagos APC is that a large number of the party faithful have made up their minds to put up a nonchalant posture to the coming council polls if President Tinubu fails to use this period to address some issues and rekindle their hope in the party.”
Return Of Justice Forum And Mandate
Group
About four years ago, precisely June 2020, the Lagos APC, through the GAC, disbanded the two major groups within the party, Justice Forum and Mandate Group. The 27-member GAC group then said the move was to strengthen unity within the party.
But recently, the Justice Forum and Mandate Group appear to have been resuscitated but without the fanfare and publicity that heralded the ban in 2020.
Now that the groups are back, some adherents said Tinubu must realise that the decision was not in the larger interest of the party but because of the ambition of some people.
Placing Premium On Appointing Technocrat
After Winning Elections
In party politics, appointment is supposed to be a kind of remuneration for members, who worked for the success of the party during elections although in doing so, necessary cognizance must be placed on competence and capacity. Lagos APC members are however uncomfortable with how the government appears to have placed more emphasis on appointing technocrats, who are not members of the party and who don’t share the party’s ideology or understand its inner workings, into offices.
Recall that the State Assembly-led by the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, had to reject some commissioner-nominees sent to them for screening by Sanwo-Olu based on the sentiment that they were technocrats. Many members of the party had observed that some of the technocrats appointed between 2019 and 2023 abandoned the party during the last elections.
“President Tinubu is also expected to address this as Sanwo-Olu is yet to appoint many special advisers and other key positions,” an aggrieved party member noted.
Although the major opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) appears weakened in Lagos while LP is in disarray, some members said whenever it is election period, the opposition parties suddenly fuse together to challenge the ruling party.
“The truth is that it is disgruntled members of
APC, who are collaborating with the parties, in protest against the way they were treated in their own party
“There must be deliberate efforts to address the grouses of party members at the state and national level,” the source added.
Effects On Governance
On how these affect governance, some members of the party said one of the reasons local councils seem not to function appropriately is because the majority of the council chairmen are stooges of their godfathers and so dare not do anything without deferring to them.
A highly placed source within the party said:
“Many contracts are said to be awarded at the council level based on the inputs of the elders because of the preferred candidate syndrome, whereas competent, capable and popular aspirants are deprived of the chance to serve.
“If one takes a look at those representing Lagos at the National level either in the House of Representatives and the State Assembly, the question is what have they really offered towards the development of Lagos? Some are children of these so-called leaders and/or in-laws or stooges.
It is very annoying that most of the state’s lawmakers in the National Assembly are mere benchwarmers who hardly could match up with the skills of representatives from other states.
They are best comfortable to ride SUV cars and live luxuriously instead of sponsoring bills that would help the nation’s development. This is because they were merely handpicked and imposed by the process.”
(Guardian)
