Nigeria's All Progressive Congress,APC: Will the house stand?
September 28 2015 By Abi Giwa
Nigeria has a new ruling party, following the victory of the All Progress Congress, APC at the presidential polls in March 2015. Many Nigerians are saying the party as a house resembles the coming together of the good and the bad in the Nigerian polity. True, characters of different shades and colors came together all agreeing that their resolve was to defeat the then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.
As soon as the party has won the election, the differences among the party members begin to manifest and fester.
Today, in the Vanguard newspapers published in Nigeria,the report said that the party is holding a meeting to discuss and resolve disagreements among several members of the party. An example is the rift between Governor El Rufai of Kaduna State and Vice President Bayo Osinbajo. The report said that El Rufai is regarded as unofficial Vice President and he is in competition with the official Vice President.
It was gathered that el–Rufai made an uncomplimentary remark on the Vice President, to which Osinbajo was said to have protested and eventually walked out of the said meeting in the presence of President Buhari. It was also gathered that prior to his storming out of the meeting, the angered Osinbajo told Buhari: “I am an elected Vice President and would not sit down here and allow a governor to insult me.”
The second issue the party listed for discussions, according to the report, is the imbroglio between the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the National leader of the party, Bola Tinubu. Already, Saraki is facing a 13 counts charge of corruption over declaration of assets he made 12 years ago, and observers have said that some top members of the party are behind his travail as a punishment for outsmarting them and became the senate president.
Accusing fingers have been pointed at Tinubu as the brain behind Saraki's problems, but no confirmation to that effect. But today's report in the Vanguard shows that the party knows the cause of Saraki's trouble; the party is ready to address the issue than see Saraki disgraced out of office and cause or allow the issue create a bigger problem for the party. The newspaper quotes one of the party leaders. (See below)
The chieftain said: “Why must there be preferential treatment and separate rules? Whereas, Tinubu was acquitted for non- compliance with section 3 (D), the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, is insisting on Dr.Bukola Saraki standing trial for an issue that the former Lagos State governor was acquitted and the suit struck out.”
What the party has not done is to openly accuse Tinubu as the person using the Code of Conduct Tribunal as the dagger against Saraki. But the uglier picture in the APC is the larger than life posture El Rufai has assumed. He is regarded as an unofficial vice president and he is openly calling Vice President Osinbajo bluff in Presdent Muhammed Buhari's presence. The same Rufai has been listed in newspaper reports as one of the four witnesses likely to appear against Saraki at the CCT.
From the current picture of things in the party, there is a likelihood of a temporary jaw-jaw between the presidency, Rufai and Bola Tinubu to deal with Saraki for indiscipline in his act of outsmarting his party and becoming the senate president against his party's original plan to play godfather in the choice of who becomes the senate president, and not that his Saraki's trial is originally part of Buhari's fight against corruption.
But it is serious to imagine the president and some hawks in his party could turn a state apparatus to an instrument to settle a political score. This is where the role of the Vice President as a former commissioner of justice in Bola Tinubu's administration in Lagos State and a respected minister of God from the Redeemed Christian Church of God, comes into the picture. Osinbajo is a light in the dark recess of the party.
The question to ask is what could have been the cause of Rufai's bluffing of the VP? Could it be that the VP did not agree with Rufai on the undue use of the fight against corruption to deal with Saraki's issue, which curious observers have also described as purely a political matter? And what about Tinubu? Can Tinubu be a mere observer in a matter he has been fingered as the Brutus?
As soon as the party has won the election, the differences among the party members begin to manifest and fester.
Today, in the Vanguard newspapers published in Nigeria,the report said that the party is holding a meeting to discuss and resolve disagreements among several members of the party. An example is the rift between Governor El Rufai of Kaduna State and Vice President Bayo Osinbajo. The report said that El Rufai is regarded as unofficial Vice President and he is in competition with the official Vice President.
It was gathered that el–Rufai made an uncomplimentary remark on the Vice President, to which Osinbajo was said to have protested and eventually walked out of the said meeting in the presence of President Buhari. It was also gathered that prior to his storming out of the meeting, the angered Osinbajo told Buhari: “I am an elected Vice President and would not sit down here and allow a governor to insult me.”
The second issue the party listed for discussions, according to the report, is the imbroglio between the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the National leader of the party, Bola Tinubu. Already, Saraki is facing a 13 counts charge of corruption over declaration of assets he made 12 years ago, and observers have said that some top members of the party are behind his travail as a punishment for outsmarting them and became the senate president.
Accusing fingers have been pointed at Tinubu as the brain behind Saraki's problems, but no confirmation to that effect. But today's report in the Vanguard shows that the party knows the cause of Saraki's trouble; the party is ready to address the issue than see Saraki disgraced out of office and cause or allow the issue create a bigger problem for the party. The newspaper quotes one of the party leaders. (See below)
The chieftain said: “Why must there be preferential treatment and separate rules? Whereas, Tinubu was acquitted for non- compliance with section 3 (D), the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, is insisting on Dr.Bukola Saraki standing trial for an issue that the former Lagos State governor was acquitted and the suit struck out.”
What the party has not done is to openly accuse Tinubu as the person using the Code of Conduct Tribunal as the dagger against Saraki. But the uglier picture in the APC is the larger than life posture El Rufai has assumed. He is regarded as an unofficial vice president and he is openly calling Vice President Osinbajo bluff in Presdent Muhammed Buhari's presence. The same Rufai has been listed in newspaper reports as one of the four witnesses likely to appear against Saraki at the CCT.
From the current picture of things in the party, there is a likelihood of a temporary jaw-jaw between the presidency, Rufai and Bola Tinubu to deal with Saraki for indiscipline in his act of outsmarting his party and becoming the senate president against his party's original plan to play godfather in the choice of who becomes the senate president, and not that his Saraki's trial is originally part of Buhari's fight against corruption.
But it is serious to imagine the president and some hawks in his party could turn a state apparatus to an instrument to settle a political score. This is where the role of the Vice President as a former commissioner of justice in Bola Tinubu's administration in Lagos State and a respected minister of God from the Redeemed Christian Church of God, comes into the picture. Osinbajo is a light in the dark recess of the party.
The question to ask is what could have been the cause of Rufai's bluffing of the VP? Could it be that the VP did not agree with Rufai on the undue use of the fight against corruption to deal with Saraki's issue, which curious observers have also described as purely a political matter? And what about Tinubu? Can Tinubu be a mere observer in a matter he has been fingered as the Brutus?