PARTY LEADERSHIP: ASSESSING APC, ADC LEADERS

PARTY LEADERSHIP: ASSESSING APC, ADC LEADERS

Between Friday, June 27 when the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje resigned and Thursday, July 24, when the party chose a new national chairman, all the three major political parties in Nigeria, the APC, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were under interim leaderships.

Deputy National Secretary of the APC, Ali Bukar Dalori, had stepped in as acting national chairman when Ganduje resigned while for the ADC, Senator David Mark, assumed position as the interim national chairman of the party early July and in the PDP, Umar Damagum has continued as the acting national chairman.

With Thursday’s confirmation of Yilwatda Nentawe as chairman of the APC, the party could be said to have wriggled itself out of the dilemma of being under an interim arrangement close to an election year, while the PDP, by fixing its convention for December, has succeeded in giving an indication that it is about to do something about its leadership.

The fact that the ADC has harvested major players from other parties and is trying to reorganise and reposition itself ahead the 2027 elections makes its interim arrangement understandable, according to analysts.

But the choice of Nentawe, whose name did not feature much among those likely to succeed Ganduje until early this week, has introduced new dimensions to the internal politics within the APC and changed the configuration of national politics.

Normally, political parties wait to see who their opponents are before fielding candidates for certain positions. This is to ensure that whoever they will nominate has the capacity to match those of the opponents in weight and tact.

But the APC has introduced a new dimension where it appeared to have disregarded the weight, experience and influence of other national chairmen and is prepared to take a risk with someone who does not come close in political experience to the others.

Analysts have described the scenario as interesting ahead of 2027, noting that the APC, a popular party is being led by a man who is largely unknown while the ADC, which has always trailed behind the major players and relatively unknown, is being chaired by a popular person.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has been described in several quarters as one of the biggest of the smaller parties..

This is because it has in the past put up a fair showing trailing behind the bigger parties in terms of votes in presidential elections.

In 2007, the party fielded prominent professor of political economy, Prof Patrick Utomi, who polled 50,849 votes placing him 4th in the election.

In 2011, its presidential candidate, Rev, Peter Nwangwu, who garnered 51,682 votes but in terms of ranking, fell to the 8th position.

The party scored less in the elections when it fielded Dr. Mani Ibrahim Ahmad as its candidate who polled only 29,666 votes, and came 7th while in the 2015 elections it fielded the late banker, Obadiah Mailafia, who scored the highest votes for the party with 97,874, and placed 4th out of 73 candidates in the election and in the 2023 election, Dumebi Kachikwu ran as the candidate. It is, however, yet to win any governorship seat.

The development in the ADC is in contrast to the All Progressives Congress (APC), which at its first attempt after registration as a political party, won the presidential election in 2015 and has repeated the victories in subsequent elections in 2019 and 2023.

It has since displaced the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the ruling party not only at the national level but in many states.

The party currently controls 23 states as well as majority seats in both the Senate and House of Representatives. It has also witnessed mass defections into its fold recently.

Sources within the APC say Nentawe is not known to belong to any of the power bloc in the party as he is neither a member of the legacy parties that formed the party nor does he belong to the caucus of former governors’ forum which has a great influence on the party. He is equally not known to be in the loop of the president’s henchmen.

Outside the APC, our correspondents observe, his emergence has added a new shade of colour to what lies ahead in 2027, where all the major parties would be relying on the brinkmanship of their leaders to navigate the waters.

Despite the assurance that he has the capacity to do the job, analysts point to the fact that he is coming at a time when the other political parties have entrusted their affairs into the hands of seasoned and experienced politicians.

The ADC, which has former Senate President David Mark, could brag that it is being led by a retried military officer, a former governor, minister and one who had been in the Senate for 20 years at a stretch and held the position of senate president for eight years.

Damagum, who leads the PDP, comes with more years of experience as he has been a politician for a long time and rose to become the deputy national chairman of the PDP before he stepped in as acting national chairman of the party.

Apart from contesting the 2023 election in Plateau State, however, Nentawe is not known to have real political experience as he is just a few years in politics being a former lecturer and later INEC commissioner.

When he was declared the APC gubernatorial candidate for Plateau State in 2023, no less than 12 aspirants of the party protested on grounds that he was imposed by the former governor, Simon Lalong, and even threatened to leave the party.

A high-ranking APC senator from the North, who spoke with Weekend Trust on learning that Nentawe had been chosen as the APC national chairman, said it will affect the party negatively stressing that “they have further destroyed the party”.

He said though the new chairman is a nice person, he doesn’t know anybody.

“How could you be party chairman without knowing people? Anywhere he goes, he has to be introduced. Even pronouncing his name will be very difficult to many people,” he stated.

He continued: “I suspect that Tinubu wanted to bring Lalong, but he rejected it and presented Nentawe instead. Remember he is the one that even anointed him as Plateau governorship candidate for the party in the last election. This is what I suspect. And from his experience with them, Lalong may not want to go back. Remember how he was treated as minister.

“How could someone who served as campaign Director-General end up with Labour and Employment ministry? He is supposed to be given a very good ministry like that of Works, Agriculture or something related. That’s the most appropriate since the ministry was in the South during the last administration. But he even told me that even as minister, he couldn’t see the president to brief him on issues.

“Before, he (Lalong) was the one I suspected will be brought in as chairman because they want to balance it with a Christian from the North Central. But the current man doesn’t know anybody and nobody knows him,” he said.

The source went further to say the biggest challenge is that one could not compare Nentawe’s popularity with ADC’s David Mark’s.

He added: I also understand that they want to have absolute control over him, but the challenge is that he can’t do the kind of work that Ganduje did for them. He doesn’t have that capacity and exposure and his father was a clergy, so he won’t do that kind of jobs. The North Central is okay, but they should have given it to an experienced politician from that region.

A source in Jos, the Plateau State capital said even though Nentawe could be described as a new comer in politics, he is also vast in other areas.

“He has a serious network within INEC considering his IT background, which is a critical department at the electoral empire.

“Someone might say he needs far more than knowledge to navigate the murky waters; but then, don’t be surprised that his technocratic skills would be of immense advantage to his party.

“Again, he is probably the first professor to be the chairman of a ruling party, even though I don’t have the facts. So, yes, he might be a new person in politics but maybe Tinubu wants him for other reasons. It is not everything that you will achieve through the political abracadabra,” he said.

Professor Nentawe was the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s Resident Commissioner in Benue State, during the March 2019 general elections.

He presided over the exercise which was declared inconclusive.

It was the election which returned former Governor Samuel Ortom of PDP for a second tenure after beating his closest opponent, Barr. Emmanuel Jime of the APC.

Ortom had scored a total of 410, 576 votes in 23 local government areas of the state while Emmanuel Jime polled 329, 022 votes to come a distant second during the inconclusive election.

Some observers had felt there was no need for a rerun of the election following the wide gap but Nentawe insisted on another round of the exercise, a move which was rejected by the PDP.

PDP’s State central agent, Barrister Alex Adum, a former commissioner in the state had alleged compromise by INEC.

But Nentawe directed that all grievances should be channeled to the court.

Before his retirement from civil service, he was described as a philanthropist. Many people recognised his generous nature and his desire to help others. Even after his retirement, he continued to help people, including students.

Many acknowledge that he assisted students with scholarships, showing his commitment to education. They said every year, he buys JAMB examination forms for thousands of students who wish to continue their education. He also helps candidates to secure admission into higher institutions. Additionally, he engages in building schools in villages and constructs boreholes, it was gathered.

He came into politics during the 2023 elections and became the governorship candidate of the APC.

He gave the PDP candidate, Caleb Muftwang, who was later declared winner of the elections, a keen contest.

He was supported by the then governor, Lalong and is believed to have worked closely with the House of Representatives member, Yusuf Gagdi.

As minister, he visited all attacked communities and donated millions of naira,l and assisted the communities with food items.

David Mark has been through five elections and won all which has given him a first hand experience in election going through primary and secondary elections including court processes.

He became Senate president in 2007 and not only won the seat of the Benue South senatorial district but won the senate president seat. He won the seat a second time and served for cumulative eight years, making him the longest serving Senate president in Nigeria’s history.

While serving as Senate president, on Tuesday, 9th February, 2010, he was able to stabilise the polity when then President Umaru Yar’adua was ill by invoking the Doctrine of Necessity.

By virtue of his being Senate president, he belonged to the highest decision making body of the PDP for a long time deepening his experience in party politics.

It was also under his leadership as Senate president that the 1999 Constitution was amended paving the way for subsequent assemblies to follow.

Furthermore, he facilitated the completion of projects in his zone like the Oweto/Loko Bridge project, Federal University of Health Sciences in Otukpo and the Otobi Multipurpose Dam and several others in the area.

As a former military administrator and experience in politics, many of his colleagues say, he is very well respected, a development that enables him to have his way in many instances.

A political analyst based in Kaduna, Abubakar Ahmed, on his part said that the emergence of the new national chairman of the APC came as no surprise to party insiders, as it was already known that he had the backing of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Even before the NEC meeting, insiders had already reported that this was the president’s choice and by implication, the choice of the party.”

He stressed that the success of any APC national chairman depends largely on presidential and gubernatorial support.

“How you succeed as a national chairman of the party is dependent on the support you get from the leader of the party, which by implication for the ruling party is the president,” he said. “If the president wants you to succeed, of course, he will give you all the needed support.”

Addressing the chairman’s qualifications, he argued that while there is no fixed requirement for the role, the new leader brings a wealth of experience.

“He has risen through the university system, taken part in state-level politics, contested as a gubernatorial candidate for the party, and served as a cabinet minister,” he said. “All these are experiences that qualify one to occupy such an office.”

In comparing the new APC chairman to opposition figures like the ADC Interim Chairman, David Mark, in terms of political experience, Abubakar said “That depends. We’ve seen party leaders who didn’t come close to the APC national chairman’s experience politically and they still did well.”

He added that past failures of APC leadership were often due to internal friction. “What consumed his predecessors, Adams Oshiomhole and so forth, was the friction between the governors and the party leadership at that time.”

Kano State-based politician and APC chieftain, Alhaji Abdulmajid Dan Bilki Kwamanda, said there is a huge task ahead of the new national chairman of the APC.

He said the party is currently experiencing a serious intra-party crisis as members have been lamenting how the party “sidelined” them, explaining that if care is not taken, the new leadership wouldn’t be able to tackle the overwhelming crisis and may end up failing.

“It is unfortunate that the leadership of our party is always oblivious of who really worked for it. I hope the new leadership will give internal reconciliation a top priority for them to succeed,” he said.

On the issue of the emergence of Senator David Mark as ADC’s chairman, Kwamada said, the development shouldn’t be taken lightly by the APC. According to him, Mark has what it takes to drive the new coalition to victory.

“We are beneficiaries of coalition and we should know that we were able to unseat a sitting government through coalition. Therefore, ADC shouldn’t be taken lightly. Take it or leave it, it is not going to be as easy as most of us believe it will be in 2027,” he said.

A renown political science professor at Bayero University, Kano, Professor Kamilu Sani Fage, on his part said that recent changes in the leadership of the ruling APC and opposition ADC could positively impact their fortunes but only if the new leaders embrace democratic values and adopt policies that reflect the interest of Nigerians.

“Leadership in a political party is a very important factor in terms of success and unity of the party. As a result, these changes in leadership in APC and ADC are likely to make a positive contribution to the success of their respective parties. But this depends on, you know, the policies and the leadership style adopted by the new elected leadership in the party,” he said.

He noted that the APC is grappling with both internal and external crises, which predate the current administration.

“For example, the ruling APC is having serious internal problems and external challenges. Internally, you see, even before the death of former president Buhari, those from the line of CPC, were dissatisfied that they had been discriminated against in APC. Now he’s dead. I think that issue will likely come into the open more, and there is likely going to be more challenges in that regard,” Fagge explained.

He added that the party’s policies have alienated many Nigerians.

The professor noted that unless the new APC leadership resolves its internal conflicts, reforms governance style, and reconnects with Nigerians, the party risks electoral defeat.

Turning to the ADC, Fagge said the party’s ambition to emerge as a viable third force would require resolving structural and ideological fragmentation among its ranks.

“ADC also has its own challenges. ADC is trying to form a coalition and there is no proper structure. Some of them are members of another party. So, this is one of the challenges that the leadership of ADC will face. How do they unite the various elements so that they become one single formidable opposition against the ruling party,” he asked.

Sheriff Omotayo, a lecturer with the department of Political Science, University of Jos, said though Nentawe is new to national politics, his emergence as a chairman of the ruling party may not necessarily give him much difficulty.

He said, “As it is, party affairs have become more or less an appendage of the executive arm of government, where the president determines who he wants. So, in actual fact, it does not really matter who is chairman, especially of the ruling party.”

Abubakar Haruna, a political observer, said the APC chairman lacks much political experience compared to other chairmen of PDP and ADC, explaining that much is expected of him to lead the party successfully.

He said “In terms of leadership pedigree, David Mark stands out among the chairmen of the three major parties. A veteran politician, he brings a wealth of experience and deep understanding of political intrigues. In contrast, Nentawe is relatively new to party politics. Aside from a recent appointment as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, he has not held any major political office. Despite his academic credentials, he may lack the practical experience to steer the party through what is likely to be one of the most competitive elections in recent history.”

Haruna, however, noted that despite the challenge of experience that the APC chairman faces, “with strong backing from party elders and the president himself, Nentawe could still rise to the occasion. His first major test will be the upcoming Osun State governorship election”.

What powers do party chairmen have?

Many political analysts hold the view that the persona and principles of a national chairman of a party can either contribute to the growth or failure of a party.

An APC member who does not want to be named said a party’s national chairman is the one that members go to and is the one the state chapters relate with first before even the president.

“If the party chairman is known to tolerate indiscipline or is easily enticed, that can hinder the growth of the party,” he said.

He recalled that when the ANPP found itself in quandary in 2002, it set up a caretaker committee headed by Attahiru Bafarawa and Ali Modu Sheriff, then governors of Sokoto and Borno states respectively, saying the two men did a great job as they held the party together and resuscitated it to serve as a platform for members to contest elections.

Recall that in 2014, when Alhaji Bamanga Tukur was chairman of the PDP, he made a commitment to return the party to its deserved position as supreme in running the affairs of the party.

Tukur, who was speaking from a position of knowledge as he was a prominent member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had witnessed what was practiced in the 2nd Republic when Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye was the national chairman of the NPN and was said to preside over meetings even when the president of the country, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who was elected on the platform of the party was in attendance.

Politicians of that era recall that then, there was no position as party leader as it was the national chairman that dictated the pace and tempo in which the party operated.

The national chairmanship of the parties was so important that the founders were reluctant to relinquish the position to others, taking up positions as national chairmen of the party as well as presidential candidates as was the case with the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN); the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP); led by Malam Aminu kano and the Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP); led by Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim.

But all that changed with the coming of the current dispensation when the president and governors took over the affairs of party, determining its pace and tempo.

Due to the manner, they are appointed, the chairmen are hardly allowed to act independently. Knowing they owe their appointments to the president, (in the case of a ruling party), who could in the same manner he brought them to office, sack them, they end up doing his biddings.

Analysts say the position was further weakened when the national chairmen surrendered to the president and governors because they were funding the parties.

Bamanga Tukur who tried to relive the NPN days got into trouble with the governors, who insisted on his removal as party chairman apparently because he was calling their bluff.

Our correspondent recalled how Tukur suspended then governor of Sokoto State, Aliu Magatakarda Wamakko, to enforce the principle of party supremacy.

Analysts say, now, presidents prefer persons they can control to be national chairmen of their parties.

One of them said that was why former president Olusegun Obasanjo did not support Sunday Awoniyi and why he later fell out with Barnabas Gemade and Audu Ogbe.

Tinubu seems to be toeing the Obasanjo path, making him the first president to have three national chairmen within a spate of less than two and half years.

When the APC was formed, its leaders probably wanted to shield the party from undue interference by governors by choosing those with equal pedigree, mainly former governors to be party chairmen.

The appointment of Nentawe is a departure from this tradition.