Since 2015, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has had the fortune of a life-time to have produced the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Mind you, whichever political formation that forms the central government is by that fact, a global player, following a combination of factors.

First, Nigeria is the country with the largest black population in the world, and is a continental giant in terms of its pride of place in the setting up of the then Organization of African Unity (OAU) which gave birth to the current African Union.

Nigeria remains one among the few players around the world that contributed significantly to the gaining of self-governments in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

At a time that influential world leaders, such as the United States of America and United Kingdom, saw nothing wrong in supporting white apartheid regimes and minority white rule in South Africa and Zimbabwe, Nigeria was a key liberating platform relied upon by the then black freedom fighters to wrestle political powers from the white minority regimes, just as the strides made by Nigeria and others precipitated the granting of political independence to Zimbabwe in April 1980.

Nigeria was a factor that positively shaped the emergence of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

But for systemic corruption that has kept Nigeria backwards, the country – which is enormously endowed with mineral and human resources – would have been able to surmount the groundswell of absolute poverty that afflicts nearly 90 million of her population.

The foregoing factors have, therefore, positioned Nigeria as one of the most significant places on the Planet Earth. This implies that whichever political party that forms the central government ought to be grounded ideologically and should be led by persons with proven records of integrity and credibility: That is, the type of people that would not tolerate the abuse of the fundamental and institutional tenets and laws that guide the administration of constitutional democracy, in line with global best practices.

Sad, since coming to power up until now, APC has remained a fractious bunch of unlike birds that are compelled to live together under one nest. The APC has become a nest of self-haters and a place whereby the members have engaged each other in unending intra-party crises of unprecedented scale.

The in-fighting assumed a frightening scale since the former Labour leader, Comrade Adams Oshiomohole, became the national chairman just before the last general elections. The APC under Oshiomhole can be described as a house of commotion. It would seem that the national chairman does not tolerate divergent opinions within the hierarchy and is known to have resorted to self-help measures to get at perceived rivals. His closest followers, like his publicity secretary, seems to be following his dictatorial footsteps and has built his own spheres of influence.

Oshiomhole has also fallen out with some governors, former governors and even some of his fellow national executives, to an extent that he activated and supervised the holding of kangaroo trials of such persons with independent opinions on how best to administer the ruling party. Predictably, such pre-determined but compromised trials have always led to the expulsion of officials who are unhappy with the leadership style of the national chairman. The APC is becoming a party of zombies, and anyone who tries to think rationally is looked upon as a rebel without a cause and must be dealt with summarily; even against the constitution of the party which, of necessity, has a guarantee for fair hearing: which is the major weltanschuung or worldview (larger picture) of the Nigerian Constitution.

Chief John Oyegun, former governor of Edo state and ex-national chairman of APC, has on many occasions accused the current national chairman of using sledge-hammer to deal unduly with perceived independent-minded members in a way that offends the constitution of the ruling party. Oyegun has specifically accused Oshiomhole of waging war against Godwin Obaseki, his successor as governor of Edo State, because he (Obaseki) has refused to become a rubber stamp governor.

The deputy national chairman, Malam Shuiabu, who voiced an opinion asking Oshiomhole to resign for leading the party to record massive defeats to People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the governorship polls, was axed by Oshiomhole, who deployed illegality to get even with this deputy chairman for daring to call him out.

The national chairman has watched as his national publicity scribe also descended on the national vice chairman (North), Inuwa Abdul-Kadir, SAN, and has purportedly expelled him even when the man had gone to the Sokoto State High Court to challenge the petition against him sent to the national secretariat from the Sokoto State branch. The hasty announcement of his expulsion was meant to impose a fait accompli on the court, which is already adjudicating on the same subject matter. This is, certainly, unconstitutional and, definitely, not how to administer a political party.

The issues around the purported expulsion of the vice national chairman of APC are linked to the demand for retraction of a defamation of his character, which the vice chairman of APC Malam Inuwa Abdul-Kadir sent to the national publicity secretary of APC, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu who, as we stated, has made himself a power-broker in APC by hook or crook.

Abdul-Kadir had written thus: “My attention had been drawn by several persons to statements credited to you in the course of making a rejoinder to a personal letter written by the Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu, to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (hereinafter referred to simply as the party), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.”

Abdul-Kadir submitted that in the said rejoinder – as published in various newspapers and the social media – the publicity scribe was credited with making the following statements concerning Chief John E Odigie-Oyegun, former national chairman of the party and the entire members of national working committee (NWC) of the party that served with him:

“The Adams Oshiomhole-led All Progressives Congress yesterday said the party lost some states to the Peoples Democratic Party due to the indiscipline and inaction of the national working committee (NWC) under Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. The APC national publicity secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, in an interview with journalists, said …the former NWC led by Chief Odigie-Oyegun lacked the courage to confront the political despots who could not operate by the party’s rules.”

In his thinking, Abdul-Kadir says Lanre Issa-Oniru’s statement above, no doubt, do carry the apparent implication/inference and, indeed, were understood as such by all who read them, that “all of us who were members of the national working committee with Chief John Oyegun are irresponsible persons/officers who are lacking discipline, character and pedigree to hold the offices they occupied by virtue of which were members of the NWC of the party.”

He, therefore, demanded retraction when he further affirmed that the said publication has greatly lowered his estimation in the eyes of right-thinking members of the society and brought him to underserved public contempt, ridicule and odium.

Categorically, Abdul-Kadir affirmed: “I have no doubt that the statements you made were on your own volition and deliberately done using your position as the acting national publicity secretary to give official colouration. I so hold this position because I am a member of the current national working committee (NWC) led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. I was duly elected at the national convention of the party and, interestingly, twelve of us out of the twenty-one members of the current NWC served in the Chief John Oyegun-led NWC; and I know, as a matter of fact, that at no material time did the current NWC or any organ of the party meet and consider the tenure of the Chief John Oyegun-led NWC and make conclusions as contained in your statements, either before or after your appointment as the acting national publicity secretary of the party.”

Another linked issue is the petition from Sokoto State branch of APC, which I think resulted from the defeat suffered by the party and the suspicion, which is totally unfounded, that the vice-chairman did not do much to stop his friend, Governor Tambuwal who left APC to PDP, from winning the polls. But the APC headquarters forgot that Senator Magatakarda Wammako is also a friend of Tambuwal and was indeed the man who put him in office in 2015.

The truth is that the national secretariat of APC has blundered by hurriedly and illegally announcing any form of sanction against the vice-chairman, Abdul-Kadir, who was already in court. Why the hurry? Why not wait for the due process of the law to be exhausted?

As a law-abiding Nigerian, this man illegally expelled had written to the party lamenting the illegality.

Abdul-Kadir wrote as follows: “My attention was drawn to a public statement issued by Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, acting national publicity secretary of my party, the All Progressives Congress conveying a purported decision of the national working committee upholding disciplinary actions of Magajin Gari ‘A’ ward, Sokoto and the party’s Sokoto State Executive Committee against me, knowing fully that the basis of the purported decision has been the subject matter of an action filed in suit SS/33/2019, pending at the Sokoto State High Court in which the party, national chairman, Sokoto State chairman endorsed as defendants and had entered appearances.

“He stated that it will be recalled that just last week, he made public his response to a telephone conversation in the evening of Wednesday July 3, 2019 and an invitation letter he subsequently received on Thursday July 10, 2019 with and from Otunba Niyi Adebayo, the deputy national chairman of our great party, the All Progressives Congress drawing his attention to his inability to appear before his committee on Thursday July 4 , 2019 because, at that time he was in Sokoto and on the said appointed date, the suit which he filed before the Sokoto State High Court in respect of the said petition/disciplinary action under reference was coming up and did counsel that the matter is subjudice. Therefore, the proper thing to do is to keep the matter in abeyance. This, I assumed, will be respected by the purported meeting of the NWC or even under whatever guise.

“In view of the same reason he gave earlier last week, he disclosed that he was still constrained to comment on the propriety of the purported meeting of the NWC and decision there-from. But as a professional and responsible Nigerian citizen who is a stickler for rule of law not rhetoric, he will keep his patience for justice to prevail notwithstanding that the wheel of justice grinds slowly but certainly surely.”

He continued: “I would like to assure our members nationwide and other well-wishers who knew of my leadership credentials and repose confidence in me and elected me twice as the national vice-chairman (North-west) of the party, that I will not be deterred in upholding the tenets of justice and fairness for public good either as a party executive or elsewhere.”

This, certainly, is not how to run a party. These self-inflicted infighting and disputes are unnecessary and constitute grave distraction to President Muhammadu Buhari. The President, who is the leader of APC, should play his objective fatherly role by calling the national chairman and the national publicity scribe to order.

•RIGHTSVIEW appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays, in addition to special appearances. The Columnist, a popular activist (www.huriwanigeria.com, www.emmanuelonwubiko.com), is a former Federal Commissioner of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission and presently National Coordinator of Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA).

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