•How guber, senatorial contests are affecting unity of ruling party

The push for consensus options in determination of governorship and senatorial candidates has started taking its toll on the peace and unity of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), investigations by the Nigerian Tribune have revealed.

No fewer than 10 state chapters of the party are boiling, with sources confirming that the consensus option is the source of the tension.

Investigations revealed that tense moments have started pervading operations of the ruling party in Bauchi, Nasarawa, Adamawa, Gombe, Oyo, Delta, Rivers, Benue, Bayelsa and Kano.

It was gathered that the push for consensus is causing huge divisions in the mentioned states and many others, where disagreements are still being kept under wraps.

Oyo

The entry of the Minister of Power, Bayo Adelabu, into the 2027 gubernatorial race might have effectively consigned the push for consensus to the dustbin of history, sources said.

It was learnt that while a section of the APC in the state is backing the emergence of Senator Sharafadeen Alli as the governorship candidate, the likes of Senator Teslim Folarin, the party’s candidate in the 2023 election and Adelabu, who defected to the Accord Party after losing the primaries to Folarin in 2023, are still hovering around.

A source stated that the duo, alongside other aspirants, have continued to insist that President Bola Tinubu has yet to endorse any candidate for Oyo governorship and that direct primaries might be the way out.

Some sources said that the Folarin camp is unhappy with the entrance of Alli into the race, as they believed his entry amounts to a betrayal of trust somehow, since Folarin deliberately propped Alli up for Oyo South senatorial seat in 2023.

Adelabu, who also dropped his resignation letter and claimed that it would take effect on April 30, had at one time laid claim to Tinubu’s famous line – Emilokan – declaring that he should be the next guber candidate of the Pacesetter State.

Though Folarin has been largely silent, his supporters believed that he carried the party’s banner aloft in 2023, and was able to poll 256,685 votes, amounting to 28.86 percent, despite a lack of support of his party’s apparatus. They also believed that the former Senate leader could do better if all hands are on deck to back him in 2027.

Folarin’s supporters have juxtaposed the performance of their principal with that of Adelabu, who flew the Accord Party’s flag in the same 2023 election, winning a paltry 38,357 (4.31%) votes compared to Folarin’s 256,685 (28.86%) votes, and that of Seyi Makinde, who won his second term with 563,756 votes (63.37%).

It has, however, been gathered that except President Tinubu directly intervenes in the Oyo matter, direct primaries would be the last resort.

Nasarawa

Though Governor Abdullahi Sule has announced Senator Aliyu Wadada as his preferred successor in 2027, the dust raised by the choice is yet to simmer down. Sources in the APC in the state have stated that among the aspirants who have raised the alarm and rejected the governor’s announcement is former Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu. Adamu was said to have told newsmen recently that he prefers a direct primary because the aspirants in the state would not agree to comsensus. He also said that some leaders of the APC in the state are trying to sneak in the idea of zoning, which he said has not been in operation in the state.

Things stand in the state, it was gathered that stakeholders are already warming up for direct primaries, where the governor’s choice would slug it out with other contestants.

The resolve in Nasarawa, according to sources, has been helped by the declaration of the party’s national chairman, Professor Nenwe Yilwatda, that every contestant must agree before a consensus candidate is announced.

Kano

Investigations revealed that the quest for control of Kano politics is becoming dicey, even though there is an agreement on the choice of Governor Kabir Yusuf as the candidate in 2027.

The choice of the deputy governor is said to be the source of the current rift.

It was gathered that while the camp of former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje produced the new deputy governor, the camp of the deputy Senate president Jibril Barau, is unhappy over the choice and the fact that Ganduje’s team appears to be dominating the party system in the state. It was also gathered that the allocation of some House of Representatives’ seats among the different caucuses is creating ripples, which a source said could create an opening for the Kwankwasiyya Movement to exploit if nothing is done to assuage the frayed nerves.

Benue

The rift between Governor Hyacinth Alia and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, is threatening the peace of Benue as the two camps have been at each other’s necks in recent years.

Sources said that President Tinubu would have to fully intervene in the simmering godfather/godson feud to prevent things from snowballing into further confrontations.

Delta

The defection of Governor Sheriff Oborovwhori to the ruling APC has become a source of tension in some constituencies in the state, sources have said.

With his entry into the APC, the senatorial ambition of Senator Ned Nwoko is being threatened, as his predecessor and godfather, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, is said to be interested in returning to the Senate through the same Delta North Constituency, which Nwoko currently represents. Aside from the contention over Nwoko’s seat, there is also the issue of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the former deputy Senate president who had carried the banner of the APC in the 2023 election. Before the governor’s defection, Omo-Agege was hoping to remain the party’s leader, but the entry of Okowa, the governor and the PDP hierarchy has changed all that.

Except Omo-Agege and his camp are well settled in the party, it was learnt it might run into further crisis ahead of the 2027 election.

Rivers

One other hot spot for the APC is Rivers State, which sources have described as the test case of them all. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, is partially in control of the structure of the APC in the state, while he also controls the settings within the PDP. it was learnt that Wike’s loyalists are not at home with the choice of Governor Sim Fubara for second term in office and that they would rather want him replaced.

Sources said that Wike’s body language has also not really favoured Fubara. But it was learnt that some governors under the aegis of Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) have impressed it on President Tinubu that Fubara cannot be treated differently and that he should be allowed to enjoy the privileges being extended to all other APC governors. A source said that the intervention of President Tinubu would also be needed in the state to keep things in shape. (Nigerian Tribune)