Ahead of the 2027 General Election, the All-Progressives Congress (APC) appears to have launched multiple attacks on the opposition parties in order to weaken them and boost its chances of coming back. ONWUKA NZESHI reports
Barely one year and a half into President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s first term in office, indications have emerged that he and his party the All Progressives Congress (APC) are already warming up for a second term.
Apart from the victories the APC recorded in the recent governorship elections in Ondo and Edo States, the ruling party at the national level u has declared its intention to overrun the People’s Democratic Party (PDP,) in Osun and Oyo states when the next round of elections come up in both states. The PDP is the ruling party in these two states of the South West, a region the APC sees as its base and stronghold.
The plot by the ruling party to weaken the opposition parties and render them impotent began long before now. Soon after the 2023 General Elections were concluded and President Bola Tinubu sworn into office, the ruling party launched a programme of infiltration in which it recruited and planted moles in these opposition parties. The job of these persons was to surreptitiously cause confusion in their parties and set the stage for internal wrangling, disharmony and destabilisation of these political platforms.
President Tinubu knew full well that he won the election but with minority votes. According to the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) , Tinubu of the APC polled 8,794,726 votes to win the 2023 presidential election. Interestingly, his closest rivals namely Atiku Abubakar of the PDP polled 6,984,520 votes; Peter Obi of LP scored 6,101,533 votes and Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP garnered 1,496,687 votes. The implication of these results is that majority of Nigerians, about 15 million persons, who voted in that election preferred the other parties and not the APC.
As if that was not enough, the LP sprang an unprecedented surprise when it trounced the APC in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital and Lagos, the home base of the APC candidate in the election. The reality was that even when the APC won, the party knew it was a hard-won victory that could slip off if it went to sleep.
Leadership challenge
While the results were still being challenged at the courts, a certain Lamidi Apapa who was the Deputy National Chairman (South) in the Labour Party went to court to challenge the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. Apparently acting the script of his paymasters in the ruling. party, Apapa made frantic efforts to instigate a leadership crisis in the LP to destabilise it and distract it from concentrating on the election dispute.
At some point, the situation got so messy that Nigerians were beginning to ask questions about the leadership of the LP under Abure and whether it had the legal authority to had admitted Peter Obi at the time it did let alone make him the presidential candidate for the disputed 2023 presidential election.
The wild card
The appointment of the former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory was another wild card that the APC threw into the power game. It is a known fact that the refusal of Wike and his G5 rebels to support Atiku Abubakar as the Presidential candidate of the PDP dealt a heavy blow on the party. Wike compounded the problem of his party when he helped the APC to sweep the polls in Rivers State during the presidential election.
The appointment extended to him by the Tinubu administration was and still is a personal reward for a job well done. It is also an appointment with a strategic futuristic intent. At the moment, Wike stands astride the APC and PDP, two powerful but opposing forces in the political firmament of the country. He is doing a yeoman’s job to win the hearts and minds of FCT indigenes and other residents and turn the same towards the APC. He is practically on retainership with the APC and one does not need a soothsayer to tell one the role he is likely to play in 2027.
Demystifying Kwankwasiya
The plot to keep the opposition busy fighting internal wars was also extended to the doorsteps of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP). Although the party was the least within the ranks of the key opposition parties, its dominance of Kano politics during the 2023 presidential polls gave the APC goose pimples. The APC was somewhat impressed with the refusal of Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of NNPP to challenge the results of the election in court. like the others but Kano, being a. major vote bank in North West was too strategic for APC to ignore. The leadership dispute that engulfed the party after the election may not be unconnected with the plot by the APC to also destabilise the NNPP in order to weaken the party and its grip on Kano before 2027
Defection
Perhaps, one of the strongest indicators that the APC might have something up its sleeves is the recent defection of members of the opposition to the ruling party.
About a forthright ago, four members of the Labour Party (LP) and a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives, dumped their parties for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaker of the House, Abbas Tajudeen, announced the defections of the lawmakers through letters he read upon resumption of plenary.
The LP lawmakers that defected to APC include Tochukwu Chinedu Okere (Imo), Donatus Matthew (Kaduna), Akiba Bassey (Cross River) and Esosa Iyawe (Edo).
Similarly, a member of the PDP and daughter of former governor of Delta State, Erhiatake Ibori-Suenu, announced her defection to the APC
A week after that DEFECTION, another member of the Labour Party (LP) in the House of Representatives, Hon. Dalyop Chollom representing Barkin Ladi/Riyom Federal constituency of Plateau State defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
As in the previous case, his defection was announced by the Speaker, Abbas Tajuddeen which was conveyed through a letter read on the floor of the Housebduring plenary.
Announcing the defection, the Speaker quoted the lawmaker saying that he defected from the LP to the APC after deep reflection and as a result of the crisis rocking the party in the country.
He said that the political future of his constituents is sacrosanct and believed that he would serve his people better in the ruling party.
However, the House Minority Leader, Hon Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) raised a Point of Order and quoted Section 68 (1) (d) of the Constitution and called the defection a nullity.
Chinfa prayed that the House rejects the letter of defection sent by the lawmaker.
“We cannot continue to put the cart before the horse. That letter you read was not right,” Chinfa told the Speaker.
According to Chinfa, the lawmaker should have provided evidence of his resignation from the party, but the Speaker said he had seen everything and was satisfied with what the lawmaker presented.
Chinda said if the Speaker is satisfied, then he should follow what the Constitution stated about the seat of a lawmaker who defected from his party and moved to another party.
However, the Speaker said he had gone through what the lawmaker presented and ruled the Minority Leader out of order.
Similarly, Hon. George Ozodinobi (Anambra, LP) said the defection was disheartening because the LP had no crisis of any form. In July, Ezenwa Onyewuchi, a LP Senator defected to the APC.
In October, Chris Nkwonta and Sulaiman Abubakar left the PDP for the ruling party. No doubt, this gale of defections could be the harbinger of more movements from. the opposition parties to the ruling party ahead of 3027.
