More than 40 million eligible voters on the roll of a political party is no mean feat. This can only happen by a dint of hard work.
Thus, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party at the federal level and most of the federation, prides itself as Africa’s largest political movement. That is a priceless asset any party could flaunt and shout out from the rooftop. It is to be guarded jealously.
Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state, who is the immediate past chairman, APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, released this chest beating figure to the public while receiving the Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Chi Tun Chon Hu, at the APC national secretariat in Abuja recently.
Can it be said, in all honesty, that every stakeholder in a mass political organisation as the APC works in tandem protecting the party’s interest?
I doubt it because, so far, the politics being played by Comrade Salihu Mustapha, the North-east National Vice Chairman of the APC who hails from Adamawa state, is allegedly doing more harm than good to the party in his home state. In Adamawa state, he is dreaded as having the full backing of the presidency power brokers, also called Aso Rock Villa cabal by the media.
This power connection might have been overrated or exaggerated with the sole purpose to make everyone kowtow to him and do his bidding. With his overbearing influence and name dropping, aspirants are now expected to queue up before him to be “anointed” as the Aso Rock favourite.
An unconfirmed source alleged that the current under-the-table price of the so-called anointing for the office of governor is $15 million. It remains to be seen how many aspirants can afford such a stupendous sum besides the official nomination fee.
The overall effect of all this cash-and-carry game on the President Muhammadu Buhari’s dream of free and fair primaries is the gradual erosion of the aforementioned gain of the APC at its last registration and validation exercise. After the woeful loss of Adamawa to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), one expects every hand in the opposition APC to be on the deck to fix the party for winning the crucial 2023 general elections. This fixing is needed more like yesterday because the opposition has been in disarray since the buildup to 2019. And so it has remained. So, the North-east vice chairman should be building rather than destroying as is the case presently.
I implore the APC national secretariat in Abuja to use their good offices to restrain Comrade Mustapha now before it is too late; he would kill the party before the general elections.
Human memory is so short that nothing is learnt from history. In the buildup to the APC national convention, Comrade Mustapha was literally an orphan until a politician from Adamawa stood for him and he received the all-important endorsement that earned the national post he occupies. Many politicians who knew his backstabbing tendencies and antecedents had deserted him to his fate. Now, he is back to his game. To those who helped, “I told you so” is the refrain they are getting.
Well meaning stakeholders had thought Mustapha would galvanise human and material resources and work assiduously to actualise the all-important unity of the APC in Adamawa and Taraba and the the entire North-east APC. The party lost 2019 for lack of unity.
I am constrained to use this medium to call on Comrade Mustapha to retrace his steps before it is too late. Also, we urge President Buhari, and APC National Chairman Abdullahi Adamu not to turn a blind eye on him in order to gain power in Adamawa and Taraba states. Not so means APC will be history in these two states in 2023.
Kwacham, APC staunch loyalist and senatorial aspirant, writes from Yola, Adamawa state
