The stage is set for a showdown at the National Executive
Committee, NEC, meeting of All Progressives Congress, APC, today, as party
elders seek to bridge a widening gulf between major stakeholders in the
party.At issue is the future direction of the opposition party which has seen a
new power bloc aiming to reshape its culture and power configurations. Today’s
meeting, It was learnt, is expected to be very stormy given the high stakes
involved as the zoning of the incoming national executive is expected to be
decided.Meanwhile, APC has raised alarm over what it claimed, yesterday, as an
orchestrated harassment and intimidation of its members in Bayelsa State. The
party said that the pressure against its members in Bayelsa was apparently
aimed at ensuring that the party does not get a foothold in the home state of
President Goodluck Jonathan.Though today’s NEC meeting has been called to
deliberate on issues arising from the recently concluded congresses in some
states, party insiders were yesterday apprehensive that unfinished issues
arising from last Tuesday’s national caucus would cast a shadow on the
meeting.At that meeting, the national Vice-Chairman, South-South, Chief Tom
Ikimi and the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu reportedly
exchanged hot words arising from a secret memo authored by Ikimi over his
concerns about the party.That memo, which was published had raised concerns over the bleeding of the party in
some states and Ikimi’s Edo State upon the grievances that followed the party
congresses.Of special interest to party followers at today’s meeting would be
the unresolved issue of the congresses in Ogun State where two parallel
executives loyal to a national leader of the party, Aremo Segun Osoba and
Governor Ibikunle Amosun, respectively, were thrown up.The party has also been
under pressure in Edo, Delta and some other northern states on account of
clashes between established interests in the party in the states. It was gathered yesterday that the NEC meeting is expected to deliberate on the zoning
of national offices of the party ahead of the national convention of the
party.A new power bloc within the party championed by the party’s governors,
It was learnt, had recommended that the new national chairman of the party
should come from the South-South or the South-East. That recommendation, it was
learnt, had been seriously opposed by a powerful national leader of the party,
who, it was learnt, had sought to retain the office of the national chairman in
the South-west.The party’s governors, had succeeded in
persuading the national leadership on the necessity of pushing forward a
national chairman from the South-South or the South-East.One of the reasons, it
was learnt, was to project a Christian as national chairman, a fact that would
help bury criticisms against the party as being a pro-Muslim. It would also
take deliberate efforts to ensure a balance in the religious configuration of
its national executive
Tags
Politics