Erstwhile Special Adviser to then president, Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, has stated that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has finally crashed on the rocks, adding that the implosion began almost after the party was voted into power in 2015, as almost immediately, there were issues over the choice of the leaders of the National Assembly.
In an article published on Tuesday, he pointed out that it took the APC government about six months to constitute a cabinet, and almost two years to make some other critical appointments, stressing that members of the coalition struggled for space, influence and power among themselves.
Abati noted that there was the domination of the levers of government by the defunct CPC bloc and President Muhammadu Buhari loyalists such that non-Fulani members of the APC “soon began to sound as if they had been attacked by a band of imported herdsmen”.
The article read in part, “In less than three years, some of the bitterest criticisms of the party have come not from the opposition but from within the party itself: Timi Frank perpetually complaining about party processes, Shehu Sani and other Senators from Kaduna State at loggerheads with their State Governor, personality conflicts in virtually every state, most notably in Adamawa, Imo, Kano, Rivers and Lagos state, Governor Ortom of Benue openly accusing the Federal Government of negligence, Governor El-Rufai, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Senator Shehu Sani at various times sounding notes of warning, Senator Dino Melaye assuming the role of an in-house critic, and members of the ACN and the nPDP alleging that they have been used and dumped. The APC wing of the National Assembly is divided among its ranks, and has posed more threat to the Executive arm of government than the opposition.”
“The extent of this implosion became more evident during the party’s recent state congresses. Parallel congresses were held in more than 10 states, there were reports of boycotts, violence and general confusion. Given the tone and nature of the conflict, it seems obvious that the APC is a victim of its own lack of three things – internal democracy, originality and sincerity of purpose.”
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