Correspondent JUDE OPARA looks at the challenges before the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu , in the Presidential task to reconcile all aggrieved members of the party, and asks if the job could mean a bobby trap, since the former Governor of Lagos States is among the aggrieved stakeholders.
Many analysts have been commenting on the recent job given to the acclaimed leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reconcile all the warring factions of the party across the country by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ordinarily, this assignment would not have generated the type of interest it is at the moment, but for the fact that many political watchers still do not understand how and what informed the choice of Tinubu whom they argue even need to be reconciled with some elements in the party.
It is an open secret that immediately after the APC won the 2015 presidential election, many party bigwigs including Tinubu himself were alienated from the scheme of things.
The former Lagos State Governor, who was one of the arrow heads that made the victory of President Buhari easy was said to have not felt happy the way and manner he was treated by the presidency.
Also, last year the news was everywhere that Tinubu was pushing for the removal of the party chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, which it was gathered only took the intervention of President Buhari for Oyegun to have a reprieve.
So that equally suggests that Oyegun will not be very comfortable with Tinubu; and as if to confirm this, just last week, Tinubu had to write the President complaining that Oyegun is frustrating his reconciliation efforts.
As the chief reconciliatory of APC, Tinubu it was also gathered had secretly moved to frustrate the proposed tenure elongation by the Oyegun led NWC of the party. His secret moves however failed woefully, as the partya��s National Executive Committee (NEC) only yesterday approved a one year extension for the APC NWC, as against Tinubua��sA�plot.
The only thing one can deduce from the little scenario painted above is that Senator Tinubu also needs to be reconciled with a lot of elements in the party.
However, beyond the feelings of the Jagaban of APC, recent happenings in some of the states where the reconciliator in -chief is supposed to be taken his peace message to suggests that the path to peace in the party is a bit far off.
What happened in Kaduna State where the government demolished a building belonging to Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi is a case study.
Recall that Hunkuyi was a leader of one of the factions of the party in the state that suspended Governor Nasir El- Rufai for six months.
But barely five days after the announcement of that suspension, the State government responded with the brazen demolition of the factional party secretariat located at the heart of the state capital.
As if that was not enough, the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, also opened a factional office of the party in the state capital, Lokoja, thereby signalling the start of another factional battle in the party.
Many analysts have wondered if there is really much Tinubu could do, given the speed at which the party members are going for each othera��s throat in most states of the federation.
At the last count, there are crisis in at least 12 state chapters of the ruling APC with each of the factions claiming legitimacy. From Kaduna to Cross Rivers State, from Kogi to Rivers State, from Kano to Imo. The list continues.
There is yet another school of thought that believes that the unilateral inauguration of the Bola Tinubu reconciliation committee by President Buhari is a passive vote of no confidence on the leadership of the party, led by John Odiggie-Oyegun.
In a clime where there is that party supremacy, the setting up of the so-called reconciliation committee ought to have been done by the chairman and not the President.
Interestingly, it did not even take long after Tinubu began his reconciliation that the fear that all will not end well began to unravel,
Taking a look at the first intervention of Tinubu that the National Working Committee (NWC) should resign, one can clearly see that there may be no love lost between the two erstwhile allies.
Again, some other watchers of activities of the ruling party say the appointment may have been done to finally put Tinubu in his right place, given that it appears that the man is now in between the devil and he deep blue sea.
Look at it this way, Tinubu wants Oyegun to give way for him to succeed in his task, if that happens it will bring another round of crisis because some party stalwarts including the governors are said to be in support of the former Edo State governor.
If he eventually fails to reconcile the warring factions, it could lead to a situation where his political value will be reduced to lowest ebb.
If one recalls the leaked letter written by El-Rufai to President Buhari early in the life of the administration, warning him to be careful with a�?the Lagos group led by Tinubu who could exaggerate their contribution in order to increase its influence in the administrationa��; therefore , it could be that this seeming difficult assignment may have some other undertones.
As the party prepares for its convention, which will be coming very soon, it would be seen how they can paper the many cracks that are opening with each passing day.
