The recent All Progressives Congress (APC) ward and council congresses across the 255 wards in the 23 local government areas of Kaduna state seem to have further affirmed the firm control of Governor Nasir el-Rufai over party structures in the state, in addition to estranging the other APC factional leaders in the state. ABDULRAHEEM AODU reports that the congress may have implications for the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.
APC factionalised in Kaduna
It is an irrefutable fact that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is factionalised in Kaduna state with Governor Nasir el-Rufai leading a faction, which includes most of the House of Representatives members from the state, the State Assembly members and state APC executive members. From their dealings with the party national leadership, it seems safe to say that the governor’s faction is recognised by the national headquarters.
Serving Senators Suleiman Hunkuyi (representing Kaduna North senatorial zone) and Shehu Sani (representing Kaduna Central senatorial zone), who are both currently suspended by the party along with some of their supporters, are however, members of APC Restoration and the APC Akida factions. They too have reasonable support of some other leaders of the party.
The split in the party has had adverse effect on the APC: it disallowed unity of purpose as the Governor and the Senators are often working at cross purposes on issues germane to the state, which ordinarily requires focused and united effort to succeed. A case in point is the foreign loan request to the National Assembly but which suffered rejection because the serving senators ensured it did not sail through. In essence, the rancour within the ranks of the APC has not bode well for the growth and development of the state and may spell danger for the party’s aspiration to retain its stronghold on the state come 2019.
The APC ward congress, used to elect new party leaders at the ward level, was seen as another opportunity for the warring factions in Kaduna state to sheath their sword and form a united front essential to strengthen the party structures from the grassroots to the larger state level and thus make the party difficult to beat by the oppositions in the general elections. Sadly, instead, the ward congress failed to achieve that unity.
The controversies
The congresses were scheduled for Saturday May 5th, 2018 across the 255 political wards in the 23 local government areas in the state. While Governor el-Rufai affirmed that the congress held across the state, the two serving senators disagreed with him stressing that there was no ward and council congresses anywhere in the state.
However, elected ward leaders emerged through a consensus vote by the members, who endorsed all the new executive committee members through affirmation.
Blueprint Weekend noted that while there were no actual congresses in the primary schools in the various wards where the elections were supposed to be held or in the various APC offices, across the state, there were consensus voting and affirmations in the state to bring in new ward leaders for the APC in the state.
