In politics and indeed in life, the time tested saying that one good turn should deserve another holds true. It is therefore only fair to expect that politicians who have staked their all to birth a government under the auspices or an umbrella of a political party should also expect in return reward for their investments of resources, time and energy to win election for such a party.
However, there cannot be a greater danger to the future of a political party than a scenario where those who have invested in the growth of the party end up receiving the shorter end of the stick when the party succeeds at the polls. This won’t augur well for the party in the main and in future.
This ugly scenario is what is currently playing out in the Rivers State All progressive Congress (APC). For a political party that had played the opposition to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party Party (PDP) in the state and at the centre, until the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, and President Bola Tinubu in 2023, the inexplicable romance between the former Governor of Rivers State and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, is a union that requires critical analysis, fairness and objectivity if President Tinubu is not intent in rewarding Wike for whatever role he may have played to the success of the party at the last election to the detriment of the party members in the state who remain the real structure of the party in the state.
Some members of the party in the state hve tackled the President over what they considered as neglect and rejection.
According to a chieftain of the party in Rivers State who wants to remain anonymous, the APC Constitution in Article 9 places compelling obligation for appointment of members of the party over and above other political considerations.
He said, “The President is experienced enough in politics to understand that he has embarked on a journey in Rivers State that offends God, public morality and good conscience as it stands. I’m not going to school his handlers on what the APC Constitution says in Article 9 on the compelling duty or obligation to appoint members of the party over and above other political considerations. If any member of the APC should know that appointing non-APC members into a cabinet formed by the APC is an anti-party indulgence.
The President who has been our National Leader and one-time chairman of the APC Board of Trustees, should be the first on the list.
However, if President Tinubu or his close aides have forgotten, the President is in a position to exercise caution and, in fact, restraint as he is the hand behind the emergence of Dr. Muiz Banire (SAN) and Babatunde Ogala (SAN) as National Legal Advisers of the APC. No other leader of our great party enjoys that privilege. So there can be no excuse for ignorance of the provisions of the party’s Constitution from that quarters.
Against that backdrop therefore, let the President come to the realization as stated by a former American President that everything rises and falls with his leadership in the circumstance and effecting corrections to the manifest errors of judgment over Rivers State.
Responding to a question as to the reason Wike must have been appointed, he said, “You know the proverb of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it? Someone, somewhere who is not comfortable with the composition or constitution of the APC in a Southern State as Rivers for some inexplicable reasons is behind the plot to have our efforts and sacrifices mortified.
The leadership of the APC, including President Tinubu and former President Buhari, watched the APC implode in Rivers State en route to the 2019 elections. Internal wrangling and disagreements are not peculiar to our state chapter and therefore cannot be an alibi for watching the roof collapse on our heads with the exclusion of our candidates from the 2019 ballot by the Judiciary.
“What formula in the science of precision that mathematics is, can account for the palpable decline in the figures declared for winners of the presidential election in Rivers State in the three election cycles I have identified? How can a candidate backed by Wike seating as Governor garner far less votes than candidates who had no such unity of votes in the demographics I have identified?
Also in a related development, Rivers APC youths are disenchanted with President Tinubu for neglecting the party despite all they endured in the hands of the ruling PDP in the state.
On Monday, September 4, 2023, a group of concerned Youths of Rivers State APC, took to the streets, protesting over what they called total dismay, shock and a deep sense of abandonment at the continued neglect of members of the APC in Rivers State; most especially the younger generation.
In an open letter made available to journalists, the youths expressed regret over the appointment of non-party members by President Tinubu, stressing that it amounts to rewarding people who used everything within their reach to fight APC’s growth in Rivers State.
The open letter, signed by the concerned youth party members from across the 23 local government areas of Rivers State, went further to enumerate the sad situations that had befallen members of the party since 2015 and particularly during the last general elections.