Leaders and chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are worried that the party may be thrown into a fresh internal squabble as the crisis rocking the Kwara State chapter took a new turn for the worse during the week. According to very reliable party sources, the national leadership of the APC, under the caretaker chairmanship of Governor Mala Buni of Yobe State, fears that the face-off, which has now openly pitched the Kwara State governor, Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman, against the state Chairman of the party, Hon. Bashir Bolarinwa, if not halted, is capable of igniting a fresh intra-party crisis within APC.

The Nation also gathered that prominent party leaders and chieftains across the country are already calling for a prompt resolution of the festering crisis that have seen the APC in Kwara State factionalised into two. While the governor’s camp is accusing Bolarinwa and his supporters of working against Abdulrahman’s administration, the state chairman’s group insists the governor is running a self-centred administration to the exclusion of prominent party leaders and other interest groups that worked during the O to ge revolution to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and enthrone an APC government in the state.

Findings by The Nation revealed that several efforts by the Buni-led Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party since assuming office, to intervene in the crisis and restore peace in Kwara APC failed woefully as the gladiators refused to come to terms over their differences. Speaking to our correspondent on Friday in Lagos, a serving national assembly member from the state accused both the governor and Bolarinwa of allowing themselves to be influenced by what he described as external forces. “There is more to the crisis in Kwara APC. Some people outside the state are behind it all,” he alleged.

The federal legislator, who is from Kwara North, argued that unless peace is restored, the party leaders may soon find themselves to blame. He expressed disappointment that while the people are waiting for the dividends of democracy promised them, APC leaders are busy fighting. “Yet, we cannot speak openly about these things for fear of being labeled by the warring factions. Even the national leadership has tried severally to end the face-off without success. The spokesperson of the party recently mentioned states where they were able to reconcile the party. Kwara is missing in the list,” he said.

Yekini Nabena, APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, had on Tuesday, said the committee had substantially reconciled various factions in Bauchi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Zamfara, Ondo, and Oyo States. The Kwara APC crisis, rather than abate, escalated on Thursday following an attempt by the group loyal to the governor to remove Bolarinwa from office as the state chairman of the party. Party sources claimed the botched attempt was foiled by chieftains of the party loyal to the party boss as the event, a reconciliation meeting called by Abdulrazaq, ended in confusion as party members engaged in fisticuffs.

New twist

The governor, it was gathered, had invited party stalwarts to the parley at Kwara hotel. Both the governor and Hon. Bolarinwa, alongside other bigwigs of the party, were in attendance. “The event was in full swing after the governor’s appeal for unity and peace when a well-known supporter of the governor, Pastor Abel Adewunmi from Oko ward of Irepodun Local Government Area, took the microphone and started reeling out what he labeled the many sins of the state party chairman, urging the gathering to move for his suspension. He even attempted to read out a written suspension letter at the event.

“However, angry party members and chieftains at the event descended on Adewunmi and his backers, chased them from the podium and disrupted the programme. He was disposed of the letter and other anti-Bolarinwa leaflets he came to the event with. The plans were to share the leaflets, read out the suspension letter and effect a change of leadership in a very undemocratic manner right under the nose of the governor. They were all pushed out of the hall as the crowd booed the governor and his allies. He later left the place with a few of his aides and party leaders,” a party leader who was at the event, narrated.

Following the botched reconciliation parley, some APC chieftains and members went to town with claims that the state leadership has been changed. Supporters of Bolarinwa accused the governor’s camp of being behind the news, insisting that no change has been effected in Kwara APC. Reacting Bolarinwa’s media aide, Ayo Abegunde, said “there was no gathering of proper persons who have the power and rights to undertake such a venture, so any allusion to his removal can be nothing but a figment of the imagination of these news mongers. Hon. Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa remains the authentic and undisputable chairman of the APC in Kwara State and will remain so until his constitutional tenure ends.”

But the governor and his supporters have denied any hand in the attempt to sack Bolarinwa. According to sources close to the governor, the state chairman and his allies are just out to dent the image of the governor at all cost for cheap political gains. The governor even publicly announced that Bolarinwa remains the chairman of APC in Kwara State. Speaking to The Nation on Friday, a state executive committee member of the APC accused Bolarinwa and those supporting him of creating tension in the state so as to distract the governor as part of their plan to ensure that he is not re-elected in 2023.

APC vs APC

While the national leadership of the party and other stakeholders are said to be planning to wade into the festering crisis again to nip it in the bud, The Nation gathered that the APC in Kwara State continues to pitch tents behind their preferred leaders. While it was established that the Bolarinwa-led group enjoys the support of the Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the governor is not favourably disposed to the state chairman and his supporters. “This is why those in our group are exempted from appointments and other opportunities. Our offence is that we insist the governor cannot lord himself over the party,” a source claimed.

According to party sources, other APC big wigs opposed to the governor in the festering feud include former gubernatorial aspirant, Professor Abdulraheem Oba, former PDP State Chairman, Iyiola Oyedepo, majority of the state executive committee members and most local government party chairmen. But it was gathered that the governor enjoys the support of his cabinet members, a sizable number of state APC officials and some other prominent chieftains of the party. Chieftains like Barrister Kunle Sulyman, Adisa Logun, Saadu Sallahu and some others are also with the governor.

Speaking on the crisis, Kunle Sulyman, founding father of Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara State, who is now a chieftain of the ruling party, said “It’s not everything that can be said in the public but the one that is clear is that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had issues with Governor Abdulrazaq. If the two of them end their differences today, the crisis in the party would be over. Leadership struggle is the problem. When Dr. Bukola Saraki was sent away, there was a vacuum because Kwara was used to having one leader. Alhaji Lai Mohammed was the Minister and Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq was just a candidate.”

Meanwhile, young stakeholders within the party have called on leaders of the party to meet and find a lasting solution to the lingering crisis rocking the party. Speaking with The Nation, state chairman of APC Concerned Youth Forum, Hon. Bolanle Sallahu, said that the APC youths, drawn from various political camps within the party, had resolved henceforth, to stop taking sides in the ongoing crisis. “Rather, we want to challenge our leaders and elders to work harder at proffering solutions to the worrisome crisis.

“On this note, we are appealing to our fathers, uncles, mothers, aunties, brothers and sisters, who are actors in the crisis bedeviling our party, to for God’s sake, sheath their swords and observe a ceasefire. We appeal to you all to, in the name of Almighty God, and for the interest of peace, stability and development in our state: jettison every action, sentiments and statements capable of promoting crisis within the Kwara State chapter of the APC. Let our governor and our party concentrate on delivering the dividends of democracy to Kwara citizens as promised,” he said.

Claims and counterclaims

Speaking on the crisis, the State Deputy Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Abdullai Samari, exonerated the governor when he said “I want to say clearly that we in the party do not have any problem with the government or the governor. And let no one deceive the public that this is about the government against the party or the party against the governor. No. The problem is between us in the state executive council. It is not with the governor or his government. We want transparency and accountability within the party. That is all.

“As far as we are concerned, we couldn’t have asked for a better government because the governor has made a huge difference in every part of the state. In my local government (Baruten), no less than six different projects have been executed. The last one year has been so far so good. What the governor has done so far within one year has been stellar. I have heard the same stories from other local government areas. So, the governor has represented us well. He has been relating with us greatly. We were always consulted and called to make inputs on many of the things the government is doing, so we only need to support him.”

Samari said the only link the governor may have with the internal crisis was “him standing by us to call for accountability and transparency and that was after listening to all the sides from within the APC state executive council.”

But in a recent release, the Financial Secretary and Treasurer of the party, Mohammed Shola Tajudeen, and Alhaji Dantala Yaro, said the decision of the governor to support a splinter group within the state executive, led by the Deputy Chairman, Samari,  against Bolarinwa, is at the root of the crisis. “The continued hobnobbing with this group of people by the state governor and his appointees to the neglect of the state chairman has given a clear indication that not only is the governor behind the crisis in the party; he is the one fuelling it.”

The statement also accused members of the executives who have disagreement with the state chairman of creating disaffection between Bolarinwa and the governor. “Their claim that the crisis is internal is untrue to the extent that they are the protagonists who are internally motivated from the day they gave themselves up for the divisive politics and manipulation of the governor at a price. The intention of the group is very clear; they decided to pitch their tent where their bread will be best buttered,” they alleged.