By Dennis Aghanya
It will be unfair for any one not to recognise President Muhammadu Buhari as the leader of the All Peoples Congress (APC).
Responding to questions on ChannelsTV’s Sunrise Daily, APC National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed had stated that Buhari is not the leader of APC and that the party has many leaders.
In his words: ‘The President is a product of the party and there are many leaders of the party”.
Usually, from my knowledge as a party leader, one time member of the National Working Committee of the defunct CPC (National Publicity Secretary of the party), I am aware that if the president of the country emerges from a political party he automatically assumes the position of the leadership of the party.
The Masari APC Merger Committee Report recommended that all the sitting governors should automatically become the leaders of APC in their various states. This infuriated Malam Shekaru, the former Governor of Kano State and Chairman, ANPP Merger Committee and he defected to the PDP because his rival, who was then Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso became the leader of the party in Kano.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
I may also recall that Sen. Ahmed Bola Tinubu confessed to us at the Arewa Suites, Abuja, when he held meeting with our then CPC faction that the entire quarrel should be put to rest so that he could secure the attention of PMB for the merger because his (PMB) involvement in the merger was the only requirement to give the entire exercise legitimacy.
PMB had earlier secured an average of 12.5 million votes each at the previous elections on the platform of the ANPP and CPC respectively before he contested under the APC merger arrangement that brought him to power. Comparing his earlier performance in 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections with the 2015 election, the difference was not more than three million votes which clearly show that the effect of the merger of the three political parties was minimal on the outcome of the election.
However, no analysis can take away the fact that Buhari’s achievements in the last election was as a result the merger which was made possible by all the personalities involved, especially Tinubu.
But for Lai Mohammed, out of genuine ignorance to refer to any other person outside PMB as the leader of APC would be unfair to Mr. President. Managing success is usually more difficult than achieving it. All hands should rather be on deck now, especially when the task ahead is much.
*Aghanya was pioneer national publicity secretary of the defunct CPC
