Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh’s officers are drowned in the Red Sea. The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone.” Exodus 15vs 4, 5.

Suffice it to say, the above biblical quotation maybe a wakeup call to members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nigeria. However, by way of laying a foundation to this piece, let me refresh the minds of my readers to some events that played out in 2014, a year to the 2015 general elections. These events contributed largely to the defeat of the then ruling political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the polls.

On January 20, 2014 the PDP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) had approved the election of a former governor of Bauchi State, Adamu Mu’azu, as the new national chairman of the party pending the election of a new chairman. The Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, who presided over the election of Mr. Mu’azu, quoted section 47(6) of the party’s constitution which empowers the NEC to elect a new official to fill vacancy created by the resignation of an elected official. The motion for the nomination of Mr. Mu’azu was moved by the Governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda, and was seconded by Senate Leader, Ndoma Egba. The new chairman was immediately sworn in.

Mu’azu’s actions and inactions led the former ruling party (PDP) to the ‘Red Sea’ in 2015. This is where PDP has been in the past three years.

On June 23, 2018, the All Progressives Congress (APC), with a voice vote, affirmed former Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, as its new national chairman. He was the sole candidate for the position.

Like Oshiomhole, Mu’azu had supervised over a faction of his party, called nPDP. He call the bluff of mass defectors from his party to other political parties, a year to the 2015 polls. He treated the activities of the nPDP with a pinch of salt. Mu’azu, like Oshiomhole dismissed the grievances of members of the nPDP with a wave of hand. He, like Oshiomhole was always assuring and reassuring of his party’s readiness to emerge victorious at the general elections in 2015. But, when the chips were down, the PDP lost to the APC.

Today, the rest is history, as the ‘Red Sea’ has covered the PDP. And where is Ma’azu? I will leave you to fill in the blank spaces.

Like the nPDP in 2014, there is the emergence of r-APC, where 24 states had parallel congresses in APC and issues that led to these crisis have not yet been addressed by Oshiomhole.

Few days ago, 14 serving senators, 37 House of Representatives members defected from APC. While we were still discussing the situation, Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, announced his defection from the APC.

There is a report of Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, and all members of the State House of Assembly on Wednesday evening defected from APC. His Kwara State counterpart, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, today said he will defect from APC. Ahmed is expected to defect with his predecessor and current Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

In all of these, Oshiomhole, like Mu’azu said, he is not losing his sleep. Is the 2015 political history going to repeat itself in 2019? Only time will tell! As I leave you to ponder over it.

  • Franklyn Isong is a public affairs commentator

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