Vanguardngr: That Ikimi’s revelation

THE only way Nigerian politics can be cleansed and
developed is when its ugly sides are revealed and those who
adulterate it are exposed and punished. Very often, that
exposure is done in a dog-eat-dog manner.
That was what former Foreign Affairs Minister and, until
recently, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
Chief Tom Ikimi, did in a statement announcing his
resignation from the party. Call him a turncoat, renegade or
whatever you like, Ikimi’s statement about the APC and its
National Leader, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, confirms the
conventional saying that the truth will always surface, no
matter how long it is suppressed.
Ikimi’s resignation is, no doubt, one of the worst disasters
suffered by the APC since its emergence in February, 2013,
as a conglomerate of parties with disparate and
uncoordinated mandates. Ikimi was one of the key
personalities that fashioned out the vision, mission and
structure of the new party. He was passionate in joining
other leaders of the party in announcing to Nigerians the
dawn of a new political era.
The APC celebrated the merger with so much hype and
fanfare that some of its members started to feel that the
party had already taken over power from the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) at the federal level. It was an
illusion or what psychologists call collective self-delusion
which almost beclouded every sense of reality.
That false impression was strengthened by certain political
events: the defection to the APC of five aggrieved PDP
governors and 37 members of the House of Representatives
and threat by 12 senators to follow suit. Overnight, the
Opposition thought that it had dislodged the ruling party so
much so that the House Minority Leader, Femi
Gbajabiamila, referred to the Deputy Majority counterpart,
Leo Ogor of the PDP, as Deputy Minority Leader.
Read Ikimi’s statement very well and what you find is a long
list of political lapses, heaps of filth and deception, lying
beneath the outward glamour of the APC. Nearly all the
scandalous ills of the party, according to him, are
manifested in the person of its self-acclaimed National
Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Ikimi’s reason for leaving the
APC was that he could no longer remain in a party that
operates under the veil of illusion, and where internal
democracy is non-existent.
To demonstrate the lack of internal democracy within the
APC and Tinubu’s domineering influence and authoritarian
tendencies, Ikimi cites the imposition of weak leadership on
the party at various times. These were the tendencies that
led to the exit from the Party of notable Northern politicians
such as former Governors Ibrahim Shekarau, Attahiru
Bafarawa, former military Governor of Lagos and Borno
States, Brig-Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd.) and many others.
Ikimi’s objection to the Leadership style of Tinubu is mainly
against his tendency to behave as if the ownership of the
APC belongs to him, thereby treating all other members as
mere joiners. Ikimi is absolutely right. Contrast this with the
PDP where no single individual is seen as the founder or
owner of the party and where internal democracy is
practised, as amply demonstrated recently in the jostling for
the party’s gubernatorial ticket and screening for the
primaries in Adamawa State.
The Acting Governor of the State, Alhaji Ahmadu Umar
Fintiri, who was disqualified by the party’s Screening Panel,
headed by former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu,
subsequently got clearance as an aspirant from the Appeal’s
Panel, headed by Senator James Manager. Such is the
beauty of democracy!
One of Tinubu’s illusions, which according to Ikimi, has
become an obsession, is his arrogant claim that he is in
control of Southwest votes and that a combination of the
votes from that Zone and those of the North-West would be
sufficient for the APC to win the Presidential election in
2015. For donating votes from the Southwest, Tinubu thinks
that he deserves a position in a Muslim-Muslim Presidential
and Vice-Presidential ticket. His calculation is based on yet
another arrogant belief that he could manipulate the
governors under the party as well as prominent Northern
politicians such as Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and
others, to take over total control of the party structure.
From Ikimi’s statement, Tinubu is a master of intrigues and a
serial manipulator who, in a cult-like manner, secretly plots
“the affairs of the APC from his private parlour in the
Asokoro District of Abuja.”
The truth, according to Ikimi, is that his so-called status of
National Leader of the party is a “fictitious throne” because
he was never really elected or chosen by the party to occupy
that position. Proclaiming himself National Leader, we are
told, was one of his manipulations, just like he did for the
position of National Chairman, which he wanted for his
kinsman, Bisi Akande, but had to settle for the second choice
of John Odigie-Oyegun, whom he also has in his pocket.
In all, Ikimi’s statement is a catalogue of assorted acts of
intrigue, manoeuvre and deceit by one man, for nothing but
power. The consequence is that the fortunes of the APC have
been plummeting, with the party witnessing an unending
gale of defections to the PDP. More disastrously, even the
States currently under APC control are now being
threatened.
The ugly situation in the APC has existed for so long because
the party lacks internal democracy. And it lacks internal
democracy because there are not many members with the
courage of Tom Ikimi to speak out.
Also, in a culture of poverty such as ours, the lure of money
or any other material offer is difficult to resist. Yes, there are
Nigerians able to say “to hell with Tinubu’s massive wealth”,
but for many, “money has no colour”, and they are prepared
to play ball, even when induced by the devil.
Ikimi must be regretting his error in falling prey to Tinubu’s
trap. It, certainly, wasn’t for any material gains because he,
too, is a man of means, although maybe not at the same
level as Tinubu.
The former Minister must also be regretting for not acting
much earlier. Again, it is better late than never. The
message in Ikimi’s statement is that even in politics, integrity
matters.
A party that claims to be the alternative to the Government
of the day cannot afford to be led by people bereft of
honour and integrity. Well done, Chief Tom Ikimi!
John Ainofenokhai, a public affairs analyst, wrote from
Benin City, Edo State.