A new challenge appears to be looming in the horizon for the fledgling All Peoples Congress (APC) as there are fears within the yet-to-be-registered party that the expected decampment of serving governors elected under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could lead to a new power struggle in APC.
The APC hierarchy is expecting 23 governors from the ruling party to join its rank as soon as its registration as a political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is achieved.
However, an APC source who spoke to Sunday Tribune in Abuja on the condition of anonymity, feared that if this happens, the decamping PDP governors would outnumber the founding governors of the APC and were likely to have greater influence in the running of its affairs.
The source said that coming from the PDP, the incoming governors were also likely to stick together which could lead them to think along a line different from the original members of the APC.
“That is why we believe that great care must be taken in accepting the PDP governors whose mission is yet to be clearly defined,” the source volunteered.
Another source who was apprehensive that the APC would face numerous challenges on its way to becoming a political party, said: “let me add to it that even if they scale through the difficulties they currently face, they will have to deal with a couple of other issues.”
This, according to the source, includes how to change the constituent parties including the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) from there regional mentality to a national outlook like the PDP.
The source also observed that while the governors from the regional parties would always be willing to negotiate, the breakaway PDP governors might not be amenable to negotiation.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) is hoping to cash in on the expected exodus of governors from the PDP to reposition itself within what they see as “the new PDP.”
A top member of the PDM confided in Sunday Tribune in Abuja on Saturday that it was quietly working on a new direction for the movement formed by the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.
According to the PDM source, “there is an internal debate on whether PDM should become a party or remain a movement spurred on by their strength and number but the general consensus seems to point towards a further consolidation of the movement and an affinity with the new PDP, unless it rejects them.”
The source remarked that PDM, which it said boasts of the membership of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Tony Anenih, had already turned itself into a third force in the political scheme of things as its members were scattered among the major political parties in the country.
“The only reason why it has been reactivated is because the members, though inside the PDP, feel isolated, at least, at the state level. This links directly with the governors and here is where PDP under Jonathan and the new PDM can find synergy. They both need weaker governors.
“Wherever they decide to go, their impact will be felt. Apart from PDP, nobody has a national structure in every ward and LGA in the country except PDM. Atiku (Abubakar) would be better off working with PDP than APC because the Northern governors will not be trustworthy and (Bola) Tinubu who was said to have done a deal in 2007 and 20111 may do one in 2015.”
In what appeared to be an approval of the ongoing effort to instill discipline in the PDP, the PDM source was of the view that the present crisis in the party might eventually work out in favour of President Goodluck Jonathan.
It posited: “PDP needs to define its friends and identify its enemies. The Governor’s Forum debacle may not have been bad for Jonathan after all. Now he knows who he can trust, who can deliver and who will fight him till the end.
Source: Tribune
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