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Intrigue as modality for primaries tears Bayelsa APC apart

Tony Olutomiwa, Yenegoa

Recent developments in the Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have so far suggested an uneasy calm within the leadership and members of the party. Observers believe that the party is treading on a rocky road to its August 29 primaries, owing to sharp disagreements and intrigues being demonstrated by its leaders. 

At the centre of the disagreement is the rat race to pick the sole governorship ticket, a burning issue that has also turned the modality for the primary election a hot debate among party members and analysts alike.

The two major figures in the party, former governor, Timipre Sylva, and the immediate past Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, are in the eye of the storm. While Sylva and his camp are in favour of direct primary, Lokpobiri and his backers subscribe to indirect method and the debate as regards which option is better for the party and democracy continues unabated. Interestingly, this is the first time the indirect election is being advocated since the direct option had hitherto been used.

Officially, Lokpobiri has obtained his nomination form expressing his intention to contest the November 16 governorship election, Sylva is yet to do so but many believe that his participation in the contest is a foregone conclusion. As earlier reported by this newspaper, Sylva will be made a minister but will still run for governor. Feelers from his camp had said that the ministerial position was a strategic stop gap, because his major interest is to return to the seat of power, as governor of Bayelsa State.

Indication that trouble was lurking ahead of the APC primary election came to light at a recent meeting of the party leaders, including the three aspirants in the person of Sylva, Lokpobiri and Priye Aganaba. The meeting which held at the party secretariat in Yenagoa, the state capital, however, ended in a deadlock due to irreconcilable differences.

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On the one hand, some members of the State Working Committee felt the agenda should have been formally discussed by the committee as required by the party constitution before being tabled for discussion at the meeting. On the other hand, the topic presented to members at the meeting, which was meant to rubberstamp direct primary, as the mode of conducting the primaries was rejected by those loyal to Lokpobiri  but supported by Sylva backers, including the state chairman, Jotham Amos.

In spite of the inconclusiveness of the meeting, the Sylva camp has since claimed that the party had endorsed direct primary, which was rubbished by the Lokpobiri loyalists, insisting that there was no agreement to that effect.

Speaking on the development, the Director-General of the Heineken Lokpobiri Campaign Organisation, Warman Ogoriba, said: “The meeting ended in a stalemate. The party chairman ought to have met with the state working committee members to agree on the meeting and the agenda before coming to hold the stakeholders meeting. But the chairman failed to do so and our constitution provides for that.

“A number of the working committee members opposed the meeting and when he came up with the issue of the mode of primaries, it didn’t go down well with most of the stakeholders and that is the reason the meeting ended in a stalemate. No decision was taken because majority of the stakeholders felt that the chairman’s approach was wrong.”

On his part, Sylva, who is the leader of the party in the state, expressed regret over the rancor that pervaded the meeting, stating that as a family, the mode of party primaries should not have degenerated to a point where there would be insistence on a particular modality.

“This is not the way of the APC, something has crept into it. APC is a family. I have said it times without number that whoever wants to aspire can aspire and the party is to ensure that we win in November 16 election.

“We should not start insisting on proce dures. I cannot attend a meeting of party family and be insisting. Contact your people in Kogi State, nobody called them from the national body to insist on procedure. It is a simple process and should not be a rancorous meeting.”

But how simple the process could ever be was further tested days after the botched meeting of the party big wigs in Yenagoa, when the state chairman and an APC member in the state House of Assembly, Hon. Wilson Ayakpo Dauyebgha  had an embarrassing face-off at the Port Harcourt Airport. Daoyebgha, who represents Ekeremor Constituency 2, is the Minority Leader in the state assembly.

From Daoyebgha’s account of the incident, the issue was still the August 29 primary election and indeed the intrigue over who becomes APC flagbearer. He is from Ekeremor where Lokpobiri hails from and obviously his political leader.

According to the legislator, the party chairman had called him following the failed meeting in Yenagoa and had obliged leading to their meeting at the airport in Port Harcourt. While in his car, he claimed the chairman brought out a document for him to sign. He said he was almost signing the document when he decided to read the content which he discovered to be the direct primary choice issue and subsequently declined, which triggered a fisticuff between them.

Daoyebgha actually tore the document, amidst some harsh words, saying he did so to prevent his signature from being used as part of the plot to have him as consenting to direct primary method.

“At that point, I glanced through even as he was trying to intimidate me to complete the signature. I then saw direct primaries in the paper. Having made an impression that could pass as my signature; I had no other option but to render the document invalid.

“All I did was to ensure that there was no impression suggesting that I signed the document. If that document had not been torn, the chairman would have used it against me and my will. I saw his action as undemocratic and I undertook a reasonable action to protect democracy,” he said.

Now where would the lingering infighting in the Bayelsa State APC lead the party ahead of the primaries and even the general election in November? Analysts are divided on the inherent issues which have further put the challenge of democracy into context. While some believe the use of either direct or indirect method does not matter provided the process is transparent, others are of the opinion that indeed it was the question of making the process clean and credible was why the Lokpobiri camp is insisting on indirect primary election.

It was gathered that there were fears in the Lokpobiri camp that except the indirect method was used to conduct the election, the process was likely to be compromised through manipulation as delegates would be intimidated to vote in a particular way, unlike the indirect process, which is said to be more of secret ballot that safeguards the confidentiality of the voters and voting pattern of the delegates.

Alluding to the possible scenarios in Abuja when he went to pick his nomination form recently, Lokpobiri had warned the national leadership of the party on the necessity for a free and fair primary election as the only way to avoid disagreements.

He said anybody in favour of direct primary was expressing a personal opinion as majority of the party leaders were in agreement with him and his team that indirect primary election was the best for the party. He also used the occasion to clear the air that he had no disagreement with Sylva.

He said: “I have no problem with Timipre Sylva. Sylva is Bayelsa man and Bayelsa leader just like we have other leaders here. I have no problem with him at all and I will not have a problem with him. The only way to avoid a disagreement that will arise from a party primary is to conduct a credible and transparent primary. That is why in the wisdom of majority of the party, we are saying that indirect primary is the way to go. That is what we are supporting. Anybody clamouring for direct primary, it is the person’s opinion. I know that majority of APC supporters prefer indirect primary.”

At the Abuja outing, Lokpobiri also tacitly made reference to his candidature as a better option than Sylva’s, stating that “if you bring a candidate with a lot of questionable issues, then you fail in the election.”

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While remarking that there was nobody in Bayelsa APC aspiring for the governorship ticket who has his kind of pedigree, the former minister went on to state thus: “We have had the experience some years ago and we don’t want a repeat. We want a situation where APC will be able to present the best person that can help the party to win.”

However, APC senatorial candidate for Bayelsa Central in the last election, Festus Daumebi, rose in stout defence of Sylva’s candidature, stating in a recent interview that the minister designate is the only man with the requisite political structure to win the governorship election for the party in the state.

He stated: “Don’t let anybody deceive you. As it stands in Bayelsa APC even if any other person in Bayelsa APC is going to win election, that candidate inclusive of myself, needs the support of Chief Timipre Sylva. You can’t win election in Bayelsa without Chief Timipre Sylva’s support under APC. It is not possible.

“We can all go out and open campaign offices and say we want to contest. To declare an interest to contest is one thing, getting a party ticket is another thing and winning the general election is another thing. You can’t win an election without structure and that is not to say the former minister does not have structures. He does, but not as solid as the foundation of Chief Timipre Sylva. That is why I am calling on all leaders of the party to rally round and behind Sylva. Let us support him.”

Daumebi further stressed the zoning angle to Lokpobiri’s aspiration, noting that coming from the West senatorial zone was not an advantage.

“You mentioned the former minister, he’s my brother, a friend and I respect him a lot. But this is one man that is from Ekeremor, from the same senatorial district with two local governments completing eight years for the first time and another person will come from there for another eight years. A lot of factors will play against him.”

In the face of lingering mutual distrust and hard-line posturing on the issue, analysts are of the opinion that the national leadership of the party may inevitably intervene. But how far can such intervention go looking at similar situation in other states in the past and the fierce battle it generated. Even if the national leadership insists on a particular mode, what would be the implication for the health of the party in the state in terms of unity and cohesion? In that instance, who prevails at the end of the day, Sylva or Lokpobiri? Besides what happens in the event that the national leadership could not resolve it as it were elsewhere in the past?

As it stands, the situation is dicey eliciting concern from watchers of the party that APC in Bayelsa may be repeating history as it happened in 2015 where the party primary ran into major acrimony which, however, did not prevent Timipre Sylva from winning that election. Interestingly, the man who conducted that contentious primary election, then the governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, is now presiding over the APC as the national chairman.

The expectation, as analysts have pointed out, is that both Sylva and Lokpobiri will in the interest of their party rise above their differences by harmonising their respective positions and produce a consensus candidate at the primary. But with Sylva now nominated a minister, some observers believe such proposition is a remote possibility for obvious reasons.

For the Bayelsa APC, the road ahead of the August 29 primary election is unpredictable. So will history repeat itself?

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