Tinubu, Ikimi struggle for control of APC

A major struggle to grab the soul of All Progressives Congress, APC, from the grip of the pair of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) is on the way.

Leading the onslaught against the two national leaders is Chief Tom Ikimi, erstwhile national chairman of the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC. Ikimi, it is alleged, is the face of many of the governors are allegedly hoping to use Ikimi to assert their influence in the party.

The shape of the battle was formally expressed at a national caucus of the party in Abuja on Tuesday that lasted into the early hours of yesterday.
At that meeting, Tinubu and Ikimi were said to have engaged themselves in a shouting match that followed reservations from some party officials including Tinubu over the leakage of a memo from Ikimi to party elders.

Ikimi and Tinubu were also divided on the recommendation of the governors that the next National Chairman of the party should come from the South South.

In the memo, exclusively published by Vanguard last Friday, Ikimi, the National Vice Chairman (South South), expressed strong concern over recent developments in the party which has led to the exodus of senior party members from some states, notably Ikimi’s own Edo State.

A memo’s contents

In the memo directed to the National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and copied to several party stakeholders, Ikimi particularly noted the failure of the party leadership to resolve issues concerning the recent congresses organised by the party across the country.

He also noted his concern that top level issues that ordinarily should be resolved by the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party were reportedly being decided by a few unnamed persons.

At the Tuesday night national caucus hosted by Governor Rochas Okorocha at the Imo State

Governor’s Lodge in Abuja and attended by several governors and NEC members, Tinubu was said to have taken up Ikimi on the leakage of the memo asserting that it was against party discipline for internal issues of the party to be taken to the press.

Ikimi, however, vehemently denied leaking the memo as he said that it was copied to several party officials.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, also played down the development yesterday as a non-issue, saying that it was not strange in a democratic setting for personalities to have different perspectives on issues.

He said: “They disagreed on issues. So what is the issue there? That is democracy. Did they fight? These are very strong personalities and they disagreed on their perspectives to issues, so how does that become an issue.
“It was a very impassioned meeting and people expressed their divergent views and that is the essence of democracy, isn’t it.”

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