Alhaji Mohammed S. Gombe is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Gombe State. In this interview with IGHO OYOYO, he speaks on the crisis in the state’s chapter of the party and asserts that the leadership style of Senator Mohammed Danjuma Goje is behind the crisis. He also suggests ways of resolving the crisis.
Why has Gombe APC been dogged with crisis?
There are two factors responsible for the crisis. One, a defect in the terms of condition of the merger that brought Senator Danjuma Goje as our leader. Although, the terms of conditions could not have been anything better since the new party seems interested in attracting political heavy weights to challenge the ruling party in the forthcoming general elections.
Again, four parties with four different structures were merged into one single party. The challenge here is that, majority of the critical stakeholders in the four merging parties may not necessarily be carried along. Then the second reason that caused the crisis is the coming to APC of Senator Mohammed Danjuma Goje. The senator was our governor from 2003 to 2011 under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Those of us that were in the opposition parties
then, tested hell under his leadership. He virtually wiped us out of existence. Now, and after defecting to APC, we thought by his coming to the party, he would come and embrace us especially when we are now having common interests and build a solid structure in the party together. The Senator simply refused to do that. Rather, he went and picked his new PDP boys whom he used when he was our governor and brought them into APC, thereby neglecting the people that have been fighting for this cause over a decade ago. So, the major reason for the crisis is because the old legacy parties and other core leaders of the defund merging parties were completely thrown out. APC is now driven by Sen. Danjuma Goje and his boys in Gombe. We consider this very unacceptable.
Could that be the reason why the crisis is centred on the Senator?
Exactly. The crisis is centred on him because of his refusal to incorporate those legacy parties into the structure of APC in Gombe State. The interim structures were his boys. As we speak, there is nowhere in APC in Nigeria that the party headquarters asked to go and appoint local government chairmen. But in Gombe State, he singlehandedly went and appointed local government chairmen and those so called local government chairmen are now working to form executives in the ward. Which means that all the legacy parties and their leaders were completely circumvented by the senator. I do not believe that any right and rational thinking person could think that this is the way to go. Senator Goje came to our party and met us in it.Our expectation was that when he came in, he will call for a general stakeholders meeting, comprising of all the previous and current leadership of the legacy parties, sit down with them, identify each role each one of them played over the years and then look at their level of involvement in the political disposition in the state and incorporate them accordingly in the new structure. But, that was not done. What was done was that he went to pick his ‘’people’’ that he used to checkmate us when he was our governor gave them the mantle of leadership in Gombe APC. Sen. Goje himself attested to the fact that the defund CPC was the only merging party that had people and solid structures to ward level but vowed not to incorporate them in his new structure. This will never be accepted by the rest of us who came from the then CPC.
Who are the critical stakeholders that are opposing Sen. Goje’s leadership?
The critical stakeholders that are opposing to his leadership are the people that he came and met in APC. They are the people he neglected, and they are the people that are opposing the imposition of his ‘’boys’’ that he came along with from PDP to APC. These critical stakeholders consist of our state elders whom we have been consulting in anything we do in Gombe politics since the beginning of this political era. Secondly, we have leaders of various opposition parties from 2003 till date, including the current leaders of the legacy parties. We have other important and critical stakeholders who are not politicians but support General Buhari’s cause. We have a number of individuals, some even in the ruling party that are sympathetic to us but at the moment would prefer to remain anonymous. These are all the people that are now resisting Sen. Goje’s leadership, because he did not consult nor incorporate them in to the new party’s current structure.
What is the possibility of you accepting Sen. Goje as your leader in the party as 2015 is fast approaching and virtually you have no time to organise yourselves?
We are not contesting or rejecting Sen. Goje as the leader of the party. What we are contesting is his dictatorial and Machiavellian style of leadership. If today, the Senator can adhere to our suggestions and recommendations we communicated to him and include the structures of the legacy parties into the new structure of the APC, then, there will be no problem. There wouldn’t be any contest any longer if that is done. After all, there is no way when you merge four parties into one and you expect to have four chairmen, it cannot work, but what is important is that those people that have been managing these parties for all these while and a good number of them at that were using their resources to manage the parties because of their conviction and belief in the cause they were fighting are now the people declared redundant and neglected by Senator Goje’s style of leadership. That is what we are contesting.
Is that what you were expecting him to do before you accept in as a leader?
Off course yes. If he could convene all stakeholders meeting, identify the role each person played, place him in the new structure accordingly, then what would be our grievances again? The terms and conditions of the merger was what brought Sen. Danjuma Goje as the leader of our party and we have no quarrel with that. The quarrel is his style of leadership which we will continue to fight until justice is done.
Do you believe that Goje has the ability to bring in positive change as a leader of the party in the state?
Definitely. Senator Danjuma Goje is a good politician; he has the wherewithal to drive the party only if he could do the right thing. Remember he governed the state for eight good years and for that reason he must not be underrated. He was a man that went along with his people own when he was a governor. He always tries hard to do what he wants to do. So, we have no doubt in our mind in his ability to lead APC in Gombe State. But the right thing must be done. Period
Don’t you think that the resistance to Goje’s leadership could mar the chances of your party winning election in the state?
Obviously, if this issue is not resolved, it is going to be an ill-win which will not blow any stakeholder any good particularly in Gombe State and the country at large. But we do not expect the issue would be resolved sooner or later. We are hoping that our competent leaders of our party at the national level should do everything humanly possible to see that the issue is resolved, if not, I am afraid if we will make any meaningful impact in the state.
How are you stakeholders managing the crisis?
We had made consultations with our elders, we had published advertorials in newspapers highlighting the challenges facing the party in the state, and we had conducted interviews both in print and electronic media. We had discussed the matter with General Mohammadu Buhari who suggested writing a letter of complaint to the National Headquarters’ which we did. Everything humanly possible was done to make our case known to all and sundry. I believe from the time the crisis started to the time we are conducting this interview, nobody that is politically interested in Gombe knows there are serious challenges in Gombe APC. That is why we are continuously bringing up this issue in the front burner, so that our party leaders who are supposed to solve this crisis should quickly do just that.
How do you think the crisis can be resolved?
We have been requesting the APC national headquarters to reconcile us with Senator Danjuma Goje, we made it clear that we are not contesting his leadership as a person, but we are only contesting his dictatorial – styled leadership. We cannot be the people that have been championing this cause for over a decade and because there was a merger, we are rendered irrelevant in the scheme of things. We are the people that have the political structures in the state, we are the people that know the political terrain, and we are the people that are supposed to be used by Sen. Goje to build a solid battle front against the ruling party in the state. So, the crisis can only be resolved if all we have been asking for is done, that is comprehensive, supervised and documented reconciliation. We are not saying that Senator Danjuma Goje must be removed as leader of the party. What we are saying is that he should abandon his PDP dictatorial tendencies. He should remember that he is now in APC. The national headquarters should come in and preside over the reconciliation process and see that all these differences with the critical stakeholders are resolved.
So far, what is the response to crisis by the national headquarters of your party?
From the beginning of the crisis, critical stakeholders consisting of the chairmen of the legacy parties, who are now the current leaders of the merged parties made it clear to the national headquarters by writing series of complains and petitions, taking the issue to our elders in the state, to even our most respected General Mohammad Buhari, demonstrating to him the problem that is dogging the party. Secondly, beyond complaining to the national headquarters and other interested parties, we further decided to go to press and published four advertorials highlighting the crisis facing the state.
Consequently, the APC headquarters has constituted a reconciliation committee consisting of three key members of the party. We were made to understand that, the Deputy National President (North), Alh. Masari, Deputy National President (North-East) and Senator Sani Yerima Bakura were mandated to solve the crisis. We are trying to get in contact with these people and agree on the modality as to how we can work out an agreeable framework, terms and conditions of the reconciliation. Fix a date for the excise in Gombe where we will sit with Senator Goje and the agitating stakeholders to solve the problem. And after that is done, we will make sure that the national headquarters, not only presiding over the reconciliation exercise but be us witness between us and our leader. So, if these are steps were taken by the national headquarters, the problem would be solved once and for all. We are anxiously waiting for this to happen any moment from now before we start thinking of going into congress. If this is done, our differences would be bridged. After that, we are certain we will make positive political impact in our state.
So what progress has been made so far?
On the reconciliation process, unfortunately, we did not hear anything again from the APC National headquarters. Efforts were made to know when the reconciliation effort would take place but to no avail. On the other hand, a kangaroo and bogus ward congress was said to have been conducted on Saturday 5th April, 2014 under the nose of some compromised delegates. Sen. Goje cherry-picked his stooges and compiled his so called list claiming that PDP disrupted the process. That’s not true. What is true is that the Chief of Staff to Gombe State Governor threatened to remove all APC posters and billboards which we considered as an empty political threat. Sen. Goje capitalised on that threat and manipulated the so-called congress to his advantage. This is the Machiavellian style of leadership we have been complaining about. This will unquestionably spell doom for APC in the state. We can only support APC in the presidential election only. This is what we have been doing and will continue to do. If Sen. Goje’s plan stands, that is, if APC national headquarters agrees and accepts what Sen. Goje call the outcome of Gombe Congress, then we have no choice, but to look at other options of seeking for redress. APC headquarters should please take note.
No comments:
Post a Comment