Kano APC Crisis: Battle for Political Relevance

Dousing the hot battlefield in Kano APC is probably one of the most arduous tasks before Mai Mala Buni led Caretaker Committee. This committee deserves applause for dragging big fishes from the rival party into the APC. It won’t be out of place to say the defection of sitting PDP governors like Matawalle of Zamfara, Dave Umehi of Ebonyi and Ben Ayade of Cross River states to the APC is a huge blow on the PDP, especially in the South-Eastern part of the country, bearing in mind the kind of weight governors pull during general elections.

However, similar credit cannot be given to the committee regarding mending crack walls within the party. The disagreement between the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola and the Governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola; Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed and the Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, are a few of the numerous unresolved issues within the party. Even more damaging is the crisis in Kano, the politically sensitive state that parades the highest number of voters in Nigeria.

A very unusual event played out in Kano State, the party structure is almost off the grip of the Governor of the state, who is supposedly the leader of the party in the state. G-7, a group championed by the joint forces of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, senator representing Kano Central and Senator Barau Jibril representing Kano North, is really wrestling with Governor Umar Ganduje’s group for the structure of the party. Shekarau faction, which returned to APC in 2018, accused the party leadership of Abdullahi Abass of lopsidedness despite their massive contribution to the party in 2019, which helped Governor Ganduje retain his seat at the governorship election. Moreover, the nomination of only the Governor’s anointed candidates by the party for the council poll further aggrieved the Shekarau camp. During the party congress, they conducted parallel congresses, which led to the emergence of Alh. Haruna Danzago, as a factional state chairman.

The national leadership of APC recognised the congresses held by the Ganduje faction, and the Governor declared the parallel congresses as illegal. Things took a different turn on the 30th of November, 2021, when Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court validated and compelled the headquarter of APC to recognise the congresses conducted by the Shekarau group. On the 17th of December, the court further affirmed its stand by rejecting the motion to set aside the judgment filed by the Ganduje faction.

The party’s headquarters is worried about the crisis in Kano ahead of the make or mar national convention slated for the 26th of February. Hence, two bodies have been constituted by the party: the ‘Local Government Caucus’ and ‘National/ State Joint Supervisory Committee’ charged with preparing a workable recommendation that will help harmonise the structures of the two factions. While this was going on, the Governor’s group filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal. On Thursday, 17th of this month, the Court of Appeal Abuja Division set aside the judgment of the FCT High Court and handed the control of Kano APC back to Governor Ganduje’s faction. 

This tussle seems not to be ending anytime soon because the major political figures involved consider it a fight for the survival of their political careers. If the two factions refuse to sheath their swords before the general election, there is certainly fire on the mountain of APC, bearing in mind the slim victory APC had over PDP at the 2019 governorship election in the state.