Although the 2027 election campaign has not yet officially begun, Nigeria’s fraught political atmosphere has already sparked early strategizing and positioning. Determined to avert a repetition of history, the APC is leaving nothing to chance – methodically designing countermeasures to break the cycle of electoral sabotage. In this exclusive interview, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, a prominent APC figure and former aide to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, shares the position of the defunct CPC’s legacy bloc, dismisses the naira redesign policy as ill-timed and deceptive, and urges party leaders to stay alert. SPEAR NEWS presents the excerpt.
During the eight years of the Buhari administration, the CPC bloc within the APC remained relatively silent. Why are we now seeing sudden outcries about marginalisation, even threats of defection by some members? What’s really driving this shift?
Let me make this clear: The CPC, ACN, ANPP, and APGA no longer exist as individual parties. This dissolution was a mandatory condition of the merger that formed the APC. We completely dismantled all party structures – including constitutions and leadership positions. As a former national officer myself, I personally resigned my post as required.
The CPC was fundamentally an ideological movement, deeply rooted in Northern Nigeria but with nationwide spread. We naturally expected that after the merger, with President Buhari (then CPC leader) in power, our members would see meaningful benefits. Yet despite having CPC representatives in ministerial and government positions, many long time members, some who stood with Buhari for 12 years – were systematically sidelined. These grievances have festered for years.
That’s why it’s shocking to see certain figures now threatening to leave. These same people held government positions for years yet failed to advocate for ordinary members. Now out of power, they suddenly claim marginalisation? What did they do when they were in power? The hypocrisy is glaring.
Don’t you feel the same frustration that others are expressing?
I will agree to a very large extent. Look in many of the states, members have not been rewarded. I will give an instance. From my state, like from 1999 till 2015 when APC came to power, there were people who played opposition in the state in all of these years. The party was there, we had officials, we even won a seat in House of Representatives in Cross River State in 2019. It was the first time an opposition won election in the state. Cross River was a PDP stronghold. But in 2021, the party was handed over to a PDP governor, Ayade, who defected. He came and he made sure that he took all the structures in the state. And then he fixed all his people and in 2022 when the party was required to nominate candidates who would fly the party’s flag in the general election, Ayade gave tickets to 95% of people he brought into the party. This didn’t happened in Cross River State alone, it was all over. So, they sidelined members of the legacy party, ACN, CPC and ANPP and APGA. People who were the original members of the party that formed the APC, were marginalised. Even Betta Edu who was a minister joined the party in 2021. Before then, she was made the party national woman leader through the influence of the former governor. These were not members of the party who sacrificed so much in the past. The party was promoting opportunism.
Are there active discussions with the leadership of the party to resolve these grievances?
Yes, but not formally yet. There is a plan of engaging the leadership of the party. We came into the merger with different tendencies and strength. I can identify four tendencies. The ACN, which was very predominant in the South West, has six governors when we were merging. CPC, that was very formidable then too, came into the merger with Buhari’s 13 million votes and one governor. The ANPP came in with three governors, and it’s very strong in the North East region. We have APGA, the faction of Governor Rochas Okorocha. So there is also that tendency. There is also those who later came from the PDP. So, I feel if we should have an ideal broad-based national party, there should be inclusivity. People from these tendencies, should be accommodated in whatever we are doing. It would enhance the strength of the party.
Speculations are mounting about Al-makura’s likely emergence as APC National Chairman, can you confirm this, and does he have you people’s endorsement?
Al-makura is a nationalist by the virtue of his upbringing. He attended the Advanced Teachers Training College Uyo then in the South Eastern State, now in present Akwa Ibom, which is now University of Uyo. Even though he is from Nasarawa, he has friends all over the country. That’s the kind of person who should be national leader to a party like APC. If you look at all the party we had from independece, they were regional parties. The formation of the APC was historical because it was the first time in the history of the country that people from different regions and ethnic backgrounds came to form a political party. APC is very dear to my heart because we are nationalists. The party should be a vehicle to promote national consensus and unity. The political elite must form a consensus on how they want this country to move.
While the CPC may have dissolved formally, President Buhari remains the symbolic leader of its bloc within APC. Given that Malami, a key Buhari ally, has refused to align himself with you, did you coordinate your stance with the former president before making your recent declaration?
Yes, some leaders of the defunct CPC have consulted him. Masari was a leader in the CPC and was governor for eight years. He was a member of House of Representatives and speaker as well. I think we should take Buhari out of the picture. From all indications, Buhari is in a state of permanent retirement. From what I see, even people go to him and want to take advantage of his image to launder themselves just to create the impression that he is in support of whatever they are doing. He is trying to be a statesman. He has never said anything about this government since he left, unlike what Obasanjo is doing. He has tried to maintain that neutrality, welcomes everyone that comes to him for consultation. I think it’s good that he continues to maintain that role. It could help the country and even the government. It could also help emerging leaders, who can use his experience. Buhari is an institution as far as governance is concerned. People should not try to exploit their relationship with Buhari. He has said he is grateful to APC for bringing him to powerful after three failed attempts and would remain an APC. The man is a man of very few words and he has been consistent politically. He is that type of politician who doesn’t like to jump from one place to another like some of our political leaders who behave like a rolling stones. They don’t have the tenacity to build a political party or ideology. They would rather go to other political party to hijack the structure. You have seen that already manifesting in SDP. I heard a presidential candidate in SDP is saying that the SDP is not for sale. That they will not hand their party to anyone to use as platform to fight president Tinubu. They also say to El-rufai that he can’t join SPD from the top. If he wants to join the party, he should go from the bottom.
During your Arise News interview, you described the former AGF, Abubakar Malami, as an extraordinarily powerful figure in Buhari’s administration. Just how powerful was he and what made him untouchable?
He said he was powerful! That’s what he told my wife. He told my wife that, don’t I know that he is a very powerful figure in Buhari’s government. Don’t I know that it’s there government? So, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. If Malami boasted that he was a powerful figure. If he boasted that the government was their own government, I will take it line, hook and sinker, that he was powerful. And I think he was. No doubt about it. So many things that negativity affected our government, it was alleged that Malami was instrumental. For instance, the exchange of the colour of the naira at the peak of the electioneering campaign, which nearly contributed to the failure of that election or even to the defeat of the APC. It was a terrible policy which shouldn’t have been done at the cusp of an election that was very contentious, because forces came together, bent on defeating the APC. It was a straw to use against the APC. It was a policy that shouldn’t have been introduced at that time. They should have waited for the incoming president to introduce that policy. It was terrible. It almost cost the APC the election.
Malami has dismissed your position to speak for the defunct CPC, while you have argued that he lacked the standing to challenge your position because he has no true root in the CPC. Does this deadlock render him politically isolated?
Malami is not a leader of the APC. There is no evidence that he is a leader in CPC. He can’t be a leader in the CPC. He was just a minister, an appointee of President Buhari. If he has respect for President Buhari, after he the former president has made a pronouncement, categorically, when he was reacting to the defection of El-rufai, after the impression was created that he was consulted, he simple said, I remain APC. If Malami truly, is a Buharist, after Buhari has taken a position and Malami is still talking about leaving the APC, I doubt is loyalty to Buhari. Let him go.
We are APC. We are not leaving the APC. We will support the party and the government, because we are very understanding and we sympathise with the government. Most of the problems confronting this country, didn’t start with President Tinubu’s government. Most of the issues started sixty years ago. For instance, the subsidy was there. It was that we didn’t had a government with the political will to withdraw subsidy. But this government came into power and showed courage. That’s what a leader is supposed to do. Show courage on something that may appear unpopular to the people with the intention to move the country forward. It’s a like a doctor taking a difficult decision to amputate a patience’s leg to avoid the spread of cancer to other parts of the body. I think despite the hardship, everybody is now seeing that there is glimmer of hope as the economy is gradually recovery because hard decisions were taking. Governors are getting three times of what they used to get as allocation. If Malami says he wants to leave APC, he has the right to leave but for we, we will remain in the APC. If we have any issue with the party, we will engage the leadership of the party. Because we are passionate about APC. If the APC crumbles today, the country may have a lot of issues because it’s the only existing national party. PDP has crumbled. Labour Party is no where. Labour Party is not a national party, and it has broken into four factions. SDP is a fringe party. So, if APC is fragmented into different groups, it will affect the unity of the country. We are nationalists, we want APC to succeed. So, we will remain in APC.
You admitted earlier that internal sabotage nearly cost your party the 2023 election. With visible fractures in the APC today, are you not concerned history could repeat itself in 2027?
I have gotten the hint. We have a lot of our members who were partisan. Who were our foot soldiers, particularly on social media. I have seen some of them romancing with coalition plotters. I will urge the party to carry out a surgical purging, so that we know who is who. There is nothing wrong with people defecting or joining other political parties as it’s within their constitutional rights. But, I think the strategy of the so called coalition is to infiltrate the APC, using our ranks to cause division or to use our members who have been compromised to sabotage the APC. The party should ensure that there is membership renewal so that we know who is who is. Those who don’t believe in the ideals of the party or this government should leave the party and go. They shouldn’t be allowed to stay pretending to be members and allow the opposition to use them to sabotage us.
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