Security agents on Saturday, June 23, 2018, took strategic positions around the Eagles Square and its environs in Abuja as the All Progressives Congress (APC) held its national convention.
Some 5,000 policemen and other security operatives were deployed to the venue to provide maximum security even as President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, governors and senators among others, were in attendance.
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It is the first time the party will be holding a national convention since it swept to power at the Federal level and in most states in the country, while also taking control of the National Assembly.
The convention which is taking place eight months before the 2019 general elections and at a time the party is facing increasing internal problems, also held amidst a downpour.
Since 2015, the party has witnessed divisions among its members in some states, a development that threatened its ward and state congresses, which were held in May.
There have been friction and clashes between members of the party in the National Assembly, Kogi State, Kaduna State, and Rivers State. The National Assembly has also had an often-frosty relationship with the executive despite APC’s control of both arms of government.
The party’s internal crisis led President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint the national leader of the APC and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, to lead the party’s reconciliation efforts in February this year.
Months after, not much has changed in Kogi State where Senator Dino Melaye and Governor Yahaya Bello remain at odds with each other and in Kaduna where the two APC senators from the state have been suspended by the party and did not participate in the congresses.
The crisis within the party was evident during the congresses as factional state congresses were held in some states, including Rivers State.
Tinubu himself and the National Chairman of the Party, John Odigie-Oyegun, have not enjoyed the best of relationship with the former Lagos State governor accusing Odigie-Oyegun in February of sabotaging his reconciliatory efforts.
Furthermore, the decision to hold a national convention was not without its own controversy. It was taken after an initial decision by the National Executive Committee of the party in February to extend the tenure of its National Working Committee by a year effective June was met with criticism by members.
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It took the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari for the tenure elongation to be reversed in favour of a national convention.
Meanwhile at the convention taking place today at the Eagles Square, the former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has been affirmed as the new national chairman of the party.
Oshiomhole was affirmed after he emerged as the sole candidate for the position.
He was one of about 18 candidates affirmed unopposed by delegates at the convention.
With ward and state congresses held earlier as well as today’s convention, the APC is now looking to put its challenges aside as it completes the process of choosing leaders as it seeks to consolidate its grip on power in 2019.
