Litigation against the dissolution of Ekiti APC executive vs the Factional litigation against Ekiti PDP
By Igbalaso Igbalewu
A few days ago, some aggrieved members of Ekiti APC suddenly woke up to the realization that Ekiti APC Congresses of September 2018 were faulty and sought the help of the court for the dissolution of the Party executives produced through those Congresses. This development has suddenly and expectedly arose the interest of Ekiti PDP whose Party is already at the emergency center of the teaching hospital, gasping for the last breath!
There is clear distinction between the two scenarios.
The differences are ;
- There is no factional crisis in APC as of today. No Parallel executives in any of the 177 wards of Ekiti State. No multiple Party Secretariats. The management of the Party in the State was not given to an undertaker and Ajeles from outside the State. The Party Structures are intact. The command and control system of the Party remains as structured. The upward and downward flows of information and activities are not disrupted.
- There is nothing strange if any individual or group of individuals in a Political Party has or have issues to ventilate in court. Those who approached the Court will state their facts and support them with credible evidence before the burden of prove can shift to those challenged. He who asserts must prove! The APC litigants should be prepared to follow their case to the Supreme Court. The APC litigants will be lucky if they see the end of the litigation at the Supreme Court before the expiration of the APC Excos they are challenging in September 2022!
Simply put, Ekiti APC executives will keep functioning till the end of their tenure in September 2022 while the suit against it will keep dragging in the Courts. - Conversely, the crisis in Ekiti PDP is existential. The Party is broken down the middle. The Party was initially factionalised into two, Fayose led faction and Olujimi led faction. The Party is today Factionalised into three with the latest addition of Segun Oni led faction. Ekiti PDP has Parallel wards Executives in all the 177 wards of Ekiti State. Ekiti PDP has multiple Party Secretariats. The Party has three different parallel structures capable of producing three different PDP Gubernatorial Candidates for 2022 Gubernatorial Elections. The party is Presently before the undertakers called Caretakers to manage, not by Ekitis but Ajeles from Oyo and Osun. The Party has four command and Control centers. Each of the Command centers has its own spokesperson ; four different spokespersons speak for the Ekiti PDP today, to the extent that you don’t even know which information to take as the official Position of the Party. You have a Spokesman for the Fayoses, one for the Olujimis, one for the Segun Onis and the fourth one from the Ajeles Caretakers. This is what is called ARAKASAKA, YANPONYANRIN AND ARELU in Yoruba dialect!
The multiple and factional PDP executives are presently before the court to determine which faction is legitimate to transact businesses and conduct congresses to determine the Candidates of the Party for 2022 Gubernatorial elections among others. The Case has the potential of running its full course to the Supreme Court. The Party will be lucky to see the end of the litigation before the 2022 Gubernatorial elections.
All should not that Political Parties exist primarily to accomadate varying tendencies and camps because of varying and divergent interests arising from contestation for powers and control. Therefore, disagreements in political parties are normal. Crises are normal. That is why some scholars defined Politics as crisis and management of crisis.
However, when a Political Party allows the crises and disagreements in the Party to degenerate into a FACTION whereby two Parallel Party Executives and Structures are created like the Present Situation in Ekiti PDP, then such a Party is on his way to Political Golgotha!
Hence, comparing the Present Situation of Ekiti APC with Ekiti PDP is like comparing an Apple with an Orange which can only be a product of crass ignorance!
