At the formative stage of the All Progressives Congress (APC), discerning Nigerians had expressed reservation. This was because certain individuals whose unsavoury antecedents were cause for concern, took prominent positions, as major opposition parties in the country coalesced into one. Prodded by journalists for explanation, spokesperson of the new political party had insisted that in the struggle to drive away the PDP in 2015, all hands must be on deck and selective engagement could be counter-productive.
Some of them even rationalised it, as they argued that pioneer Nigerian progressive politician, former Premier of Western Region and leader of opposition in the parliament of First Republic, Obafemi Awolowo had predicted that a time would come when ultra-conservatives and progressives would coalesce into one party, to rescue the citizenry from bondage.
Events in the last few months have however vindicated those who saw through the inherent contradictions in the forces behind the main opposition party.

Exit of Fani Kayode
First to dump the main opposition party last June was former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode who had alleged that APC was the political arm of the deadly terror group, Boko-Haram.
He also accused that national leaders of the party were scheming for a Moslem-Moslem ticket ahead of 2015 general elections. For a political party that has been thrown to the cleaners over the composition of its national officers that was skewed against Christians in the country, the claim of the former Aviation Minister was scandalous.
Its national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed while dismissing allegation further issued a disclaimer: Fani Kayode was not a member of APC. But the PDP chieftain in a statement faulted the APC, as he disclosed that he joined the party, amid fanfare, on February 7 in his hometown, Ile-Ife, Osun State and registered his membership same day.
His statement made available to newsmen read: “The registration was done outside the Ooni’s palace and it was done in the presence of the media, numerous party leaders in the state, including Hon. Rotimi Makinde, who represents Ile-Ife at the Federal House, and all the other key leaders of the APC in the state and Ife-Ife including Chief Akantioke and Alhaji Soko Adewoyin the former Deputy Governor of Osun State.
After registering we proceeded to pay a courtesy call on my traditional ruler, the Ooni of Ife, and from there I went to spend a few days with Governor Rauf Aregbesola who, together with Governor Kayode Fayemi, I am close to and I consider to be friends.
“I have stated these facts and set the record straight because Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the spokesman of the APC, had the effrontery to say in an interview with Premium Times magazine earlier today, that I was never a member of the APC and that I never joined them formally. He also said if I had been a member of the APC the party would have sanctioned me for expressing my opposition to the idea of a Muslim/Muslim ticket. The truth is that Mohammed is not only a liar but he is also a coward.”

Ikimi, Sheriff exit
Having lost out in the power game that saw to the emergence of Odigie Oyegun as APC national chairman, the anointed candidate of former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, former Foreign Affairs Minister Tom Ikimi and  former Borno State governor, Modu Sheriff had expressed reservations over the process that threw up Oyegun as national chairman. Other contenders for the position, former Bayelsa State governor, Timipre Sylva and former deputy national chairman of the PDP, withdrew from the race on the day of convention. Ikimi and his backer for the party chairmanship position, Modu Sheriff had since dumped the opposition party for the ruling party. The former Foreign Affairs Minister to the late military dictator, General Sani Abacha in an open statement to justify his exit from the main opposition party accused former Lagos State governor of high handedness. He further accused Tinubu of conniving with the PDP leadership to double-cross a former presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, in 2011 by urging party leaders to work for President Goodluck Jonathan.
Tinubu in his response dismissed Ikimi’s exit from APC as good riddance to bad rubbish. He alleged that the former Aviation Minister, who was the chairman of the opposition parties merger committees before it metamorphosed to APC was a mole for PDP. “Ikimi was never sincerely committed to the party. He was always playing out a PDP script. He only wanted the chairmanship of the party as a bargaining chip for negotiations with his benefactors.
“His defection purportedly on account of the loss of the chairmanship of the party is mere subterfuge, once his ploy failed, he had no other objective within the party and I knew he would go back to his sponsors. He is back in the company he deserves. And the APC is better for it.”
He said as the chairman of the NRC during the June 12, 1993 presidential elections, Ikimi connived with the military authorities to steal the mandate of MKO Abiola, who was adjudged the winner of the election.
The ex-governor said despite Ikimi’s bad history, the party allowed him to remain in its fold because the party hoped that he would change his ways.
But while Nigerians watch from the sidelines, the altercations between the APC leadership, Fani Kayode and Tom Ikimi, the startling revelation from Australian negotiator, Stephen Davis over former Borno State governor, Sheriff alleged funding of the Boko Haram sect jolted the nation. But rather than being rattled that it was not circumspect enough to have romanced the embattled Sheriff without pondering over his sordid past, the APC leadership went to town accusing the federal government of being helpless to prosecute Senator Sheriff and called for his prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
Just like it labeled Tom Ikimi as a mole for PDP, the opposition party equally accused Sheriff of working for PDP which informed the Jonathan government complacency over previous calls for the trial of the former Borno State governor.
The former governor at a press briefing in Abuja, extricated himself from the macabre activities of the insurgents as he claimed that the terror group predated his administration. “As you are aware, my name is being mentioned for obvious reasons as a culprit over the unfortunate happenings in Borno State and some parts of the country, especially from the 2009 Boko Haram episode to date.
“I must say that I have been utterly embarrassed by some of the negative comments, insinuations and unfounded accusations, which were clearly misdirected, narrow and mischievous.
“It may not be necessary to bother you with the long history of the metamorphosis of Boko Haram as a sect, as several reports have published their genesis, spanning over 25 years.
“The incident preceding the 2009 was in Kanama of Yobe State in 2002, long before I became a governor. It is on record that my administration in 2009 took exceptional bold steps in handling the Boko Haram insurgency.
“It was the government of my predecessor in office, the late Alhaji Mala Kachallah that introduced Sharia in the State in the year 2000 through the Borno State Sharia Administration of Justice Law 2000.
“As a matter of fact, the late Kachallah signed the Bill into Law at an elaborate ceremony at the Ramat Square in Maiduguri and appointed the Borno State Sharia Law Implementation Committee in February, 2001 under the chairmanship of Professor Abubakar Mustapha, the former vice-chancellor of the University of Maiduguri.
“Interestingly, the late Mohammed Yusuf, leader of the Boko Haram sect was a member of the Committee among other Islamic scholars. “If indeed there was an agreement between the sect and my predecessor on the issue of Sharia implementation, I am not aware of it, as I was neither in government then, nor was I party to it. And since the law precedes my administration I may not be in a position to speak on how it was conceived, promulgated and implemented.”
His denial of being a mole for the Jonathan administration was also very instructive. His remarks: “Let me place it on record that since the inception of the current dispensation from 1999, I have been in the opposition party to the PDP.
“I have at every election caused the defeat of the PDP in my state. It will sound infantile for anybody to believe the accusation as being a mole of the same party that I have been causing its defeat in every election. And if I have been a problem to the APC, even as one of its founding fathers, what stops the party from exposing me or sanctioning me all the while, or are they accessories?”
However, the issue of Sheriff sponsor of Boko Haram has become a political issue that one doesn’t know the reality anymore. While he was in the APC, politicians of the other party/s accused APC of harbouring someone that feeds the flame of insurgency in the country. APC never uttered a word. But immediately he left them for the PDP, it was in the same week the opposition started screaming that Sheriff sponsors Boko Haram, and the manner the allegation came raised questions on when he started masterminding Boko Haram as alleged. From his own admission, he had been in the opposition, including one of the parties that coalesced into APC, the ANPP. So it still beats the imagination when the former governor started sponsoring the insurgents. At last, Sheriff and his argued status and relationship with the insurgents has become a political capital those at the other side with him readily explore, and all these raise the question of sifting the politics of the campaign from the fact.

How PDP, APC making political capital of Boko Haram sponsorship