APC NWC Dissolves Rivers Executive Committee

The National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has dissolved the executive committees at all levels in Rivers State.
The Ganduje-led NWC has appointed a seven-member caretaker committee to run the affairs of the party in Rivers State for the next six months.
Members of the caretaker committee are: Chief Tony C. Okocha (chairman), Chief Eric Nwibani (secretary), Hon. Chibuike Ikenga, Prince Stephen Abolo, Hon. Sylvester Vidin, Senibo Karibi Dan Jumbo and Miss Darling Amadi.
The official mandate of the caretaker committee is to conduct a fresh comprehensive electronic membership registration in the state. Another duty of the caretaker committee is to prepare for the conduct of congresses to facilitate the emergence of new executive committees for the party at various levels from the ward to the state.
The caretaker committee will be inaugurated on Friday, November 24, 2023 at the APC National Secretariat, Abuja.
Ever since this news broke, political activists and observers alike have been analysing how the emergence of the Tony Okocha-led committee would affect the fortunes of the APC.
A frontline chieftain of the APC in the state who preferred to remain anonymous stated clearly that in politics, there is no permanent friend or permanent enemy; all that matters is permanent interest. He berated the kind of politics being played by former governor. Nyesom Wike and Tony Okocha as dangerous politics which had not been practised before in the state.
It would be recalled that Okocha, an alumnus of the University of Port Harcourt, rose to prominence when he was appointed Chief of Staff to former Governor Rotimi Amaechi after Wike was appointed Minister of State for Education. Our correspondent could not ascertain what led to the crack between Amaechi and Okocha. But there were accusations of high-handedness on the part of Amaechi.
All of a sudden, Okocha joined forces with the central figure in the mutiny in the APC, Senator Magnus Abe. Okocha was one of the pillars of Abe’s faction of APC that fought Amaechi’s faction to the point that the APC did not have any candidate in the 2019 general elections.
Politics being a game of interest, Chief Okocha gravitated towards Wike, who was governor at the time of the rift. Just about the same time,. Okocha lost faith with Abe and appeared to be working with the former governor, Wike.
The plot thickened in the last general elections which threw up Bola Tinubu as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Chief Okocha, with apparent help of E.N. Wike warmed his way into the confidence of President Tinubu, to the point that, he became recognized as the pillar of APC support base for Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Rivers State.
This was simplified by the lukewarm attitude of Amaechi towards Tinubu after he lost the APC presidential primaries in May 2022. Instead of Amaechi mending fences with Tinubu, he allegedly elected to pitch his support for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP in the presidential election.
Unfortunately for Amaechi and his supporters, Tinubu beat Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Parry in the general elections.
Wike cashed in on the strained relationship between Amaechi and Bola Tinubu and sponsored Tony Okocha’s faction of the APC to pitch their total support to the presidential bid of Bola Tinubu. Wike corralled the support of the G-5 PDP governors in tandem with Okocha’s faction of the APC and fought Abubakar and Obi to a standstill and propelled to win the election.
In recognition and appreciation of the prominent role played by Wike in the general elections, President Tinubu remarked that “Wike is one of the very few Nigerians that he takes advice from.” To cement their strange romance (APC and PDP), Tinubu conceded to Wike the control of the affairs and management of APC in Rivers State.
In order to prove and give flesh to this strange romance, when the Board of the NDDC was to be reconstituted, Tinubu asked Wike to bring his nominations. Wike’s nominated Okocha to be the Rivers State Representative on the Board of the NDDC and Boma Iyaye into one of the top most jobs in the NDDC. Recently, Wike also nominated Ambassador Desmond Akawor as the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC), which is likely to be ratified by the senate.
Bearing in mind these antecedents, it came as no surprise when the Ganduje-led National Working Committee, NWC dissolved the Rivers state executive committee at all levels. Chief Okocha emerged as the Chairman of the caretaker committee.
However, the erstwhile State Chairman of the APC, Chief Emeka Beke has discountenanced and rubbished the purported dissolution of the APC state executive committee at all levels. He stated that “Our tenure has not expired and that we will continue to serve our people. Besides such a decision should come from the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the APC and not from the NWC.
A chieftain of the APC, who pleaded anonymity averred that with what is happening now, Rivers State has now become a one-party state, where one man determines what happens in the PDP and also APC.
With regard to Chibuike Amaechi, this singular act of the NWC of the APC is intended to, according to political analysts, “retire him from politics and shut the door in his face at least for the next eight years.”