Wike, ADC and convention venue snafu

Days before the African Democratic Congress (ADC) stirred controversy over the hiring of a convention venue in Abuja, party leaders had gone to town with stories of the ruling party's devious machinations. At the convention itself, many speakers either alluded to the alleged chicanery or spoke about it directly and interpretatively. Whether they spoke directly or indirectly, or by idioms or proverbs, ADC leaders were clear in their minds that the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration was engaged in unfair and anti-democratic practices to frustrate the opposition. Firstly, they insisted that the chief villain in the series of events that culminated in their inability to quickly and easily secure a suitable convention venue was the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, Nyesom Wike. But why limit the accusation to a relatively 'small fry' when they could escalate the abuse to a 'bigger fry', President Bola Tinubu, the organ grinder himself? And that was exactly what they did. Though the ADC leaders went whimsically back and forth between Mr Wike and President Tinubu in alleging their malfeasant influence on the practice of democracy, they tended to prefer focusing their worst attacks on the president.

The 8th ADC convention had some crowd but none of the panache often associated with party conventions. It was a short-notice convention; but rather than accept responsibility for their tardiness, it was more convenient to point fingers of guilt at either the president or Mr Wike. They knew what excuses would resonate with their base, and they were smart enough to exploit those weapons to the hilt. While not admitting that he saw or received the letter of request for the Eagle Square venue purportedly written by the opposition coalition, Mr Wike, at a project supervision site, claimed that the ADC failed to escalate the venue request issue until a day or two before the convention. He believed the delay was on purpose. He also lashed out against the allegation that he threatened to revoke the certificate of occupancy of the venue eventually used for the convention, the Royal Event Centre. He claimed the ADC lied against him. But other than denying the accusations, he has not deemed it fit to really refute the ADC claims.

Fittingly, the ADC leaders, who seemed to thrive under self-created siege, do not seem interested in any refutations. Had they been left alone to do what they pleased, whether it related to INEC delisting their executives or their inability to secure a suitable convention venue, it is unclear they would have attracted publicity or gained any appreciable traction propagated by either the social media, the rather somnolent but stoical Atiku Abubakar crowd, or the insolent and raucous Peter Obi warriors. But ADC leaders do not wait for the ruling party to give them a choice; instead, knowing how valiant they are on social media and how awfully short they are on party administration, they prefer to generate their own controversies and dictate the cadence of the discord.