APC's abominable show of shame in Ogun is a result of irresponsible leadership

President Muhammadu Buhari's Ogun campaign rally ended in shambles after he endorsed Dapo Abiodun as the APC's Ogun governorship candidate, despite the public objection of Governor Ibikunle Amosun [Ayodeji Ogunro]

President Muhammadu Buhari's Ogun campaign rally ended in shambles after he endorsed Dapo Abiodun as the APC's Ogun governorship candidate, despite the public objection of Governor Ibikunle Amosun [Ayodeji Ogunro]

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Oh no, it's a projectile flying in the general direction of President Muhammadu Buhari and his band of unamused men.

The president's campaign train stopped in Ogun State on Monday, February 11, 2019 and it could well have ended on a very tragic note if someone was better at aiming and/or not throwing something as harmless as an almost empty bottle of water in the president's direction.

There are no kind words to describe Monday's event as the rally was marked by violence and the unruly crowd of party 'supporters' who defied common sense and turned on its own party.

The APC leadership endured a shameful outing at its Ogun State rally on Monday, February 11, 2019 [Twitter/@AkinwunmiAmbode]

To properly contextualise Monday's political embarrassment, we'd have to travel down a very short history lane to five months ago when, like everyone else, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) conducted its primary elections to choose flag bearers for the 2019 general elections. I'll try and keep it short.

With the party's National Executive Council (NEC) giving state chapters free rein to decide whether flag bearers should be chosen through direct and indirect elections, anarchy became Supreme Leader.

(Quick side note: A direct election involves all party members electing a flag bearer to represent the party in the general elections, while an indirect one involves elected delegates making that decision for the rest of the party members.)

When Amosun presided over a stakeholders meeting in September 2018 to announce the state chapter's decision, he bizarrely announced that the state was going to adopt a consensus method that was ratified by party 'elders'.

It's quite like when the chef shows you a menu that has only fried rice and jollof rice as the only options and you decide to mess around and order for fried yam and noodles, just because.