President Muhammadu Buhari has given the task of reconciling aggrieved ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) members to Lagos State’s former governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu (1999 -2007). The President’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, tasked Tinubu with ‘resolving disagreements among party members, party leadership and political office holders in some states of the federation.’

The statement comes, importantly, during the early stages of the campaign period for the run up to the 2019 elections, when party unity is perhaps most important. It is also an attempt by Buhari to keep the APC’s national leader on side. The fact that the statement appointing him came from the Presidency instead of the APC is seen as an indication of Buhari’s increasing recognition that he desperately needs Tinubu to enhance his chances of winning a re-election. It is also a signal that he recognises the need for one strong cohesive party to help him win, as he did in 2015.

Buhari has been accused by party members of largely ignoring the APC after he became president. Many key members — who worked hard for the party to get elected — have felt ignored and unrewarded. Eventually, on 29 December, many of them were appointed into boards of parastatals and agencies two and half years after their party had come to power.

The critical distinction is that members of Buhari’s kitchen cabinet — most importantly Chief of Staff Abba Kyari and Buhari’s uncle Mamman Daura — are not APC members. His critics suggest that he has stuck with family relatives and close friends rather than appointing party stalwarts into key positions around him. This means that the APC’s leadership has largely felt excluded from the government which they formed.

From its early days in governance, infighting had largely ensured that the APC remained sharply divided. The leadership of the National Assembly emerged against the wishes of the party and against the wishes of Tinubu whose nominees failed in their bid to become Senate president and House of Representatives speaker. Since then, the National Assembly leadership has largely acted as an opposition to the Presidency, despite being members of the same party. Senate president Bukola Saraki still faces charges of false asset declaration, which he has accused the Presidency of instigating because he emerged to his current position without their consent.

Even at the state level, the party is divided.

• In Kano there is an ongoing contest between the incumbent Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and his immediate predecessor Rabiu Kwankwaso.
• In Kaduna, the APC is sharply divided between Governor Nasir El Rufai and the outspoken Senator Shehu Sani who has also become one of the biggest critics of the Buhari Administration.
• Other internal party conflicts exist in Oyo, Katsina, Kogi, Benue and Imo states which are all controlled by the APC.

But Tinubu may be the wrong choice as the party’s intermediator because of his own grievances. Many of the crises that the party has endured in the last two years are linked to the former Lagos governor’s desire to impose his will on the party. His mediation would therefore be received with much suspicion from those party members who see him as part of the problem, not the solution.