•Four Candidates Emerge Frontrunners for Chairmanship
•Party Leadership Yet To Meet Buhari On Zoning, Others
•Fresh Fears Over Unresolved Crises •Presidential Aspirants Plot To Have Allies in New NWC
January 23, (THEWILL) – The governing All Progressives Congress (APC) has finally announced Saturday, February 26, 2022, as the date for its National Convention. The announcement followed weeks of uncertainty and intrigue that shook the party to its foundation, especially with the growing speculation that the party may not be too keen about the February date, no thanks to the various antics of the Buni-led caretaker committee to perpetuate itself in power so as to conduct the presidential and governorship primaries of the party.
Now, the initial fear has been laid to rest and the party appears set and ready for its much-anticipated national convention, the scheduling of which was the outcome of a meeting of the APC governors with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja. Ahead of the convention, however, intense lobbying, intrigue and uncertainty have pervaded the party across the country over the allocation of the party’s top positions.
The Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) and Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, as well as the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party, who is also the Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, had met with President Buhari to fix a date for the party’s national convention.
Bagudu disclosed that he led two of his colleagues to the meeting where President Buhari, acting in his capacity as leader of the party, approved February 26 for the convention.
That settled, the party last week released the programme of activities for the upcoming event. It meticulously spelt out in detail the activities, which will begin on January 31 and end on February 23, 2022, during which period it will receive the interim report of the National Reconciliation Committee, consider and adopt reports of state congresses and conclude the processes involved in the sale of forms to aspirants, screening them and settling complaints arising from the screening exercises.
The party further said that accreditation of all statutory and elected delegates to the national convention will take place between February 24 and February 23, 2022, while the convention, whose primary objective is to elect national officers to the National Executive Committee, will hold on February 26, 2022 .
Also the National Convention Appeal to hear and resolve complaints arising from the convention is scheduled for February 28, 2022.
Crises in APC state chapters
Investigations by THEWILL show that the announcement of February 26, 2022 as the date for the national convention has not stopped the party from further descent into deeper crises. At present, in the APC it is one day, one problem.
THEWILL recalls that the party recorded parallel executives in many states during its 2021 ward, local government and state congresses.
At the last count, as a result of disagreement over the congresses, there are crises in its 15 state chapters, namely Enugu, Delta, Ekiti, Kwara, Bauchi, Taraba, Imo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Zamfara, Lagos, Kano and Rivers States. In another instance, the problem borders on unresolved defection issues. Litigations are also threatening the party.
Zamfara State presents a case of defection. There, the relative peace achieved in the state chapter of the party, following the reconciliation of former Governor Abdulaziz Yari and Senator Kabiru Marafa and their groups, was truncated by the defection of the incumbent governor, Bello Matawalle, from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the party. The defection made the governor leader of the party in the state, according to its constitution. But new-found friends, Yari and Marafa, are united against the governor as his leadership would rob them of their hold on the party structure in the state.
Aggrieved members of the governing party from Ekiti, Osun, Zamfara, Taraba, Lagos, Kwara and Kaduna, to mention just a few states, have either filed or are threatening court actions against the party’s leadership at the state and national levels.
Reconciliation Committee
The Congress Appeal Committee set up by the party to mediate in the crisis was rebuffed by aggrieved members of the party in various states. Most of the aggrieved groups in the states where there were crises refused to file petitions before the appeal committee. So the members of the committee moved back to Abuja when they were presented with no report.
It was due to this that the party recently inaugurated the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led reconciliation committee to go round the states and reconcile the aggrieved members.
Although the committee is yet to submit its interim report, indications are rife that it may not achieve much reconciliation. In most of the states visited, the committee just met with the aggrieved groups without any concrete effort to ensure peace, according to THEWILL’s checks.
For instance, after the committee left Osun State, there was a disagreement between Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s group, Ileri Oluwa and former Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s group, The Osun Progressives (TOP).
Aregbesola, who is the current Minister of Interior, still maintains that the party is polarised into two. Chairman of TOP, My Lowo Adebiyi, admitted that much to THEWILL in a brief interview, but he expressed hope for the better. After his group made its presentation to the Abdullahi committee when it visited Osun State a fortnight ago, he said, ‘’We were told that we will hear from them soon. Let us hope they will do the needful.”
Litigation Threatens Convention
Besides the inability of the APC to achieve full reconciliation, litigation is another matter that the party still has to contend with. At press time, seven court cases instituted by the members of the APC and the PDP, as well as the New Nigeria Peoples Party, on the eligibility and legitimacy of the Mai Buni – led committee since it was inaugurated in June 2020, following the sacking of Adams Oshiomhole in that year, are still pending and unresolved.
Senator Marafa, a lawmaker from Zamfara State, has dismissed the party’s plan to hold its national convention in February 2022, urging Buni and members of the Caretaker Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) not to waste the scarce resources of the party in conducting what he described as an “illegal act in the name of national convention” without doing the needful.
Marafa said, “Some of us are putting our papers together to challenge the very existence of the so-called Caretaker Committee headed by Governor Mai Mala Buni. The tenure of that illegal committee expired in June 2021, but it is still there acting illegally and causing trouble all over the place. Buni should take the path of honour and resign while he still has the chance.
“We are heading to court. Let the court decide whether our Constitution or the APC constitution has any provision allowing a serving governor to hold office and at the same time preside as (a party’s) national chairman. We will challenge every decision taken by this illegal committee since it came into office in June 2020.”
Aggrieved members of APC in Bauchi State, who instituted the case with suit number FHC/AVJ/CS/841/2021 between Babaji Abdullahi and six others versus the APC and five others, have also insisted on going ahead with the suit.
There are concerns that many court cases instituted against the APC may affect the party’s national convention scheduled for February.
Towing the same line of reasoning as Senator Marafa, a chieftain of the APC from Osogbo in Osun State, Alhaji Kabiru Lawal, described the February date for the convention as unrealistic.
“The February date for the national convention of our party is not realistic. There are a lot of problems. To me, it is not possible to have a unified house by February. The party has degenerated into a crisis and it is neck deep in it. To achieve unity in the party will require more time and energy, as well as more seriousness from the managers of the party at the national level. Things have gone terribly bad in so many states,” Lawal told THEWILL.
Intrigues as four main contenders jostle for National Chairmanship
Despite the uncertainty trailing its convention, the party is still forging ahead as those determining its fortunes are enjoying the bumpy ride as long as they are in control. They include the Attorney -General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and the troika of Governor Bagudu Atiku of Kebbi State and Chairman of the APC Governors Forum, his Jigawa counterpart, Abdullahi Badaru and Mala Buni.
This has boosted the morale of many chairmanship aspirants who are going round to lobby other members of the party.
The February 26, 2022 national convention is an elective one. It will produce the new executive of the party that will replace the Caretaker Committee, which took over the running of the party after the exit of the Adams Oshiomhole – led National Working Committee (NWC) in June 2020.
The party is yet to announce its zoning policy. A ranking party member told THEWILL that President Muhammadu Buhari holds the ace with regards to zoning of the chairmanship position and other key party positions. He said: “The chairman of the caretaker committee will have to take directive from the president on where to zone the chairmanship position to and other key offices. The president will also determine who emerges as National Chairman just like he did when Oshiomhole was elected.”
However, there is the thinking within the party that the leadership may throw the presidential position open and zone the chairmanship to the North-Central. All chairmanship aspirants that have shown interest either through open declaration or through body language so far are from the northern part of the country. Most of them are from the North- Central states of Nasarawa, Kwara, Niger, Plateau, Benue and Kogi.
The leading contenders among them include a former governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al-Makura, who is believed to have received President Buhari’s nod, and his predecessor, Senator Abdullahi Adamu. The others are Alhaji Saliu Mustapha from Kwara State and former Minister for Mines and Steel Development, Abubakar Bawa Bwari.
Sources within the party, who craved anonymity, confided in THEWILL that the APC is likely to follow the footstep of the PDP by picking its National Chairman from the North-Central.
For obvious reasons that are connected with the zoning formula for the presidency, the governing party is treading softly with a possibility of throwing the presidency open should the Chairmanship candidate emerge at the planned national convention in February. This thinking, it was gathered, will temporarily restore trust among presidential contenders, even when the party’s minders have another ace up their sleeves. The inclusion of direct, indirect and consensus mode of conducting primaries in the Electoral Act Amendment, THEWILL learnt, will give the powers-that-be in APC an opportunity to determine who emerges their party’s presidential flag bearer.
Sources within the party hinted that the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the parties that merged to form the APC, will produce the national chairman of the party.
The CPC, which was formed by President Buhari and on whose platform he contested the 2011 presidential election and lost, is said to have received his approval to produce the chairman for reasons borne out of loyalty. This leaves Al Makura and Saliu Mustapha as favourites.
Al-Makura won the Nasarawa State governorship election on the platform of the CPC in 2011 by defeating the incumbent governor, Aliyu Akwe-Doma, of the PDP. He was the only one to win such a coveted position on the defunct party’s platform. Saliu Mustapha from Kwara State in 2011 became a founding NEC member of the CPC, first as an Ex-Officio, and subsequently as its National Deputy Chairman under the leadership of Prince Tony Momoh.
Also, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, who is currently leading the Reconciliation Committee of the party and has travelled across the nooks and crannies of the country meeting members of the party, also stands the chance of clinching the chairmanship position if he can win the trust of the president.
Presidential Aspirants Await Outcome Of Convention
Some presidential aspirants are, however, waiting for the conclusion of the forthcoming national convention before making up their minds on whether to formally declare their ambition or not. Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, is one of them. But the surprise addition is the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.
Some of the presidential aspirants in the party have also started scheming to ensure that their men hold key positions in the National Working Committee that will emerge at the convention. Most of them, THEWILL gathered, have begun the leg work and are criss-crossing the country with different permutations.
The Caretaker Chairman of the party, Bala Buni, is being lobbied by the APC governors towards ensuring that whoever emerges as Chairman will dance to the tune of the state governors during the primary that will lead to the election of the presidential candidate of the party.
Faced with the stark reality arising from the horse-trading in the party, ahead of the national convention, the Kogi governor, who has been boasting before now that nothing would stop him from contesting the presidential election, is singing a different tune.
Fearing that the likely emergence of a National Chairman from the North-Central, his immediate constituency, will jeopardise his ambition, he has tactically disclosed that he will wait until end of the convention before making up his mind on joining the presidential race.
Several attempts through phone and text messages to reach the National Secretary of the party, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, for comments were unsuccessful as he neither answered his phone nor replied to the messages.
However, a chieftain of the party and Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, Mr Osita Okechukwu, told THEWILL that there was no cause for alarm, regarding the crises in various states. He said the party would come out of the crises stronger than ever.
“To be honest, there is no cause for alarm as far as the fixed February date for our national convention is concerned. There is a limit to shifting the date, as all of us are aware that 2022 is the eve of the 2023 general election and the year of primaries,’’ Okechukwu said.
With the crises plaguing the party on many fronts, there is no doubt that its leaders have an uphill task on their hands making peace in the days ahead, just a month to the convention. For now, it is a bumpy ride to the convention.
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
