November 28, (THEWILL) – The ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) last Monday shifted its National Convention, which was earlier scheduled for December 2021, to February 2022. The party announced the new date after President Muhammadu Buhari had approved it.
The shift, however, did not come as a surprise to political analysts and critics in the country, who are aware that the party is currently enmeshed in a crisis and hardly in a position to hold a peaceful convention. Even then, to many Nigerians, the new date for the convention is doubtful.
Explaining why the convention was postponed till Febrauary 2022, the Chairman of the Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party, Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State said, “Four APC states are still in the process of completing their congresses. Anambra, understandably because of the recent governorship election in the state, is one of them. Zamfara and two others have not held theirs because of logistic challenges.
“Christmas is around the corner and by early January we will be very busy with Ekiti. So the state governors suggested that the party and the President should graciously consider February. The President is favourably disposed to the suggestion.”
But, shedding more light on the postponement, the National Reconciliation Committee of the party, which was set up to look into grievances arising from ward, local governments and state congresses, said it received 35 petitions from aggrieved members across the country.
The Chairman of the nine-member committee, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said this in Abuja, a day after the postponement.
Adamu said, “At this point in time, we have something in the region of 35 petitions and as you do know, you may wish to ponder the fact that the petitions cannot have the same weight.
“So, where we believe that the problems are deep-rooted, we intend to go and unravel what the problems are and decide how best to proffer solutions to them and make recommendations to the party,” he said.
He added that the committee had analysed the petitions received, saying that it was developing a timeline for meeting the petitioners and other people involved.
This, the former Nasarawa State governor noted, was the position of the committee. He was hopeful that the committee would be able to conclude its assignment and report to the party’s leadership before the commencement of the national convention.
He expressed the optimism that the committee would deliver on its mandate before February 2022. He explained that the committee had developed a road map on how it would approach its assignment and was working on that to achieve its mandate.
“One of the key activities we lined up was to give every person, who is involved with any petition as a stakeholder in the party, an opportunity to be heard and have a fair hearing.
“To do so, we ran adverts in six national newspapers and the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and by last Friday, we had received quite a number of petitions. Some people are still in the process of sending their petitions to us.
“We have decided to be liberal enough as long as it doesn’t challenge our ability to cope with the current situation where there are some definitive positions as to when the party’s national convention will take place.
“We hope to complete our assignment and submit the reports so that the party can take whatever position it wants and make recommendations before the conventions.
“We are also hoping that by the time we go for the national convention, we will go as a party with little or no problems,” he said.
Buni had said the party’s national reconciliation committee was critical to its planned national convention.
He said the outcome of the committee would determine the conduct of the party’s national convention.The APC National Reconciliation Committee was constituted on Oct. 11, 2021, to reconcile members of the party, especially those who were aggrieved by the outcome of the congresses held by various state chapters of the party.
The committee was mandated to reconcile, harmonise, integrate and unite members of the party and resolve real or seeming differences and cement all cracks within the party, ahead of its national convention.
At its inauguration, Buni said the committee was expected to conduct appropriate engagement between identified groups in each state where there were disputes. This, he said, should be done to bring about genuine reconciliation and establish lasting peace and unity in the party for the purpose of making it a united front.
But analysts are saying that the crisis in the party was probably engineered by the party chairman to extend his tenure in office. But Buni dismissed this notion last Monday, saying that he had no reason to sit tight in office as the APC Caretaker Chairman.
Many disagree with Buni, who emerged as the party’s helmsman in June 2020 after the dissolution of the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee.
Speaking after he was appointed chairman of the caretaker committee, Buni assured APC members of the justice in the process of managing the crisis in the party.
Saddled with the task of bringing peace to the APC and to organise a national convention that would produce another elected executive for the party within six months, Buni and his committee would have spent about 20 months in office by February 2022.
Political analysts have also pointed out that the current state of the APC contrasts with what Buni promised on assumption of office on June 25, 2020.
Speaking with THEWILL, a public affairs commentator based in Abuja, Ojo Adegoke said, “As of today, Buni has brought the party to a higher crisis level than he met it. The crack within the APC is deepening every day as efforts to reconcile its aggrieved members and end the divisions arising from congresses organised by the various factions is not yielding immediate results”,.
THEWILL recalls that after the congresses, the party has been in crises in more than 12 states across the federation and efforts by the Appeal Panels set up by the party to look into complaints arising from the state congresses, which were held in several states on October 16, 2021 have been shunned by aggrieved members.
For instance, the APC State Congress Appeal Committee for Osun State, which had upheld the election and victory of Gboyega Famodun, who emerged from the congress organised by Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s group as the authentic chairman of the party in the state, said it received no petition from any factional group.
The five-man appeal panel also affirmed the victory of other state officers elected at the congress, which was held in Osogbo on Saturday, October 16, 2021.
Chairman of the committee, Obed Wadzani, disclosed that although a parallel state congress reportedly held in Osun, the panel did not receive any petition or appeal.
Wadzani said the decision of the panel to affirm the results of the state congress conducted and supervised by the Gbenga Elegbeleye-led State Congress Committee was therefore taken in the absence of any petition or appeal.
The aggrieved members, who are mostly loyalists of a former governor of the state and current Minister of Interior, Engr Rauf Aregbesola, are said to have approached a court to seek redress.
A similar scenario played out in Ekiti State where a group of aggrieved members of the state chapter of the party, mostly supporters of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, are at loggerheads with the state governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi. Members of the group, known as SWAGA, are already in court in Ado Ekiti seeking the cancelation of the congresses held in the state.
The Appeal Committee set up for Ekiti State and led by former Oyo State Deputy Governor, Chief Iyiola Oladokun, also said it did not receive any petition.
He said, “We commenced operations at the party secretariat, but nobody presented any petition to us.
“Before we left Abuja, no petition or document of complaints was given to us. We were even here at the secretariat but we received none. We learnt that all the officials emerged through consensus at the state congress.
“Despite that, there was still voice affirmation in electing the 36-member executives. Based on this, we are preparing our report to be submitted at the national headquarters of our party.
“No group by the name SWAGA submitted any petition before us. No petition from any group or individual was received in the course of our stay here.”
THEWILL recalls that reports claimed the SWAGA group had set up parallel executives at the wards and local governments level in Ekiti State.
Political analysts and critics alike see the silence of aggrieved party members in various states and their non-submission of petitions to the APC appeal committees as a way of showing their lack of confidence in the committees.
On his part, a former Legal Adviser of the APC, Dr. Muiz Banire, speaking on a Television programme, said that mass defections were imminent in the party.
Banire hinted that the factions not recognised by the national leadership of the APC might be forced to exit the party.
He said, “The implication is simple: That is factionalisation of the party all over. It started from the ward congresses, through the local government (area congresses) to the state (congresses). It is unlikely or unexpected that even at the national convention you are likely to have the same thing. If you recall vividly a few months ago, I predicted that it would happen. Certainly, the implosion, in my very strong view, is inevitable.”
According to him, most of the people that are already outside or declared to be outside by the party “will find their way elsewhere…to another platform. I think that will be the eventual consequence.”
Also speaking, former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has hinted that a former governor and some bigwigs will soon defect from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party.
Saraki also predicted that there will be a gale of defections soon.
He said, “We have the potential to turn the country around and that is why I believe with the right leadership, things can change in the country. I often say that no one can give whatever he does not have. In 2023, we have to get it right and to do that, we needed the right kind of leadership.
“There were certain state governors that we already knew would leave. And we were not surprised that they defected to the APC. Since then, we have had some bigwigs that joined us. Also in this week, there is a former governor that is going to join our party, PDP.
“Aside from that, we know that some of the leaders in the ruling party will not defect early, but they will do it late. You saw that during the 2015 election. So, keep watching. Nigerians will not be surprised when they begin to see some defections from the ruling party to the PDP.”
It would also be recalled that before the state congresses on October 16, 2021, grievances from wards and local government congresses had earlier widened cracks within the APC, which is already grappling with a leadership crisis at the national level.
The parallel state congresses led to the emergence of two different party chairmen and executive committees in some state chapters of the APC.
The states where parallel congresses were held included Enugu, Ogun, Osun, Kwara, Akwa Ibom, Kano, Niger, Lagos and Abia.
The question that analysts are asking is will the APC be able to achieve stability and the desired peace before February 2022 or will the convention date be shifted again. The answer cannot even be answered by the top hierarchy of the party today. So the waiting game, with regard to when peace will eventually return to the ruling party, continues.
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.
