CLOCK TICKS FOR APC

With trepidation and fears that everything could go wrong, about 4000 delegates from Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress, APC are expected to gather in Abuja on Saturday to elect new national leaders that will manage the affairs of the party towards the 2023 general election.

While members of the party are hoping for a positive outcome from the event, analysts said the national convention may well mark the beginning of not just the implosion of the party but its exit from power. Such doomsday predictions for the APC are not out of order given the way affairs of the party have been managed since 2019.

For one, Mai Mala Buni, the chairman of Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) which has been running the affairs of the party for nearly two years now was for the better part of late last week trying to assert his leadership of APC and the organisation of the Convention. The Yobe State governor had survived a coup to overthrow him while he was away from the country by a group of governors of APC led by Abubakar Bello of Niger State who was his deputy in the CECPC the week before.

The ‘coupists’ had accused Buni of insincerity and a hideous plot to frustrate the holding of the national convention for his selfish interest. Among others, Buni’s enemies who claimed to have the support of the President Muhammadu Buhari had accused their Yobe counterpart of hiding a court injunction obtained to stop the convention from other leaders of the party.

The Bello group had within its three days of fame consequently tinkered with the convention committee set up by Buni, inaugurated the state chairpersons of the party, affirmed the zoning formula to be used to choose the leadership of the party and kicked off the process of the sale of forms for aspirants for the various positions.

However, the Bello-led group was stopped after it informed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC of its plans to hold a National Executive Committee, NEC of the party where the sack of Buni was expected to be ratified. INEC had written back, saying it could not honour the invitation because the letter was not signed by the leaders of the party it recognized.

Also, President Buhari whose inaction has been blamed for the ballooning crisis in the party had in a letter early last week directed the feuding APC governors to allow Buni to conduct the party’s planned national convention.

Buhari, in a letter he addressed to the Chairman of Progressives Governors Forum and Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, dated March 16, 2022, also insisted that the APC convention must go ahead this Saturday as planned.

He also pointed out that the plot to sack Buni through the backdoor as the chairman of CECPC might lead to litigations and invalidation of all APC activities by the INEC. “No doubt, these controversies and uncertainties, as enumerated above, pose a real threat to the party; and may lead to a possible non-recognition of its activities, elections and the probable invalidation of all its other actions by INEC. This may ultimately even lead to its implosion and non-existence,” the president said in the letter he released from London where he was undertaking medical treatment.

Consequently, the president emphatically directed the reinstatement of Buni while warning members of the APC Governors’ Forum and their followers to desist from any behaviour or utterance that will likely lead to disunity in the ranks of the party.

He also directed that the Buni-led CECPC should be allowed to proceed with all necessary preparations to hold the convention as planned- unfailingly, on 26th March 2022.

With the strong backing of INEC and Buhari, Buni had, following his return to Nigeria last week, begun the process of taking charge of the organization of the convention, albeit on a cautious note.

The Yobe State governor had said he would take responsibility for all the actions taken by the Bello group, with claims that he properly transferred power to his Niger State counterpart to act in his stead while he was away on medical grounds. Indeed, he had disowned a new list of committees released for the convention following his arrival into the country by the Secretary of CECPC, Senator James Akpanudoedehe.

He insisted that he would abide by the list of the committee set up by the Niger State Governor, while also dismissing claims that some of the activities initiated by the ‘coupists’ towards the convention while he was away had been suspended.

While insisting that all activities carried out in his absence remained valid and binding, Buni urged all stakeholders and members of the party to disregard the statement discarding the activities of the committee under the leadership of the acting chairman.

He also asserted that he duly transmitted power to Bello to enable him to undergo medical attention. Buni said regarding Bello, “Therefore, all actions and measures taken by the committee under his leadership as acting chairman, remain effective. The party calls for support and understanding to move the party forward to a successful convention slated for March 26th, 2022.”

Analysts said Buni’s position was informed by the fear that INEC might render activities of the Bello group nugatory to the detriment of the APC as warned by President Buhari. In the same spirit of doing everything possible to keep in line with INEC’s regulation, Buni had also insisted that Senator James Akpanudoedehe remains the Secretary of CECPC.

And last Friday, an FCT High Court Abuja, on Friday vacated an order of November 18, 2021, restraining the March 26 convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC). And last Friday, another major impediment to the holding of the national convention was removed with the vacation of injunction against the event.

The injunction, which the Bello group had accused Buni of hiding was granted in a case instituted by one Salisu Umoru, against the APC, the Caretaker Committee and INEC. Umoru, had sought to restrain the APC, Governor Buni and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from organising any convention until the determination of the suit.

He had further sought an “Interlocutory injunction restraining the 1st and 2nd defendants/respondent (APC and Governor Buni), their allies, agents, representatives, associates or whoever is acting for them or through them from organising, holding or conducting the national convention of the APC in January and February 2022 or any other date either before or after pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.”

Justice Kawu had in the judgment delivered last Friday held that a member of a political party cannot sue the party. He said the initial order he gave on November 18, 2021, has been overtaken by a recent Supreme Court judgment on a similar matter.

But aside from this, there are many other cases instituted against the holding of the convention or the legality of the Buni Caretaker Committee itself in courts across the country.

Some of the cases were instituted by chieftains of the party aggrieved over the outcome of the state congresses of the party.

Recall that the APC nationwide state congresses held in October last year had led to the emergence of parallel executives leading to the split of the party in the states. Efforts of the Buni-led Caretaker Committee to reconcile the aggrieved members through a nine-member committee chaired by the former governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Adamu have largely been unsuccessful.

Nevertheless, the faction of the state executives, mostly those loyal to governors in the affected states have been inaugurated and recognized by the Buni-led Caretaker Committee.

Thus, states such as Osun, Ogun, Kwara, Zamfara, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bauchi and Kebbi still had parallel executives even as the APC is set for the national convention.

While with the ruling of the Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State nullifying Section 84 (12) of the 2022 Electoral Act, some appointees of the president will be able to be part of their state delegation at the convention. However, most of their supporters may not be able to attend if the event goes ahead. The contentious section of the Electoral Act had barred political appointees from contesting for position or participation in the congress of any political party without resigning from their position.

Among those whose supporters and loyalists will not be allowed into the Eagle Square venue of the convention if things stand as it is now include Ministers such as Rauf Aregbesola, Godswill Akpabio, Festus Keyamo, Lai Mohammed. Also, party chieftains such as Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Rochas Okorocha, Ibrahim Shekarau, Adamu Aliero, Danjuma Goje, Magnus Abe among others whose parallel faction of executives in the various states were not recognized by the Buni Committee will not be with their supporters at the convention.

Some of the aggrieved party chieftains are already being wooed by the opposition PDP and there are fears that some of them may announce their exit from APC during or after the convention.

The issue of zoning will also be another contentious issue for the party to battle with at the convention. While the party has zoned the positions that will be contested for including the chairmanship to different geopolitical zones, some of the aspirants seem not ready to abide by the arrangement.

Aspirants who had obtained and submitted N20 million nomination and expression of interest forms to contest for the position of national chairman of APC as at the time of writing this story include the Senator representing Niger East, Senator Sani Musa; former governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State and Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator George Akume.

The others are former deputy national chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Saliu Mustapha; a former governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Adamu and Mohammed Saidu Etsu.

While all these aspirants are from the North central part of the country where the position was zoned to, a former governor of Zamfara, Abdulaziz Yari, from the North-East, also obtained the party’s national chairmanship expression of interest and nomination forms.

Yari was among the aspirants screened for the position of national chairman of the party last Saturday. Sources told this newspaper that the ambition of Yari is being driven by those who are not comfortable with the zoning arrangement of the party which indicated that only APC members from the South will be allowed to contest the presidency. Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello had continued selling his presidential aspiration to party members and other stakeholders, for example, despite the zoning formula. Also, Yari has lost out in the control of the APC in his home state of Zamfara and his indication of interest may just be a way of keeping himself relevant.

Yet, another challenge for the party was the purported endorsement of Senator Abdullahi Adamu for the position of the national chairman of the party by President Buhari.

While Buhari himself has not spoken out on the endorsement, some reports had claimed that he told some party members that Senator Abdullahi Adamu was his choice for the position.

But some APC governors had opposed the choice, with many of them said to be in favour of Tanko Al-Makura. Some members of APC in the South had rejected Adamu because of previous interviews in which he spoke strongly against the zoning of the presidential ticket of the party for the 2023 presidential election.

Yet, some argue that Adamu’s antecedents, age and physical fitness make him unfit for the position of national chairman of APC.

They also pointed out that the former governor of Nasarawa State had failed in the assignment he was given to reconcile aggrieved members of the party.

There are also members of the party pushing for the emergence of a former member of CPC as the chairman of the party based on expectations that another major party in the alliance, the Action Congress of Nigeria will produce the APC presidential candidate. It was learnt that this group favoured the emergency of Al-Makura as the next chairman of the party.

But other aspirants are also insisting that they will go into the contest, rather than succumb to the blackmail of purported endorsement of Adamu by the president.   “Why did the party sell forms to us? You (APC) sold forms to us. And as far as I’m concerned, there’s never been anybody that officially contacted me or any other aspirants. Nobody! And the spokesperson for Mr President, Femi Adesina, had said that there is no endorsement,” Musa told journalists while submitting his form last Friday.

“So, we want a vibrant leadership. We want leadership that will change the status quo. I want the endorsement of 43 million APC members. That is what I need. The APC needs a leader that will be able to build concessions between all dividing organs,” he added.

Speaking in the same vein, Al-Makura said, “The best option is that which allows franchise and permission for everyone to participate in the exercise. I will support an open-door policy, internal party democracy with the full participation of members so that they will have a sense of belonging and determine the fate and direction of the party.”

However, it was learnt that governors and party members across the country will, ahead of the convention, work to select favourites for the positions zoned to their various zones.

Indeed, for some of the zones, favourites are already emerging with Senator Iyiola Omisore said to be favoured for the position of APC national secretary zoned to the South West.

The South-East zonal leadership of APC had also worked out a zoning formula for all the national working committee positions allocated to the region. The national convention will be held against the jostling for the 2023 presidential ticket of the party and this will also make the event an interesting one to watch. Will APC survive the convention which has been postponed at least three times since Adams Oshiomhole was booted out unceremoniously as the chairman of the party in June 2020? This will become clear in the days ahead.