APC Faces Logjam Over Convention

© Thomson Reuters FILE – Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari attends a plenary session at the start of the Paris Peace Forum, in Paris, France, November 11, 2021. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

Some members of the party have persistently mounted pressure on the Buni-led committee not to shift the February date for the convention.

A group within the party, the National Progressive Hub, in a recent statement by its National Secretary, Mohammed Shehu, commended the caretaker committee, especially on the reconciliatory mechanism put in place to resolve all aggrieved issues. Shehu stressed the need to put in place an elected national working committee to set the party on the path of greater achievement.

The group said the party’s constitution clearly stipulated the processes for putting in place the national working committee.

It said: “We, as a support group, are calling on the party leadership to strictly adhere to the party constitution. We must not offend the rules and laws that govern tenure of office in the party and set examples for others to emulate.

“For the sake of credibility, transparency and to remain relevant, we are in total support of our sister group, the Progressives Youth Movement, to call for the Buni-led committee to convey the convention before it is too late. We want to advise our leaders in APC to please stick to their promise.”

The group said the major task before the caretaker committee is to conduct the national convention, which must be pursued with all vigour and seriousness it deserves.

“We appeal to the members of Buni-led caretaker committee to resist further temptation to postpone the national convention in the interest of larger party members,” it said.

February Convention: To Be Or Not To Be

Stakeholders in the party recently kicked against the proposal by one of the leaders of the party, Senator Orji Kalu, for the postponement of the national convention of the party. Kalu had, in a recent letter to the Chairman of the CECPC, called for the postponement of the party’s convention in order to reconcile aggrieved members in some state chapters of the party riddled with crises.

He also suggested that the convention and the presidential primary should be held the same day. But the Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Dr. Salihu Lukman, in a letter dated December 16, 2020, and addressed to Buni, warned that the chairman would be strengthening political opposition if he refused to hold the convention in February.

While warning that the 2019 Zamfara experience may repeat itself if the needful are not done, Lukman said postponing the convention was detrimental to the party and could jeopardise its chances ahead of the 2023 elections.

According to him, “It is very difficult to excuse the CECPC from the campaign to postpone the February Convention. If the CECPC is not interested in the postponement of the Convention from the agreed February 2022 date, why is it difficult to make a formal announcement about the date and venue of the Convention?

“Statutorily, by the requirement of the Electoral Act, the party is expected to serve at least 21 days’ notice of the Convention to INEC. Which basically means that if the Convention is to hold any day before February 28, 2021, the notice to INEC should be given on or before February 7, 2022. That being the case, the temptation could be to argue that there is more time. Some reminders would be necessary at this point.

While calling on APC leaders to wake up to the responsibility of providing the needed political leadership to the country, Lukman said: “No one should imagine that agendas set in 2014 or 2019 are sufficient to respond to contemporary challenges, which post 2023 governance will be expected to respond to. If anything, it may also be important to emphasise the fact that to respond to contemporary challenges facing the country would require massive investment in human capital development in the country.

“This will call for a deliberate and aggressive policy to mobilise large scale public investment to rebuild public schools at all levels. The correlation between the collapse of education since the mid-1980s, rising levels of unemployment and insecurity are very glaring. As a party, we must come up with practically convincing answers, which should form the basis of public support by Nigerians to guarantee victory in the 2023 elections.

“The burden of responsibility to strengthen the capacity of the APC to put itself in a vantage position to commence internal negotiation around all these issues is on the CECPC, especially, the Chairman, His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni.

“Inability to discharge this responsibility or avoid it by toying the path of a deceptive campaign for postponement of Convention can only spell doom for the APC and return Nigeria to the hands of those who laid the foundation for all the challenges facing the country.

“By way of an appeal to APC leaders, as much as the question of who emerges as the candidate of the party is very important, it is not only who emerges as a candidate of the party that can win the election. But how united are party leaders behind the candidate will be a more determining factor. President Buhari, with all his mass support in the Northern part of the country, may not have won the election in 2015 without the unity of all APC leaders from every part of the country. All APC leaders must be reminded that, there is no one political leader in the country that enjoys convincing mass support of any region of the country.”

Dapo Okubanjo, an aide to one of the chairmanship aspirants, Mallam Saliu Mustapha, said Kalu’s call for a postponement of the convention was unacceptable, stating that it was doubtful that anyone who meant well for APC would back such a call.

While noting that postponing the convention would create more problems within the party, Okubanjo said, “What Kalu said is unacceptable and unnecessary because it could create more problems for the party. Aside from us, every other aspirant is stepping up their bid for the position based on President Buhari’s endorsement of February for the convention.

“So, it is doubtful that anyone, who means well for APC will back that position. Kalu may have his personal reasons but it will be difficult to agree to that move.”

Simon Shango, Campaign Coordinator for the Minister of Special Duties, Senator George Akume, also said there were rules and laws governing the establishment of APC as a party.

Shango, who explained that there must be a period that was allowed for a tenure of a particular executive of a party, said, “I believe by February, the people are conscious that the term will end by that time. So, if we go outside that time, what you are doing is that you are offending the rules and laws that govern tenure of office in the party.

“Whoever calls for the postponement, I have not read it but I don’t think it is practicable. So, I cannot talk about what will happen. I don’t think it is practicable,” he said.

A group of concerned APC stakeholders equally warned that the leadership of the ruling party must do everything to hold the party’s national convention slated for February 2022.

Spokesman of the group, Abdullahi Dauda, in a statement, said Kalu was not a member of the party when it was formed and had no right to say convention should not be held, and therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari to call the Buni committee to order, saying it would resist any attempt to postpone the convention.

The group insisted that the major task before the Caretaker Committee as of today was the conduct of the national convention and must be pursued with all vigour and seriousness it deserves.

“We appeal to members of the Caretaker Committee to resist further temptation to postpone the national convention in the interest of larger party members. We equally appeal to Mr. President, to call the caretaker to order before it is too late.