APC Chairmanship: Consensus Our Best Option, Buhari Declares

Ahead of its March 26, 2022 national convention, President Muhammadu Buhari has urged governors and chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to explore the option of getting a consensus chairman to run the party’s affairs.

Chairman of the APC Governors Forum and Kebbi state Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu said this Tuesday while briefing State House correspondents at the end of a meeting between the APC governors and President Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

“President Buhari is a believer in consensus as one of the options of producing leaders and he urged us to explore consensus while recognising that many people who have indicated interest are equally competent but only one person will occupy the office at the end of the day. Consensus is part of our constitution and he urged us to work towards consensus.

“We have produced a number of national chairmen by consensus; Bisi Akande emerge as the pioneer chairman of the APC through consensus, John Oyegun emerged by consensus, Adama Oshiomhole emerged by consensus. So, the president reminded us of that.

“And the governors, I have said earlier, have also been working to ensure that as part of equitable arrangement, zoning and consensus are incorporated. We have done that at the lower levels, and even at the national level it’s almost certain that we will achieve it,” he said.

He said the APC governors had officially informed the president of the new date for the party’s national convention where officials are expected to be elected.

“The date of the convention, the caretaker committee briefed us yesterday of their meeting and the proposed March 26, 2022. And today, the governors informed Mr. President that we have had that, we have had the briefing from the caretaker committee and we are supportive of their position,” he said.

On the proposed zonal congresses which many argued have no provisions in the party’s constitution, the governor said all available options would be looked into.

“I think there has been so much debate. Yesterday, there was a statement to the effect that even the letter that has gone out was withdrawn. So, zonal congresses are not explicitly stated in the Constitution.

“Particularly, how you do zonal congresses? And we have in the past done them with National Convention, but nothing again in the constitution, stops them from being done outside the national convention. But the final form will be decided, given the input we have provided,” the governor said.

He said contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the APC governors are not divided.

“Are governors divided? Not at all, the 22 governors of the APC are united. We are in total support of Mr. President, we are appreciative of his leadership, we commend him for his leadership. We are appreciative of the sacrifice of the national caretaker and extraordinary convention planning committee. And we thank them for the successes recorded under them. Our party, like I said, is greater and stronger, with more members by the day,” he said.

Also speaking, Kaduna state Governor Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai said the governors were hitherto divided on the issue of timing for the national convention.

“We were divided over the timing of the convention. Some governors felt we should not have the convention until we resolved all the congresses issues in some states because in some of the states, these matters are even in court.

“So some governors held the view that we should wait until all these are resolved and that was not borne out of any agenda or selfish interest but just a realistic position to avoid violating any laws or putting our party structures or elected candidates in problem in future.

“But after our meeting last night to deliberate on the proposal by the national caretaker committee and our briefing with the president today, we are all on the same page,” he said.

He said the APC had resolved the zoning formula to be used for national offices of the party.

“We have agreed on a zoning formula for all the six geo-political zones and essentially, we swapped the positions such that now northern zone will take positions that the southern zone had in the last eight years and vice-versa.

“It is a very simple, equitable and fair formula. We will now go back and consult at the zonal level and look at the positions that are available and the process of preparing for the convention that will start in earnest,”he said.

Also speaking, Plateau state Governor Simon Bako Lalong said the APC would outlive the tenure of President Buhari by remaining in power beyond 2023.

Okorocha

In a related development, the immediate past governor of Imo state, Senator Rochas Okorocha has proffered solution to the crisis rocking the APC over repeatedly postponed national convention.

Okorocha, who spoke to Senate correspondents after plenary Tuesday, specifically suggested that founding leaders of the party across the original four blocks should be allowed to nominate interested party members for sensitive positions such as national chairman, secretary, women leader, youth leader, organising secretary etc.

He said while President Buhari as leader of the Congress for Progress Change (CPC) bloc should be given the honour of deciding who becomes the next national chairman of the party , others like Senator Bola Tinubu of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN), Ogbonnaya Onu of the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party(ANPP) , himself as leader of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) faction then, should also be giving the honour of picking the national secretary and other important positions.

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Sharing the party’s positions on that basis, he added , would help in preventing the ship of the party from hitting the rock.

He said: “Our party is a great party, APC is a great party, what is wrong with our party is that we have forgotten how we all started, we should not make the mistake of PDP of the old and I think that will be corrected with the party’s Convention now slated for March 26 , 2022.

“What we need to do is to go back to basics so that we adhere to the culture of unity and equity the party was known for at formation in 2013.

“There were four political parties that formed APC. CPC led by the former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari who is now the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu came with ACN , Governor Abdulaziz Yari , Senator Ali Modu Sheriff (SAS) and former governor of Ebonyi state, Ogbonaya Onu who is now Minister of Science and Technology and Rochas Okorocha leading the APGA.

“Our initial position was that all positions would be shared among these four parties and DPP that came with few members and after the merger, the new PDP joined.

“Now, the wisest thing for all of us to do is to go back to the founding basis and distribute the political positions as we did it that time and there will be no rancour and it will be very peaceful.

“The father of the party now is President Muhammadu Buhari who should be given that respect to pick the person that will hold sensitive position in the party as Chairman, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu should always be made to produce some key positions in the party and the other parties and should also be made to have positions and when this is done there will be no problem in APC.

“But if we go into election at this time and of course it will open a Pandora of litigations because where 1000 people buy nominations form, APC can make an income of N2 billion on sales of forms and after that, APC can spend N3 billion on litigations.

“So the wise thing to do is to call the founding fathers of the party and give them key positions and carry everyone along, including the new people that joined the party.”