Group lauds Buhari, Buni over postponement of APC national convention

The All Progressive Congress (APC) Professionals and Great Minds has endorsed the ruling party’s reversed timetable and rescheduling of its national convention.

The group, which said the development is an attestation that reason has prevailed over selfish interests, also hailed President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Mai Mala Buni for their interventions.

Speaking at a press conference today in Abuja, Amb. Ugokwe Prince said the Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) displayed bravery amidst pressure, sabotage and blackmail.

According to Prince, the move has averted impending doom in the APC while further saving Nigeria from spiraling into an intractable crisis as “any resulting destruction of the APC would have significantly distorted the political landscape”.

He, however, called for sanction for those that almost succeeded in destroying the party.

The group also urged the CECPC to be wary of those governors behind the crisis in the party, urging that they should not be allowed to play major roles in future activities.

The APC Professionals and Great Minds, therefore, advised the CECPC to make good use of its additional time in office to further reconcile the party and undo the governor’s damage.

Read full statement below:

The All Progressive Congress (APC) Professionals and Great Minds is pleased to welcome you to this press briefing. Our pleasure derives from the success that has been recorded in the fight against the erosion of our democracy as APC members have proven that the collective will is superior to the imposition of a minority, irrespective of how ferocious that minority is.

Gentlemen of the press, recall that there has been a lot of rumblings over the forced scheduling of the elective National Convention of the APC for Saturday February 26, 2022. The date was widely rejected, criticized, and kicked against by APC stakeholders. Only those that imposed the date on the party, some self-centered northern state governors, were in support of the inauspicious date.

The rejection of that stemmed mostly from the obvious reason that the party is still too fractured and splintered at the state chapters, caused mostly by the same state governors. Even the Reconciliatory Committee, led by His Excellency Abdullahi Adamu appealed for more time to reconcile more factions. There were also other factors, like logistics and the need for further consultations before the convention.

In all, those calling for the convention to be shifted from the February 26 date meant well for the party. But the state governors were hell bent on holding the event on the date they have chosen as part of their selfish intention to hijack the party from its true owners, which are the party members. It is on record that the governors resorted to extreme measures to impose their minority decision on the rest of us. We have noted this act of belligerence against party members and there shall be reckoning.

Gentlemen of the press, we are pleased that reason has finally prevailed, and the National Executive Committee has agreed a reversed timetable of the party’s activities which has effectively postponed the APC National Convention to a later date. APC Professionals and Great Minds therefore endorses the reversed timetable and the rescheduling of the the national convention. For us, this development is an attestation that reason has prevailed against selfish interest.

We commend the APC as a party that is receptive to the views of its members. The decision to postpone the National Convention is a welcome development within the party and it is good for Nigeria’s democracy as a nation. There is no denying the fact that the crisis over the scheduling of the convention was beginning to impact the entire nation negatively.

APC Professionals and Great Minds appreciates the wisdom of the party’s leadership even as we commend their bravery in addressing the concerns raised by critical stakeholders in defiance of a clique that wanted to personalize a party that we all worked hard to build. This patriotic step has saved the APC from sinking as was already being predicted. It also saved Nigeria from spiraling into an intractable crisis since any resulting destruction of the APC would have significantly distorted the political landscape as we know it.

This development has confirmed that the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) remains an assembly of credible Nigerians and faithful party loyalists who mean well for our party and the future of this country. Their perseverance in the face of blackmail, harassment, and provocation from the camp of the state governors is a lesson to the rest of us to maintain our focus even in the face of persecution once we are certain that we are doing the right thing.

We will however urge consequences for those that almost succeeded in destroying the APC. Individuals that can be inordinate in their ambition to the point of willingly sabotaging the party must be taught that they cannot get away with such rascality. It is important as well that a precedence is set to discourage anyone or group of persons from attempting such stunts in the future. Even if the party’s leadership decides to be magnanimous, it is up to party members, especially at the state chapters, to exact some sort of punishments for the these overbearing governors.

We plan to make a demand to the Reconciliation Committee, and even the CECPC, that the specific state governors behind the trauma the party went through should only be allowed to play limited role in the future activities of the party. This is especially so when it has been established that these people had perfected plans to defect after ruining the party.

Meanwhile, we urge the CECPC to make good use of its additional time in office to further reconcile the party and undo the damage that the governors did to the party with their selfish preoccupation. The party must not be allowed to go into the 2023 General Elections bearing the scar of division sowed by the governor.

Thank you for listening.