President Muhammadu Buhari is slated to meet with certain governors only four days before the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) National Convention to develop a consensus list of national officials to prevent conflict at the convention.
The gathering is claimed to be the result of party members rejecting the micro zoning plan chosen for the party’s optimal functioning.
It was also learned that major initiatives are taking place in the Presidency to allay concerns over new joiners’ dominance in the next APC National Working Committee (NWC) over legacy members.
“I’m not in the photo of the meeting you’re talking about,” Graba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President, responded when reached.
According to sources, although members in the Southwest and Southeast were unable to agree on a consensus list, the same worry was expressed that politicians from outside the North Central region had acquired forms for the party’s national chairperson.
Senator Hope Uzodimma, the governor of Imo State, is said to be one of the state governors called to the conference, which is intended to get them all on the same page over the distribution of posts designated to respective areas.
Governor Mai Mala Buni, head of the Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), was at the party office yesterday to begin the process of harmonising the list, which has sparked a deepening conflict among members.
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Buni addressed to matters such as synchronization of membership lists for different committees put up by Buni and Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State, who acted on his behalf while he was abroad in the United Arab Emirates to attend to his health (UAE).
On Saturday, the screening committee, led by Katsina State Governor Bello Masari, began its job. After Buni’s involvement, it was reliably learned that aspirant screening would begin today.
This comes as the chairman of the media committee, Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nassarawa State, said that the rumor that they are at odds over the distribution of party seats ahead of the convention is untrue. He asserted that his coworkers had settled their disagreements and put the previous quarrel behind them.
However, reports from the Southeast suggest that peace is still a long way off. The governor of Imo is alleged to be opposing the selection of Dr. Ken Nnamani, the former Senate President, as the consensus option for the position of Deputy National Chairman (South).
According to sources, Governor Uzodimma is still enraged about Nnamani’s participation in the attempted sabotage of Mr. Ugochukwu Agballah’s election as APC Enugu State Chairman.
As a method of repaying Nnamani, the Imo State governor chose to sponsor Mr. Emmanuel Eneukwu, the party’s previous Southeast Zonal chairman, for the position of Deputy National Chairman (South).
When contacted, Eneukwu acknowledged that he had previously been examined for the job, emphasizing that the events in APC should be seen as part of a rebuilding process.
While disputing that he was prevented from acquiring nomination forms, Eneukwu said that he was certain of winning the poll on March 26, stating that the party’s constitution allowed for direct, indirect, and consensus methods of candidate election.
He disputed that any kind of agreement had been reached for the Southeast-zoned post, and said that if more than one candidate applied, the seat would be filled by election.
“Such unsubstantiated cheap whispers have no place in APC,” Eneukwu, who was previously Enugu State chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), stated, dismissing rumours that the former Senate President had been penciled in for the job.
When asked for his comment on events and explanations on his interest in the disputed post, former Senate President Nnamani, who is also a member of CECPC, did not pick up his phone or respond to a brief message.
In a similar event, there are signs that the APC’s Southwest zone may split at the National Convention, as a result of several party stakeholders’ intentions to run for posts that are not allocated to their states.
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Yesterday, it was reliably learned that numerous members of the zone’s party had abandoned the zoning arrangements. Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, a former Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, has received a nomination form to run for national vice-chairman, which is already allocated to the Ondo/Ekiti axis.
Bolaji Repete, a former Deputy National Youth Leader from Oyo, is also alleged to have secured a nomination form in order to run for national vice chairmanship.
In Oyo State, some dissatisfied stakeholders are determined to fight the job of National Secretary against Senator Iyiola Omisore, who is alleged to be the governors’ preferred candidate.
Adebayo Shittu, a former Minister of Communication, and Professor Abideen Olaiya, both from Oyo State, are alleged to have purchased nomination papers to run for National Secretary.
President Buhari is said to have backed Abdulahi Adamu, a former governor of Nasarawa State, for national chairman, and there are also rumors that Mr. President is contemplating Ife Oyedele, the Executive Director of Niger Delta Power Holding, as his preferred choice for national secretary.
Southwest governors, according to a source, believe that the President cannot choose a national chairman and a national secretary at the same time.
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State must have been influenced by the development to nominate Mr Isaac Kekemeke, a former state chairman of the Ondo APC, as a candidate for national vice chairman to represent Ondo, while forming a coalition with other governors in the region to oppose Oyedele, who is rumored to be Buhari’s choice in the Southwest.
One of the sources close to power in the Lagos APC also criticized Afikuyomi, claiming that the party’s officials have recognized Afikuyomi as the state’s national youth chairman and have since decided who to support. “The fact that Afikuyomi acquired a form will have no bearing on the calculations since the position of national vice chairman has been transferred to Ondo.”
As a result, a Lagos APC leader, Fouad Oki, stated yesterday that the zoning arrangement looked to have been abandoned. “If not, why would certain stakeholders outside North Central acquire nomination forms for national chairman when the position is really designed for that zone?” he emphasized.
Mr. President’s preference for or endorsement of any candidate for a specific job, according to Oki, does not stack up. “If it is true that the President has backed Adamu, why has Senator George Akume, a cabinet member, gone ahead and obtained a nomination form to contest?”
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“How can it be said that Mr Buhari sponsored anybody when Senator Al Makura, one of the President’s man-Fridays in the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), went ahead and obtained a candidacy form?” Would Akume and Al Makura pretend they aren’t aware of Mr. President’s body language?”
Meanwhile, results from the Oyo chapter as of yesterday showed that several stakeholders are quite dissatisfied with the National Secretary’s zoning in Osun.
They said that handing up the job to someone from outside Oyo would be an unforgivable betrayal. Perhaps in support of Afikuyomi, the Lagos Political Front (LPF) has objected to the nomination of a national youth leader.
