The Caretaker/Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), led by Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni, was appointed to resolve some crisis in the party. Twenty months after, the crisis has gone from bad to worse. The recent attempt to sideline Buni and the secretary of the committee, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, appears to have collapsed. But, the echoes of the palace coup’ are likely to affect the party in the months to come. Correspondent JIDE ORINTUNSIN reports
Since June 2020 when Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni was appointed chairman of the Caretaker/Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) expectations were high that he would stabilise the party and return it to winning ways within the six months initially allotted to the committee. The competence and ability of the chairman, a former national secretary of the self-acclaimed largest party in Africa, were never in doubt.
But, 20 months after, the affairs of the party have gone from bad to worse. Within that period, the lifespan of the committee has been renewed twice. Buni and his men felt the period will be grossly inadequate to reposition the party. Twice, Buni tacitly sorted and secured extension. His deft moves saw the APC carrying out an aggressive membership drive, which saw the party’s membership register soaring high to 41 million members. The electoral fortunes of the party were also boosted by the defection of three serving governors, former governors, federal and states lawmakers and many critical stakeholders from the opposition party. Under the Buni leadership, the party’s constitution was reviewed and amended to reflect the modern-day realities of political party administration, and its national secretariat was purchased outright.
However, the crisis that has engulfed the party in recent times appears to have dwarfed the achievements of the Buni-led CECPC, particularly the allegation that the committee never intended the much-awaited national convention scheduled for March 26 to take place on that date. Overnight, the Buni-led national caretaker committee, which had the backing of the influential Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) and virtually all the statutory organs of the party appeared to have lost its credibility.
As the name of the committee suggests, its primary assignment was to conduct a convention that will lead to the election of a new National Working Committee (NWC). But, alas, the committee has failed to carry out this onerous task. On a couple of times, the committee under the guise of one thing or the other had cause to postpone the convention.
In the last one week, the party’s woes have multiplied and it appears to be on the brink of collapse. Party leaders across the various organs have become disillusioned with a palpable fear that the party was heading for an implosion. This indication was echoed by the former Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena. He called on President Muhammadu Buhari and other party leaders to call Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello who is a member of the CECPC to order. Nabena said Bello’s attempt to call for the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting was an illegal act because he lacks the locus for it. For Nabena, that amounts to usurpation of the powers of the chairman of the CECPC.
Instead of engaging Nabena, the Niger State governor, with the backing of virtually all but one member of CECPC and some governors elected on the platform of APC, summoned a meeting of the caretaker committee on Monday, March 7 and declared himself the acting chairman of the committee in what political watchers called a” palace coup” against Mai Mala Buni.
To assert his new position, Sani Bello after a brief caretaker committee meeting, which had all but one member in attendance, formally inaugurated the elected state chairmen of the party who have been hanging on the corridor since October 2021 when they were elected. He received the Abdulrahman Abdulrazak Zoning Committee report in the company of no fewer than six other governors, who came in solidarity. Within 12 hours Bello further consolidated his new status with the state chairmen in a meeting the same night at Transcorp Hilton Hotel.
Within a twinkle of an eye, the national secretariat came alive with activities. Chairmen and secretaries of national convention sub-committees were inaugurated, and the much-awaited zoning arrangement for the sharing of party elective positions at the convention was released. The hope for the hosting of the convention came alive.
Though it was not a smooth sail for Bello, as the Secretary of the caretaker committee, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, a loyalist of the embattled chairman had earlier in the day in a statement kicked against the idea that Buni had been removed. He insisted that the leadership of the committee was intact. Akpanudoedehe maintained that the report of the removal of Buni was nothing but fake news and should be disregarded. He said: “The APC is a progressive political party guided by rules. Leadership changes are not announced by ‘sources’ through name-dropping in the media. We urge our teeming supporters, members and indeed the general public to remain calm and support the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led CECPC conduct a rancour-free and credible national convention deserving of our great party.”
Sins of Buni:
While the CECPC was working out a soft landing pad for Buni, keeping to their chests the sins of the chairman, the immediate past director-general of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Moh Lukman will not spare the Yobe State governor. He went to town with a catalogue of Buni’s shortcomings in a statement he titled, “Rescuing the APC: A task for all party leaders”.
Highlighting the misdemeanours of Buni and endorsing his purported sack, the former PGF boss in the statement said: “The truth is that President Buhari, like most party leaders and members, is highly disappointed at the serial cases of deliberate efforts by Buni and his associates to block the APC convention from holding based on alleged personal ambitions. Between November 2021 and January 2022, the APC convention had to be postponed three times because of his deliberate refusal to initiate the processes required, such as booking the venue for the convention and serving the statutory three weeks’ notice to INEC.
“In addition, there were other serious allegations against the leadership of Buni, which include the discovery that his group, since November 2021, had obtained a court injunction against the convention and are waiting until three or two days to the convention before serving it on the party to succeed in blocking the March 26 APC convention from holding.”
Lukman emphatically accused Buni of plotting to continue to run the affairs of the party and conduct the party’s primary where candidates for 2023 elections would emerge.
His words: “Based on that, there are specific allegations of Buni striking deals with some presidential aspirants to ensure their emergence as APC candidates for the 2023 elections.
“Some of the allegations suggest extorting monies from these aspirants, including someone who is yet to join the party. It is being alleged that campaign offices for the aspirant are already being opened even before such a person joined the party.
“All these highlight problems of trust, which the leadership of Buni represented. A good confirmation of why it will be difficult for party leaders and members to continue to invest any trust in the Buni leadership of the caretaker committee is the attempt to constitute another zoning committee after the meeting between Buhari and Progressive Governors on zoning, based on which stakeholders of the party at zonal levels are to finalise negotiations on positions. As far as Buni is concerned, his interest is supreme and together with the secretary of the CECPC, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe and their collaborators outside the CECPC, they must block the APC convention from holding on March 26.”
If Lukman was mild in his allegations, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai was not only blunt in levelling his allegations, but he was also more revealing. He catalogued the “atrocities” of the caretaker committee chairman in a no-hold-bar interview on Channels Television. The Kaduna governor cited a court order. He said: “We got to know of a court order last year. It was obtained in November. A member of the party went to court to say there must not be a convention until his case against the party is disposed of which can take months or years and the lawyers of Buni went to court and agreed with the person and nobody knew about this order.
“It was a hidden nuclear weapon to destroy the convention which further made us believe that there are fifth columnists in the party that want to bring this party down because if we don’t have convention and we go ahead with the primaries we might likely have our candidates lose all their seats as the case in Zamfara. We reported to the president that no action had been taken on the order. He (President Buhari) said the Niger State governor must take over on Monday and we should use whatever legal means necessary to make sure that the convention is delivered.”
To drive home the massive support being enjoyed by Bello, El-Rufai told his viewers that at least 19 out of the 23 APC governors, as well as the president, was firmly behind him as the new caretaker chairman. His words: “Bello has the president’s full backing and the backing of at least 19 of the 23 progressive governors and deputy governors. There are some governors not fully on board and they are the ones planting fake stories. Since Monday when he (Bello) took over, we have made substantial progress.”
Also pencilled to be sent packing from the CECPC is the secretary, a one-time Minister of State FCT and former senator, Akpanudoedehe. According to El-Rufai and Lukman, his cup is equally full of infractions against the progress of the party. Aside from conniving with his boss, Buni, he was accused of insubordination by refusing to take instructions from Governor Bello who is acting chairman.
El-Rufai stated: “I can assure you that even when he (Buni) returns to the country, he will handle no position. The national secretary, I believe, the CECPC has taken action against him already. The CECPC has decided on him. The CECPC will explain this decision in due time.”
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