By Rex Enabulele, Abuja
There are fresh plots by some members of Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in collaboration with some of the party’s governors, to push for holding its national convention and presidential primary election the same day.
The implication is that a new date is being considered, despite the assurance by the APC governors recently that the convention would hold on March 26, as scheduled.
After postponing the party’s national convention several times, APC recently scheduled it for March 26; and the zonal congresses for March 12.
At a meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the governors two weeks ago, the party’s stakeholders also agreed on zoning formula, including zoning its national chairman to the North-Central.
However, with the recent general election’s timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), some APC’s governors are said to be muting the idea that it will be politically incorrect for the party to hold its national convention and the presidential primary within an interval of one month.
According to an insider, ”As you know, our party is already fragmented along different interest groups within the party. It is expected that there will be serious crisis within the party after the national convention slated for March 26. And we don’t have enough time to resolve the crisis before the presidential primary that will start on April 4.
“So, our reasoning is that if we hold the national convention and presidential primary same day, we will have almost eight months to resolve the crisis that will emanate from both the national convention and the presidential primary before the campaign starts – in line with INEC’s timetable.”
The source, who pleaded anonymity, added that almost all members of the APC interim committee and some governors were thinking along the line of the new idea, saying that it will be dangerous for the party to go ahead with the national convention fixed for March 26.
“The whole idea is to see how we can manage our crisis; we don’t want to have a sharply divided party that will go into campaign and elections. And we hope to present this case to our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, for approval in the next few days”, the party chieftain told our correspondent.
However, a senior political aide of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who doesn’t want his name mentioned in the print, said that the fresh plot to hold the national convention and the presidential primary on the same day has always been the real agenda of the Buni-led Caretaker committee.
According to him, “We are aware of the new move by some members of the Caretaker Committee; that has always been their agenda. They really want to conduct the presidential primary and the convention the same day, so that they can benefit from it. Let’s see how it goes.”
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Our correspondent further gathered that the recently agreed zoning formula by the party is being threatened.
For instance, the APC South-West-elected governors were said to have disagreed sharply in their meeting recently over the macro-zoning of party’s offices allocated to the zone.
“The issue of which state in the zone will produce the national secretary was a burning issue at the meeting. While some stakeholders believe Oyo State should produce the national secretary, others disagreed. So, the matter has not been resolved, like other zones”, the insider said.
Indeed, citing the schedule of activities released last week by the INEC, a group under the auspices of All Progressive Congress (APC) Action Group has demanded that the presidential primary and the national convention of APC be held on the same date.
The group in a statement issued Tuesday by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Bisi Olanipekun. said there was need to save money for the party and to shield party members from expending so much resources for the two events that could be held in a day.
“The APC Action Group wants to reiterate its earlier position that with the new timetable released by INEC, we demand unequivocally that the presidential primaries be held on the same date with our national convention.
“Our reason for this is the need to save money for the party and to shield party members from expending so much resources to travel twice for events that could have been collapsed into one; this is in addition to the security challenges associated with road travel”, the group said.
The group explained that holding the national convention and the presidential primary the same day would stave off the potential for disgruntled persons to frivolously jump ship only to again return to the party after the general election.
It added: “If we are truly committed to APC’s victory at the general election we will ensure to deploy the kind of strategy that will make good things happen for the party.”
The group, therefore, warned the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) that they would be held individually and jointly accountable if they create a legal crisis that will scuttle APC’s chances by tinkering with the date for the National Convention.
They said the serial shenanigans of the governors had plunged the party deeper into crisis at a time when they should have been providing leadership.
It noted that the signing of the Electoral Act should have been a sobering moment for them to be retracing their steps and not to worsen the problems they already created for the party.
The APC Caretaker Committee, which was inaugurated in June 2020 was saddled with the responsibility of organising a national convention by December 2020. However, the committee led by Governor Buni of Yobe State had continued to seek extensions from President Buhari.
