After at least four times of postponing its national convention since 2020, the ruling All Progressives Congress APC is now set to conduct the all-important exercise today.
The party which has had to contend with a series of bickering in the lead-up to the convention said on Friday that it would go into the Convention with a “Unity List”, outlining its consensus options for every elective office.
At a news briefing in Abuja, Chairman, Convention Sub-committee on Media and Publicity and Nasarawa state Governor, Engr. Abdullahi Sule also added that in line with the Electoral Act 2022, political appointees will not be allowed to vote as delegates except where such appointees are “statutory delegates” by virtue of the elective positions they might have held in the past.
He said; “Before you go into the convention, our first choice is always consensus and we are still on that first choice. However, democracy demands, even our party constitution demands and the constitution of Nigeria demands that if that doesn’t work, we will go ahead and look at the other options. But right now, that remains our option number one.
“On the issue of political appointees, our delegates are actually statutory delegates. So if you have a former president as a political appointee, if you have a former senator as a political appointee, these are already automatic delegates, you know, so let us not confuse the two just because being an appointee doesn’t necessarily take you out of being a delegate, because our delegates are classified, clearly. The former president on our party platform, former elected this, elected that, party officials and the rest of that. I don’t think anybody who holds any political party office is actually right now a political appointee of the President, or the governors and the rest of that.
“So, most of the list that we submitted, you know, if you are talking of the ones we have submitted now, we don’t have commissioners, we don’t have advisers, we don’t have all those unless if somebody particularly was a former this or former that, in that case, you know, just being an appointee doesn’t completely exclude such a person, you know, from being a delegate.
Unity List
“The issue of unity list will be ready today(Friday). It will actually be submitted and somebody was asking whether it is for real we are going to have a unity list or not, of course, yes, if you are talking of consensus, you must have a unity list, because that is the whole essence of consensus. You know, if you are having consensus, you are going to have people who have agreed, aspirants who have agreed, stakeholders who have agreed, and also the constituency that has agreed, and in that case, the name automatically will be adopted. And that is just the meaning of the unity list. That is how the unity list is going to be put together.
“On the arrangement for the consensus. I think anybody who has been following up with the activities of Mr. President and the party will understand that so many things have been going on towards consensus. Mr President has met with the governors, met with the aspirants for the chairmanship, met with the National Assembly is meeting also with all the major stakeholders of this party and the rest of that. If you look at that, that is actually an arrangement towards a consensus.
“One thing I can tell you clearly, the leadership of this party, the stakeholders of this party, the governors are united”, Gov. Sule added.
Party holds Policy Confab
Meanwhile, the Convention Sub-committee on Legacy and Rapporteur has held a pre-convention Policy Conference.
At the event, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, revealed that embarking on massive infrastructure projects by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration despite meagre resources at its disposal has set the APC apart from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP.
“When we came in, N18 billion was our budget for the Ministry of Works for all Nigeria’s roads. That was less than the budget of my state in 2015. This tells you the attitude of the preceding government towards infrastructure. So, if you budget N18 billion for roads and a new government that has less, is budgeting N500 billion for the same roads, are those two parties the same?” Fashola asked.
Also speaking, Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum NGF and Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi who co-chairs the subcommittee revealed how the PDP administration in his State reversed the wheel of progress achieved by his administration’s first term in office.
“That is why I said to you that there is a huge difference between the PDP and APC. That is why I hate to hear that all parties are the same. I can tell you with our own experience in Ekiti and you may also see that in other states where we are in control”, he stated.
In his remarks, Chairman of the sub-committee and Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, affirmed that security in the Northeast has greatly improved compared to what was obtained before.
The party was also making last-minute efforts on Friday to put finishing touches to the Eagle Square venue of the Convention. The lighting system, stages and decorations were being put in place as of 5 pm on Friday.
Party moves to placate disappointed aspirants
Following the emergence of Senator Abdullahi Adamu as consensus national chairmanship candidate, Saturday Vanguard gathered that some of the six aspirants side-stepped were deeply disappointed as they had been campaigning for the slot in the last six months
Indeed, one of them who has been a close loyalist of President Buhari from the All Peoples Party, APP through All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, to the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, days was ‘’crestfallen and emotionally distraught” a party source told Saturday Vanguard.
To clear the emotional fog among the disappointed members, President Muhammadu Buhari had in the last 48 hours held a series of meetings with critical stakeholders of the party — National Assembly Caucus, governors, leaders of the defunct legacy parties that morphed into APC as well as the seven national chairmanship aspirants.
In addition, the party hierarchy has embarked on a number of measures to douse tension and ensure that no fewer than 5000 delegates expected to approach today’s convention with a united front.
One of the measures is returning nomination fees to aspirants, who agree to go with the consensus arrangement. However, to ensure that the constitutional rights of members were not breached, there will be an election, if any aspirant insists on running.
To drive the consensus option, the Presidential Spokesman and a member of the Media sub-committee of the convention planning committee, Mallam Garba Shehu said national officers have been ceded to states that are yet to produce national officers and each zone is meeting to hammer out and project consensus candidates.
Mallam Shehu disclosed that some of the zones have concluded the assignment and have produced their consensus lists while some are still in the process of doing so, assuring that the list would be ready before today’s convention.
“The president is expecting a result today (yesterday) on the unity list. Reconciliations are ongoing. We are not willing to let anyone go. Our tent is big enough to accommodate everyone,” he said. (Vanguard)
