There are strong indications that the national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which many had believed will take place in December, this year, may not hold, Daily Independent exclusively gathered.
Informed sources in the party on Monday said that a last minute push for further extension of the tenure of the current Mai Mala Buni-led National Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) may delay the conduct of the national convention.
The Caretaker Committee, which was inaugurated on June 25, 2020, for six months after dissolution of the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC), had its tenure extended for another six months in December, 2020 by an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
After the tenure expired in June 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari granted the committee an indefinite extension until when it can conduct the party’s national convention.
With anxiety mounting in the party over the continued stay of Buni in office and calls for his removal, it was gathered that President Buhari gave a directive to the committee to ensure that the convention holds latest by December 2021.
However, against the president’s directive on the conduct of the convention, some power brokers in the party are moving to extend the tenure of the Buni-led Caretaker Committee till June 2022.
According to them, the Caretaker Committee should be allowed to stay in office so as to complete the four-year mandate given to Oshiomhole, who was elected as national chairman on June 23, 2018.
Daily Independent also gathered that the tenure extension plot for the Buni-led Caretaker Committee which has reportedly reached an advanced stage is aimed at pushing the conduct of the APC national convention to June 2022.
An impeccable source also said the move is being spearheaded by a minister in President Buhari’s cabinet and some powerful chieftains.
“The principle being marketed by those spearheading tenure extension for Buni and other members of the CECPC is that the current arrangement should serve out the remaining part of the immediate past National Working Committee led by Adams Oshiomhole.
“Before now, there has been a suppressed crisis of confidence among the membership of the Caretaker Committee even as this minister and three governors were calling the shots in the party.
“What we have right now in our party is no longer party administration; we have a minister from the Northern part of the country and three other governors who call the shots.”
Speaking with Daily Independent, a member of the Buni-led Caretaker Committee said he is not part of the plans for a tenure extension.
He further said if the move is true, the party members should come out and reject it.
“Yes, I also heard about it but count me out of it. I won’t be part of any move for any tenure extension. I believe that we have done our best and it is time for us to bow out”, he said.
“Most decisions you read in the media are taken even before we that are members of the Caretaker Committee here know about it. It is as bad as that and some of us are just keeping quiet in order not to rock the boat.
“The most unfortunate thing is that these men are pushing that the convention be postponed so that we can complete the tenure of the last NWC. The question is, we were appointed as convention planning committee, why the change of posts every now and then?”
It was gathered that a prominent member of the Caretaker Committee who has his eyes on the party’s governorship ticket for 2023 is part of the extension deal as the party’s primaries would be conducted less than one month after the national convention.
(Daily Independent)
