The Buni Committee, One Year After!

How has the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the All Progressives Congress fared, one year after taking up the assignment? Adedayo Akinwale asks

After a long period of protracted internal crisis that nearly consumed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party was constituted to save the party from itself. The constitution of the caretaker committee was well accepted and received by all the members of the party, who had expressed worry over the protracted leadership crisis that bedevilled the party during the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC).

The ruling party had during the emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held at the Presidential Villa on June 25, 2020 dissolved the Oshiomhole-led NWC following a protracted leadership crisis and set up a committee to manage the affairs of the party in the interim. The 13-member caretaker committee, headed by the Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, was initially given six months by the NEC presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari to complete its assignment.

Within six months, the committee was mandated to organise a national convention for new leaders to emerge and also mandated it to reconcile aggrieved members ahead of the planned national convention of the party. It was believed that in a short term, the brewing tension, factionalisation of the party, crisis and the ever-growing court cases that have stymied the party would all be sorted out. But that was not to be, necessitating an extension, which however, generated some ill-feelings.

The Action Plan
The caretaker committee wasted no time after it was constituted and immediately swung into action by making sure it reconciled all the aggrieved members of the party, while also ensuring that those that had left the party were persuaded to come back. The committee ensured that all ongoing litigations against the party as well as among members at that time were withdrawn and terminated.
The Buni-led committee, from the outset, was saddled with the task of preparing and leading the party’s campaign in a number of critical elections for positions at the state and national levels. The Committee made sure that the ownership tussle surrounding the building that houses the party’sNational Secretariat was resolved.

Now, the Scorecard
Reconciliatory: The Buni-led committee has combined reconciliation, consultation and inclusiveness in achieving unity and cohesion in the party within the past few months. The committee set up several high-profile reconciliation teams across party chapters that were battered by internal crises and has recorded a good number of resolutions that have improved the party’s stand and cohesion since then.

The party’s effort at resolving internal conflicts at various chapters has also paid off with members’ desires in compliance with the party’s resolution to withdraw and terminate all litigations that involvedthe Party. The reconciliatory moves are already yielding results, because they have brought back many prominent party members and leaders including, former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Barnabas Gemade; former Speakers of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara and Hon. Dimeji Bankole and Dr. Alex Otti among others, into the party.

The committee has also resuscitated the party’s internal dispute resolution mechanisms and set up reconciliation committees for Oyo, Edo, Ondo, Imo, Ogun and Ekiti among other state chapters with reported disputes. The committees met with key stakeholders in the various states and reconciled warring factions.
Already, the reconciliation committee has been able to reconcile the two warring factions in Cross River State and has appointed a state caretaker committee led by Senator Matthew Mbu as acting state chairman.

In Ondo, all the governorship aspirants were brought together, campaigned and worked for the successful re-election of the APC candidate, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN).
The committee, in Akwa Ibom State, brought together all the contending interests under one roof and achieved true reconciliation. Today, in Akwa Ibom, leaders such as Senator Godswill Akpabio, Obong Nsima Ekere, Mr. Umana O. Umana, Senator Ita Enang and Bassey Dan Abia, among others, are now working together and in collective pursuit of party’s interest.

At the national level, the Minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva have been reconciled by the committee and both resolved to work together and strengthen the party, particularly, in the South-south geo-political zone.

Having realised that one of the major causes of crisis within the party was a poor reward system of dedicated members, Buni recently hinted that the committee was working with President Buhari to urgently address the reward system for dedicated and loyal party members. This, he said, could be done through appointment of deserving party members into several boards, agencies and parastatals of government.

Membership Drive: The Committee had immediately embarked on a nationwide APC membership registration, revalidation and updating the registeration exercise to increase the party’s membership and support base nationwide.

While the nationwide membership registration, update and revalidation exercise conducted across the36 states and the Federal capital Territory (FCT) was new to the mandate given to the committee, the committee believed that there was need to embark on the exercise before going for the convention of the party. The exercise, which started February 9, was extended twice to accommodate new members.

At the moment, the status of the exercise remains unknown as the leadership of the party has not come out with an official statement to reveal whether the exercise has been completed. But, recently,secretary of the committee, Senator John Akpanudoedehe disclosed that the APC now has over 40 million registered members.

Election victories: The committee since the beginning of its tenure, has led the party into major elections comprising governorship, national and state assembly elections. In all these elections, the party has once again proven that it’s the party to reckon with in the country with significant wins across the board.

A win in the Ondo State gubernatorial election despite the mass gang-up against the party, the senatorial seats won across Lagos, Plateau and other states as well as a good number of state houses of assembly seats won were parts of the committee’s feats.

Review of Party’s constitution: While the party members were expecting the committee to come up with a timetable for the conduct of congresses and convention, the committee constituted an eight-man committee to review the party’s constitution.

The high-level committee is chaired by Prof. Tahir Mamman, with Mr. Dare Oketade as Secretary; while Prof. Dakas Dakas; Hon. Akinremi Olaide; Dr. Ego Ezuma; Hon. Mohammed Kumaila; Shuaibu Aruwa and Dr. Ekokoi Solomon were all members of the committee.

The committee was mandated to consider recommendations of contributors, particularly on contemporary issues that needed to be adequately captured. The committee has however received memoranda on enshrining party discipline, deepening internal democracy, greater inclusion of marginalised groups like women, youths and People with Disabilities (PWDs), among others.

Contact and Strategic Committees: In order to reposition the party to ensure good governance, the Buni committee proposed the recently-inaugurated tripartite Executive/Legislative/APC consultative committee, which is ensuring synergy, good governance and accelerated implementation of the Next Level agenda.

As part of efforts to recover, rebuild and reposition the party, the committee constituted a high-powered APC Contact/Strategy Committee chaired by the Governor of Jigawa State, Badaru Abubakar. The terms of reference for the committee include to establish constructive engagements between critical stakeholders at various levels of the party with a view to reviving confidence and trust among party leaders.

The committee was also mandated to conduct a need assessment survey from party members and the general public and to also create a statement of vision, mission and core values of the party that wouldfoster unity.
The committee was also mandated to develop strategies that would reposition the party in an advantaged position in the public domain as well as develop a timeline and framework for the implementation of the recommendations of the committee.

Implementation Status
The Buni-led committee recently met at the party’s National Secretariat and reviewed the implementation of the three-month action plan.
The committee said it was important to take cognizance of the fact before it took over the leadership of the party, internal party crisis was allowed to fester and it distracted public attention from appreciating the monumental strides that the Buhari-led APC government was making in delivering APC’s three critical electoral promises – fighting corruption, security and revamping the economy.

Buni said ahead of the planned APC National Convention and indeed the 2023 general election, stakeholders should continue to support the committee’s efforts to unite the party in order to make it formidable enough to consolidate APC’s national governing status and landmark achievements.

According to him, “The APC must not go into a National Convention, and indeed a general election in crisis. We should take it one step at a time and ensure that the ongoing national reconciliation process being undertaken by the committee is sustained, successful and continues to yield results.”

The committee said it was constantly briefing the President, Chairman, Progressives Governors Forum, Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives with a mid-term report, which will enable the committee to take all-inclusive decisions.

Convention Controversy
Despite the achievements of the committee, its refusal to conduct the party’s convention scheduled for next month as agreed at the NEC meeting is creating disaffection within the party. Already, the committee is being accused of planning to perpetuate itself in office.

The secretary of the committee, Akpanudoedehe, was the first person to give an indication that the convention might not hold in June, when he said the committee was not in a hurry to conduct the convention.

He stated that while the committee would strive to keep to the June deadline for the national convention, to mark the conclusion of its assignments, it would not hesitate to approach the NEC of the party for a tenure extension should plans to hold the national convention as scheduled fall through.

Akpanudoedehe stated: “We will do everything humanly possible to meet the deadline. We are not liars to Nigerians. If we have a need to do anything, we will go to the National Executive Committee (NEC); it is not a public matter.

“I’m asking you a simple question, if we are going to conduct congresses, what are we going to use to conduct congresses? The materials must come; we must have a database in the party to sort out those things. We are building the party; we have the time table to do congresses and we will do that.”

But, despite the insistence of the secretary that the convention would be conducted in June, indications point to the contrary. Even though the ongoing membership, revalidation and registration exercise has been largely successful, it remained inconclusive.

It was gathered that the proposed convention in June remains dicey, because the committee should have released the timetable for congresses, which would culminate in the conduct of the party’s convention next month.

A source within the party revealed that what the caretaker committee is concerned with is getting its tenure extended till December. The source said: “Everything is still dicey as regards the convention,because there is a possibility that the tenure of the caretaker committee may not be extended.

“But now it remains a month for the tenure of the committee to end, the revalidation exercise remains inconclusive, while the congresses have not been conducted. So, how will they do convention without congresses?

“Ward congress has not been conducted, same as Local government congress and State congress and these are the people that will make up delegates to the National Convention.”
Although confusion presently trails the conduct of the convention of the party, the Buni committee has been able to stabilise and return peace to the once troubled party.