Buni’s Dramatic Return as APC Chairman

Despite all the intrigues and scheming by some of his governor-colleagues to sack him, the Chairman of the Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the All Progressives Congress and Yobe State Governor, Mr. Mai Mala Buni, has triumphantly returned to his seat to the chagrin of his traducers, one of whom had described his allies as ‘Yahoo Yahoo governors,’ Ejiofor Alike writes

The leadership crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) got to a peak in the penultimate week when reports flooded the media that President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered the removal of the Chairman of the Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party and Yobe State Governor, Mr. Mai Mala Buni. Without any written document to back the claim, President Buhari was also said to have approved his replacement with a member of the caretaker committee and Niger State Governor, Mr. Abubakar Sani Bello.

Allegations of corruption, plot to frustrate the March 26 National Convention of the party and tenure elongation plot were levelled against Buni in the media, which cited unnamed sources. On the issue of corruption, an unnamed North-west governor was alleged to have set up Buni in a bribery scandal, which was said to have been used to convince Buhari that he no longer deserves the APC chairmanship seat. While some of the reports accused Buni of planning to transform to the substantive chairman of the party, others alleged that the Yobe State governor wanted the party’s National Convention and presidential primary to hold on the same date so that he would collect bribes from the aspirants. Unfortunately, Buni, who was on a foreign medical trip, was not available to defend himself. But unknown to the peddlers of these stories, Buni was the one who handed over to Bello on acting capacity, without Buhari’s directive, contrary to the narratives peddled by politicians. During his maiden appearance at the national secretariat of the party in his capacity as the party’s acting national chairman, Bello had inadvertently given credibility to all the allegations against Buni by failing to clarify that the Yobe State governor was still in charge. Ahead of his arrival at the APC Secretariat, there was a massive deployment of security personnel, with all roads leading to the secretariat in Wuse 2, Abuja, blocked. The Niger State governor, who met with the state chairmen of the party and received the report of the party’s committee on zoning chaired by the Kwara State Governor, Mr. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, also described himself as the acting national chairman of the APC. 

Responding to a question on why he presided over the meetings, Bello said, “Acting Chairman; I have been acting for a while since the chairman (Buni) travelled”.

When asked to confirm Buni’s sack and his appointment as the new chairman of the Caretaker Committee, Bello, who should have used the opportunity to clear the air and clarify that Buni was still in charge, tersely responded, “No comment!” Bello’s response to this question further strengthened the veracity of all the claims made against Buni and his purported removal. Secretary of the APC Caretaker Committee, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, who attempted to clarify that Buni was still the chairman of the party, was shouted down and threatened with removal. Bello and his allies behaved as if the Yobe State governor had become history. It was Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who later declared that Buni was indeed pushed aside by 19 governors of the party because some of his  actions and inactions could put the ruling party at risk and hinder the plan to hold the convention on March 26.

El-Rufai, who spoke on a live television programme, said he had the authority of Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) and Kebbi State Governor, Mr. Atiku Bagudu to explain the action that led to the appointment of Bello as acting chairman of APC. Even when Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State insisted that Buni was still in charge of the party, El-Rufai said he can never return as the party chairman. The Kaduna State governor said 19 of the 23 governors elected on the ticket of the party were on same page on the mission to prevent the party from collapse. He did not name the four governors that were not with them. However, reports alleged that Buni was working with a North-central governor, a South-east governor and a South-west governor. The crisis deepened when Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State described his counterparts who were on the side of  Buni as “Yahoo, Yahoo Governors”. In a statement titled “Buni, Pocket-filling Black Legs in Corridors of Power Tried to Supplant President’s Will,” Akeredolu said the ruling party survived a “Civilian Coup largely inspired by mischief and incurable lust for power through artificial barricades”.

Akeredolu said: “The installation of the Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the APC was beyond a call to service. It was a child of necessity moulded to one, instill discipline in leadership and engender coherence among stakeholders and more importantly, to deepen the rule of law in our party.

“However, the insidious and appalling happenings within our party in the last few months, especially under the immediate-past leadership clearly posit a huge embarrassment. Without necessarily dwelling on details that are known to critical stakeholders, the path taken lately by Governor Mai Mala Buni, the immediate past head of the CECPC and an indivisible few, is a unenviable trajectory undeserving of our dear party. It is a disdainful narrative,” he explained.

However, Akeredolu, Bello, el-Rufai and other anti-Buni governors received one of the greatest shocks of their political lives when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rejected a letter inviting it to an emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ruling party.

The commission drew the attention of the CECPC to the fact that the letter of invitation was not signed by the National Chairman and National Secretary of the CECPC, Buni and Akpanudoedehe, respectively.

With INEC’s position, the same Buhari, who was reported to have ordered the removal of Buni, wrote to the APC governors warning against the removal of the Yobe State governor, and stressing that “all members of the Governors’ Forum and their followers should desist from any behaviour or utterance that will likely lead to disunity in the ranks of the party, and ultimately jeopardise the transition to the convention.”

After Buni’s visit to Buhari in London, the president instructed the Yobe State Governor to immediately take over the affairs of the CECPC of the APC.  Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, disclosed this in a statement last Wednesday.

He revealed that President Buhari met with Buni in the United Kingdom. President Buhari, he stated, also wrote to Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State who is also the Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum.

In the letter, the president decried the multiplicity of cases within the APC which he said has the prospect of invalidating the activities and actions of the party by INEC.

While Buhari wrote the APC to ask the party not to remove Buni, the claim that the president ordered the removal of Buni was not backed by any written document.

Did the anti-Buni governors in APC orchestrate the removal of Buni, using Buhari’s name? With the victory of the “yahoo yahoo governors” and the triumphant return of Buni, will all be the same again in the ruling party? The events leading to the National Convention will reveal.