APC Ups Campaign for Chairmanship as Convention Date Draws Near

*Quest for unity list deepens APC crisis ahead of party’s national convention 

*Tinubu’s opposition to Afikuyomi’s aspiration divides loyalists 

*Harmonising Buni, Bello’s committees stalls screening  

Iyobosa Uwugiaren, Adedayo Akinwale and Sunday Aborisade in  Abuja

Aspirants to various party offices, particularly, for the position of National Chairman in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), are revving up their campaigns ahead of theirMarch 26 national convention.  
The aspirants have been going round to make their cases to important stakeholders and campaigning to advance their ambitions in the much-awaited convention.

However, the quest for a “unity list” of adopted aspirants for the incoming APC National Working Committee (NWC) appears to have deepened division in the party. The different zones are struggling to reach consensus on candidates to present as part of the unity list to be voted for at the convention
THISDAY gathered that the inability of stakeholders to reconcile the list containing names of preferred aspirants for different party offices had begun to complicate the conflicting interests within APC.

This is as the alleged opposition of a presidential hopeful and former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, to the aspiration of Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, to become the national vice chairman of APC for South-west was said to be tearing Tinubu’s loyalists apart. Tinubu’s opposition to Afikuyomi was being considered “selfish and unfair”.
Campaign for party offices ahead of APC’s national convention intensified at the weekend, though, amid mixed signals on the approved zoning of the positions.

Former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, from the North-west zone, yesterday, insisted on contesting the position of National Chairman, which was zoned to the North-central. One Bashir Usaman, too, from North-east, has picked the party’s form for National Secretary position.
Usaman would be slugging it out with Tinubu’s candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, Adebayo Shittu from Oyo State, and Ife Oyedele at the convention.

THISDAY gathered that many of the APC governors in the North-central were still insisting that the position of National Chairman should be thrown open, against the purported endorsement of Senator Abdullahi Adamu by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The governors, who were said to be backing Senator Tanko Al-Makura, maintained that since the party had allocated the position to the North-central, the zone should be allowed to decide its choice, rather than encourage imposition, as being speculated in the media.

Other aspirants in the race for the national chairman in the zone included Saliu Mustapha and Senator Sani Musa.
THISDAY also gathered at the weekend that the inability of the party leadership to seamlessly harmonise the convention sub-committees set up by the chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) and the governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, and the erstwhile acting chairman of the committee and governor of Niger State, Abubakar Bello, had stalled the proposed screening of intending candidates for party offices

The unity list, said to favoured by Tinubu and some of his loyalists across the six geopolitical zones, included Senator Abudullahi Adamu, National Chairman; Senator Ken Nnamani, Deputy National Chairman (South); Hon Yakubu Dogara, Deputy National Chairman (North); Omisore, National Secretary (Tinubu was initially against him but had now embraced him for position of National Secretary); Victor Giadom, Vice Chairman (South-south); and Osita Medener, Vice Chairman (South-east)

A top APC member told THISDAY, “With this planned unity list, which is being sponsored by our national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it is clear that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) decampees will be in-charge of the APC, after the convention of our party.

“Now, tell me, where is the progressive idea that Bola Tinubu has been preaching in the South-west? Because of his selfish interest and that of his cousin, the governor of Osun State, he has ceded the national secretary of the APC to Senator Iyiola Omisere. Just imagine that! Where is the fairness and justice, we talk about? We are waiting to see how he will push this through.”
The insider further said Tinubu’s decision to support an aspirant from Ekiti State, against his close ally, Afikuyomi, for the post of Vice Chairman (South-west), had further divided his camp.

While many of Tinubu’s supporters and his political family, were said to be supporting Afikuyomi for the position of Vice-Chairman (South West), because of his political experience and loyalty to Tinubu for many years, an insider said the former governor of Lagos was of the view that Afikuyomi’s ambition could scuttle his chances at the presidential primary.

But other stakeholders consider the ditching of Afikuyomi’s ambition, especially, when they were convinced that the South-west APC would not undo his presidential bid, as a betrayal of friendship and trust that the senator has had in him over the years.

In fact, Tinubu’s alleged intimidation of other stakeholders is the reason other party members had started advocating an elective convention, just so they could teach some of their selfish leaders some hard lessons at the convention.
Regardless, sources claimed, Afikuyomi had submitted his form during the week waiting to be screened on Tuesday.

 
A governor, who spoke to THISDAY in confidence and broke down the details of the issues, explained that, “We are looking for candidates. Basically, if they zone some positions to South-south, for instance, all the governors have to agree on how to share. For the South-west, all that is zoned to us is the secretary, vice chairman, vice national chairman south-west, youth leader, physically challenged. Those are the NWC seats.

“You now have others that are NEC seats but not NWC. Here we have vice chairman, South-west, secretary, youth leader and physically challenged. Then, you first share those ones. We have Lagos and Ogun as one bloc; Osun and Oyo as one bloc, Ondo and Ekiti as another bloc.

“Lagos said they should give them youth; Ogun took physically challenged. The seats are three substantive NWC seats, the others are NEC seats. The governors are avoiding strong positions in their states, because they don’t want to start struggling for power with the party official that would be elected.

“We now agreed to take the highest position available to Osun that wasn’t holding any major position in the Oshiomhole regime. So, we took youth leader and that is the fight over here now. Omisore wants to be National secretary. Afikuyomi wants to be National Vice Chairman, South-west.

“We are the ones that would tell our delegates those to vote and if you are not favoured by the governors, nobody would vote for you. Micro-zoning is a really tough issue, but at the end of the day, what we agreed at the micro-zoning level is what each state will take to the national that will form part of the unity list to be voted on.”
Meanwhile, the harmonisation of screening committees, has continued to prove difficult, because while Buni had already put up a lengthy list of convention sub-committees before traveling to Dubai on medical grounds, Bello, acting in his stead, had pruned down the list and also made some adjustments.

For instance, in Buni’s lists, members of the screening committee were 87, with the Kwara State Governor, AbduRazaq AbdulRahman as its chairman, Senator Andy Uba as the Deputy Chairman, while Mr. Shuaibu Aruwa (SAN) as Secretary.
But the screening committee put in place by Bello has only four members, with the Governor of Kastina State, Aminu Masari as Chairman; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole as Co-Chairman, while Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka as Secretary and Fatima Danejo as Assistant Secretary.
However, a highly placed member of the party told THISDAY that there would be harmonisation of lists, compulsorily, before the commencement of the screening of aspirants.

“You know there are two committees – the one that was done by Mai Mala Buni and the one that was done by Bello. By tomorrow (Monday), we will harmonise everything,” the source said.

Initially, the screening, according to the timetable and schedule of activities released by the party, was supposed to commence last Saturday.

The screening exercise, however, did not start as scheduled due to the late submission of forms by the aspirants.

The screening of aspirants was also supposed to commence yesterday at NICON Luxury, but sources close to the committee told THISDAY the screening exercise had been postponed.

The hotel sources said though members of the screening committee came around, and made booking for Monday, they later shifted the booking to Tuesday, an indication the exercise would now hold on Tuesday.

But in spite of the evident postponement, the party has refused to offer any explanation or communicate to the aspirants, reasons the exercise could not commence as scheduled.

Another party source informed THISDAY that Buni recognised the committee put in place by Bello, but added that the committee members were more than four.

The source said: “He (Buni) recognised the Masari committee. The committee members  are more than four. They gave the chairman a full list of those that will be in their committee. The committee members will now be sub-divided into six zones to handle each zone.

“Each six will be sub-divided again into three units. Unit A will handle the National Working Committee (NWC), Unit B will handle Non- NWC, Unit C will handle zonal officers, so that they can finish their job one day and present their report to the Appeal committee.”

The source could not, however, confirm when the screening would eventually commence

Sheriff: APC to Unveil Unity List before Weekend

This, nonetheless, a former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has hinted that leaders of the APC would come up with a “Unity List” before weekend, ahead of the national convention.

He said the “Unity List” that would be released a day before the convention or on the convention day, is what the delegates were expected to abide by.

Sheriff, who was national chairmanship aspirant of APC, had dropped out of the race following the decision of the party to zone the position to North Central.

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, Sheriff reiterated that he would contest the position if the party decided to throw it open, but added that if the position was not thrown open, he would abide by the party’s decision to zone it to North Central.

“I am sure most of you are following the trends of activities of our party within the last 10 days or so. The party has taken a position that the position of the national chairman should go to the north central, meaning, it is exclusively zoned to the contestants of the North Central Zone,” Sheriff stated.

He stressed that due to his respect for the party and President Muhammadu Buhari, he would not contest the position, noting that as a founding father of APC, and former chairman of the Board of Trustees of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), he knew the procedure and the process.

His words: “I don’t want to draw a line. I respect the president, unless the party comes out between now and Friday to say that, no we have changed our mind, it is now open, in that respect also, they allow everybody to pick a form.”

“Therefore, I don’t want to oppose the president in any way or form. I respect him. I will abide by the decision of the party that it is exclusively zoned to north Central.”

He, however, said the zoning of party positions was not done in a vacuum, because it revolved around people.

According to him, “Normally, zoning revolves around a person. You don’t zone in vacuum. And they must have a reason why it was zoned. And in party congresses and conventions, there is what is called a unity list. On the last day of the convention, when the leaders make up their mind, they’ll bring out one list.

“And in that respect, the list will be followed by the participants, because parties are made up of men and women, who are also coming from the zones and states.”

APC Chair:  I’m Ready for Consensus If… , Says Musa  

A top contender for the position of the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Senator Sani Musa, has expressed his readiness to embrace the consensus arrangement only if it was the wish of the party leadership.

He, however, noted that the current communication gap between the leaders of the party and the aspirants should be bridged for a better understanding.

Musa stated this while featuring on a Channels Television flagship programme, Sunday Politics monitored by THISDAY last night night in Abuja.

He spoke against the backdrop of insinuations that President Muhammadu Buhari already had a preferred choice among the aspirants.

The Senator lamented that information on the social media regarding the choice of the President was usually different from the official verdict of those who were very close to Buhari.

He, nevertheless, said the president has the right, as the leader of the party to have a preference and that he would not mind if he was the chosen one.

Musa said, “The President is the leader of the APC and he is for all. Mr President has every right to have a preference. I wouldn’t know if I am his preference but I wish I am. Everyone in APC is my constituency. I don’t know about a bloc or a group of people that would push for me.

“What I know is that we have APC membership and stakeholders and those that are leading the party as of today. All I do is to rally round the organ of the party to seek their support.”

Revisiting consensus, he said, “I am a very loyal party man and I believe in the leadership of Mr. President. He is honest, sincere, and he is a man of integrity.

“Whatever the president will decide and is officially handled, and I get to know about it, I will go with it especially, if that is what the leadership of my party wants.

“There is a communication gap and until that gap is bridged, things will be getting wrong. Right now, what we get from the social media is very different from what we hear from those who are very close to Mr. President.

“If the president speaks to us and tells us what he wants us to do, as law abiding citizens of the country and with the respect we have for the president, and his integrity, none of us will stop him from having what he wants.”

 Musa, however, said he would defeat all his contenders in a free and fair contest.