More Intrigues as APC Shifts Convention

The All Progressives Congress has rescheduled its national convention due to proceed today by one week underlining the intrigues that have shadowed the schemes to produce a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, Adedayo Akinwales writes

Following the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to give political parties a week’s grace to conduct their primaries and to submit the lists of political candidates, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has postponed its presidential primary initially scheduled to hold on Sunday, May 29 and Monday, May 30, 2022.

The electoral body had given the extension to give political parties time to compile the list and personal particulars of their nominated candidates before uploading the same to the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal from June 10 to 17, 2022.

INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, who announced the extension on Friday in Abuja, said it was in response to the pressure of political parties.

 Okoye said: “Once again, the political parties requested the commission to review the timelines for political party primaries provided in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the conduct of the 2023 General Election released on Saturday 26th February 2022.

“Earlier, the political parties had requested for 37 – 60 days extension of the timeline for primaries and the nomination of candidates. The commission was emphatic that this request could not be granted because it would disrupt other scheduled activities on the Timetable. This position of the commission has not changed.

“However, based on the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election, the parties have now pleaded with the commission to use the six-day period between 4th and 9th June 2022 to conclude outstanding primaries and prepare to upload the list of candidates and their affidavits on the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal. The commission did not schedule any specific activity during this period. The idea is to simply give parties time to compile the list and personal particulars of their nominated candidates before uploading same to the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal from 10th – 17th June 2022.

“The commission has decided to allow the request of the political parties since the six-day period does not conflict with the next scheduled activity which is the submission of the list of nominated candidates or any of the subsequent timelines which remain sacrosanct. However, this request is granted in respect of outstanding primaries only without prejudice to those already concluded by political parties. The commission will not monitor already concluded primaries,” Okoye said.

Explaining further he said, “After the conduct of primaries, the next critical activity for political parties is the online submission of the list of the candidates the party proposes to sponsor which shall be accompanied by an affidavit sworn to by the candidates indicating that they fulfilled all the constitutional requirements for election into the various offices via the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal.

“In addition, the commission, based on past experience, has decided to train the political party officials to make efficient and effective use of the portal. The commission will train four officials from each of the 18 political parties, making a total of 72 in all.

“Unfortunately, some of the political parties are still yet to submit their nominees for the training. The commission hereby reminds such parties to do so immediately. The commission wishes to reiterate that only electronically submitted nominations will be processed.

“Political parties are therefore advised to ensure that their primaries are free of rancour in order to meet the timelines for the remaining activities embodied in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 general election,” he said.

But, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Felix Morka disclosed this in a statement issued on Saturday, saying the primary will now hold between Monday, June 6 and Wednesday, June 8.

He said: “Following the Independent National Electoral Commission’s extension of deadline for the submission of list of candidates by political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) hereby postpones its Special Convention for Presidential Primary from Sunday, 29th – Monday, 30th of May, 2022 to Monday, 6th – Wednesday, 8th of June, 2022.”

APC’s postponement of the its presidential primaries has further opened to the party to intrigues, leaving the aspirants in the cold.

The postponement came amid rumours that President Muhammadu Buhari had mandated the national chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, to work with the party’s governors to trim the number of aspirants to 10 to enable the president make a choice on a possible successor.

There are presently 25 aspirants in the race for the APC presidential ticket. They are: Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan; Senator Bola Tinubu; former Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi; former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio; former Minister of Science, Technology and Innovations, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu; former Imo State governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha and former Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosu.

Others are: Pastor Tunde Bakare; Cross River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade; his Ebonyi State counterpart, Mr. Dave Umahi; Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi; former Minister of State, Education, Hon. Emeka Nwajiuba; former Senate President, Dr. Ken Nnamani; Kogi State governor,  Yahaya Bello; Jigawa State governor, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar and former Zamfara State governor, Senator  Ahmed Yerima.

Also on the list are:  Senator Ajayi Borroffice, the only female aspirant, Mrs. Uju Kennedy;  Pastor Nicholas  Nwagbo; former Speaker of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole; former Minister of Information, Chief Ikeobasi Mokelu and Mr. Tein Jack Rich.

THISDAY gathered that the postponement of the primaries has heightened anxiety among the aspirants over alleged plans to impose former President Goodluck Jonathan as the candidate of the party.

A Federal High Court in Bayelsa State had on Friday ruled that Jonathan was eligible to contest the 2023 presidential election.  

Delivering in a suit suit marked FHC/YNG/CS/86/2022, and filed by Andy Solomon and Idibiye Abraham, and listed Jonathan, the APC and INEC as first, second, and third defendants, respectively, Justice Isa Dashen held that Jonathan’s right to vie for the office of president again could not be stopped by any retroactive law.

Justice Dashen dismissed the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs and held that the swearing in of Jonathan as acting President on May 6, 2010, after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was a constitutional provision.

According to the judge, the 2007 general election produced Yar’Adua as president and not Jonathan, stressing that Section 137 of the Constitution could not have a retroactive effect to stop him from contesting the forthcoming presidential poll.

Justice Dashen ruled that there was no presidential election conducted in the country in 2010 and Jonathan could not be deemed to have been sworn into the office of the President that year.

The judgment, it was learnt, had begun to unsettle the other 25 aspirants of the APC.

The belief in some quarters is that the ruling party may have settled for an ‘imposed consensus’ arrangement to produce its presidential candidate ahead of the 2023 elections; this, perhaps, is why it has not screened any aspirants as initially indicated.

The party had scheduled screening of its presidential aspirants a fortnight ago but kept postponing the date with the last shift said to be indefinite, due basically to a subtle move to impose a candidate from among the plethora of aspirants.

It was gathered that the party was overwhelmed by the number of aspirants especially with many party bigwigs joining the race. In order to accommodate all aspirants and ensure no nerves are frayed, it has been decided that a meeting with Buhari on the eve of the election will ensure that the president uses his good offices to decide who emerges.

The belief is that once the president decides at the meeting that will involve all aspirants, none of the aspirants will kick against his decision.

The president had stated in January that he had a candidate but will not reveal the person for fear that he could be “eliminated” but will make that known in due course.

Even though Jonathan had on many occasions distanced himself from attempts to draft him into the APC presidential race, his backers have been demanding that he should be adopted as the consensus candidate without going through indirect or direct primaries.

They are also insisting that he should be saved from the rigour of facing founding APC members including the national leader, Tinubu, the Vice President Osinbajo and others during the party’s presidential primaries.

For now,  the presidential aspirants and other members of the party are carefully watching the intrigues playing out and where it would lead to.