From Oshiomhole to Buni: 638 days long walk to APC National Convention
Buni, Oshiomhole and Buhari
The APC National Convention will reconstitute the party's National Working Committee, about 638 days after the last elected NWC was dissolved.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) finally holds its National Convention today (Saturday) to elect members of its National Working Committee (NWC). The event is coming 638 days after the dissolution of the last substantive NWC led by Adams Oshiomhole.
When the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the APC appointed Mala Buni as the Chairman of the caretaker committee, it asked it to midwife the process that will produce a national convention within six months.
Not only did the committee fail to deliver the said mandate, but it was also accused of being afflicted by a sit-tight syndrome. In addition, its legitimacy was challenged by several members of the party, including a cabinet member, Festus Keyamo.
The rise and fall of Adams Oshiomhole
The former labour union leader had been at loggerheads with several governors of his party as far back as 2018 during the APC primaries for the 2019 general elections. His quest to institute “party supremacy” created for him enemies in several APC controlled states.
In Ogun State, Mr Oshiomhole prevented the then governor, Ibikunle Amosun, a close ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, from imposing his lackey, Adekunle Akinlade, as the flag bearer of the party in 2019. Mr Akinlade was forced to move to APM alongside some of his supporters.
A similar incident occurred in Imo State where the then governor, Rochas Okorocha, was prevented from imposing his son-in-law, Henry Nwosu, as the governorship candidate. Mr Nwosu had to decamp to Action Alliance to contest.
It was not just governors that got the big stick from the ex-NLC leader. A cabinet member, Adebayo Shittu, who skipped the mandatory NYSC scheme as exposed by this newspaper, was also disqualified.
In Adamawa State, Mr Oshiomhole drew the ire of the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, whose brother, Halilu Ahmed, a governorship aspirant in 2018, was also affected at the primaries.
Although Mrs Buhari did not make reference to the case of her brother, she accused Mr Oshiomhole of acting with impunity.
Crises in Rivers and Zamfara states led to court orders that handed those states to the opposition party, PDP.
During the 2019 general elections, the ruling party won the presidential election and a majority in the two chambers of the National Assembly.
However, aside from Rivers and Zamfara states, the party was defeated in states like Oyo, Bauchi, Adamawa and even Imo State, until the judicial interpretation by the Supreme Court.
While Mr Oshiomhole survived the battle with the governors, he had a more serious encounter in his state, where the battle between him and his estranged godson and governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, led to his suspension from the APC at his ward, and ultimately the loss of his position.
Before the intervention of President Buhari via the NEC of the party, APC was enmeshed in a power tussle between two members of the NWC, Victor Gaidom and Abiola Ajimobi. The emergence of Mr Buni resolved the crisis, however, temporarily.
Buni’s reign
Mr Buni’s emergence put the party in the firm grip of the governors.
The Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee was instantly faced with the execution of two governorship off-season elections in Edo and Ondo states. The party lost Edo but kept Ondo.
The legality of Mr Buni’s dual role as state governor and party head became contentious, particularly after the split decision of the Supreme Court on the Rotimi Akeredolu versus Eyitayo Jegede case after the Ondo State governorship election. Four out of the seven-member panel had dismissed Mr Jegede’s appeal.
Festus Keyamo, the Minister for Labour and Productivity, in 2021, said if Mr Jegede had joined Mr Buni in the suit, the APC would have lost the state. He warned Mr Buni not to superintend over the planned congresses of the party.
Aside from Mr Keyamo, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Ita Enang, also challenged the legality of Mr Buni’s role in the party.
Like in Ondo, APC lost Bayelsa State to PDP after the intervention of the court which sacked the governor-elect, David Lyon, and his deputy. The party was also defeated in Anambra State.
Within this period, Mr Buni also went on an expansion drive, poaching three governors from the main opposition party. Ben Ayade of Cross River State, Bello Matawella of Zamfara State and David Umahi of Ebonyi State all swapped the umbrella for the broom.
However, those gains only papered over cracks in the APC.
The Federal High Court in Abuja has sacked Mr Umahi over his defection, while another court sacked 20 members of the Cross River State House of Assembly for dumping the PDP for the APC.
The states’ congresses further exposed the division in the party. Parallel congresses were held in several states, including Ogun, Delta, Kwara, Osun, Zamfara, Cross River and Kano. In some of these states, there were two or more state executives. Most of the crises in these states have resulted in court cases.
In Zamfara State, the decamping of Mr Matawalle further polarised the party to an extent that the former governor, Abdulaziz Yari, and Kabir Marafa almost united to fight the new governor.
The crisis was messy as Messrs Buni and Marafa engaged in media tirades. The latter had called the CECPC an illegal contraption, prompting the caretaker committee to issue a warning of disciplinary action against Mr Marafa.
By the time the acting chairman of the Caretaker Committee, Governor Sani Bello of Niger State, swore the state chairmen in, it was obvious that several bigwigs of the party had lost out to their governors.
In Kwara State, the faction loyal to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had lost out to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, while Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, who was in bitter rivalry with his successor, Gboyega Oyetola, also found himself holding the short end of the stick. A similar situation happened in Ogun State between Ibikunle Amosun and his successor, Dapo Abiodun.
Aside from the congresses, the Buni-led CECPC struggled to get the membership registration and validation exercise going. The process caused crises in Kwara and Imo, while it was suspended in Delta State. More so, several leaders of the party, including Bola Tinubu, Bisi Akande, Adams Oshiomhole and others, criticised the exercise for one reason or another.
Sight tight syndrome…
In December 2020, the tenure of the CECCPC was extended by six months after a meeting between Mr Buhari and members of the committee. Interestingly, the tenure was again extended indefinitely in June 2021.
The inability of the Buni-led committee to hold the convention raised some eyebrows within the party. A group, led by Ayo Oyalowo, called for the resignation of Mr Buni in November 2021.
Even after the party announced that the convention would hold in February 2022, the announcement was greeted with scepticism from the supporters due to the rancour of the congresses.
Interestingly, there were voices in the party that wanted postponement. Orji Kalu, the Senate Chief Whip, had in a letter addressed to Mr Buni in 2021, said it would be prudent to postpone the convention until all pending issues at the states were resolved.
Some governors also favoured the postponement until all the crises among the state executives were resolved. Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State said some governors supported the move.
“Yes, we were divided. We were divided over the timing of the convention. Okay, there were some governors that felt that we should put off the convention until we resolve all the congresses’ issues in some states. As you know, there are issues in some states. So some governors held the view that we should wait until all this is (these are) resolved,” he told State House correspondents in Abuja after some APC governors met with President Buhari.
Despite the announcement of February for the convention, two weeks into the new year, there was no sign of preparation from the party, prompting Salihu Lukman, the then Director-General of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), to write an open letter to Mr Buni, demanding his resignation if certain actions were not taken.
The call by Mr Lukman further divided the party, but the DG later became the first casualty of the struggle. Later, the governors announced another date, February 26, 2022.
Fresh postponement and palace coup
Despite the announcement of February 26, uncertainty continued to hover around the party and its elusive convention.
By January, the declaration by several heavyweights in the party of presidential ambitions, and the signing of the Electoral Act (2022) into law, further heightened the tension within the party on meeting the timetable for the general elections in 2023.
The inevitable was confirmed by the CECPC in a letter to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announcing February 26 as the date for zonal congresses for the party. A new date of March 26 was announced for the national convention.
In a twist, Mr Buni was momentarily removed as chairman of the caretaker committee in a dramatic fashion, while he was overseas for medical attention.
The Governor of Niger State, Sani Bello, was directed to take over from Mr Buni, according to Mr El-Rufai, who disclosed this during an interview on Channels TV.
In the interview, Mr El-Rufai alleged a sinister plot by the caretaker committee to postpone the March 26 date again.
“We got to know of a court order last year. It was obtained in November. A member of the party went to court to say there must not be a convention until his case against the party is disposed of which can take months or years and the lawyers of Buni went to court and agreed with the person and nobody knew about this order.
“It was a nuclear weapon to destroy the convention which further made us believe that there are fifth columnists in the party that want to bring this party down because if we don’t have (convention) and we go ahead with the primaries we might likely have our candidates lose all their seats as the case in Zamfara.
“We reported to the president that no action had been taken on the order. He said the Niger State governor must take over on Monday and we should use whatever legal means necessary to make sure that the convention is delivered,” Mr El-Rufai, who claimed to speak for the APC governors, said
At that point, it appeared as though Mr Buni was out totally, alongside the National Secretary, John Akpanudoedehe. The Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, even issued a statement with some unsavoury words, like referring to governors backing Mr Buni as ‘Yahoo governors’.
“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 an unenviable trajectory undeserving of our dear party. It is a disdainful narrative,” Mr Akeredolu said.
Mr Bello, in his new role, reconstituted the convention committee and called an emergency NEC meeting of the party. This move, however, gave Mr Buni a lifesaver.
A letter by INEC, in response to the invitation to the APC NEC meeting, saved Mr Buni’s hold on the party. The commission refused to recognise the letter because both the chairman and the National Secretary did not sign.
“The Commission draws your attention to the fact that the notice for the meeting was not signed by the National Chairman and National Secretary of the CECPC contrary to the provision of the Article 1.1.3 of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Political Party Operations (2018).
“Furthermore, the APC is reminded of the provision in Section 82(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 which requires at least 21 days’ notice of any convention, congress, conference, or meeting convened for the purpose of merger and electing members of its executive committees, other governing bodies…”
While all these dramas were going on, both Messers Buhari and Buni were abroad for medical care. Perhaps to rescue the situation, the two gentlemen had a meeting, with the president retracing his steps in a letter written to the Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, Abubakar Bagudu.
In a swift move, Mr Buni was back in control of the party and the planning of the convention.
Also, the case filed by one Salisu Umoru, a member of the APC, which asked the court to restrain APC from holding the convention until his case against Mr Buni and INEC was determined, was also vacated.
Hours to the commencement of the convention, the party is still trying to adopt consensus candidates in a bid to forestal rancour at the event.
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