APC Governors Save Party From Implosion
By Akombo Aondona, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari’s attempt to impose his favoured aspirant as the consensus presidential standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) suffered a huge, fatal setback on Monday 6June, 2022 as majority of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) members and the governors of the APC rejected his choice of Senate President Ahmed Lawan as the party’s consensus candidate.
Trouble started on the day as it filtered out that National Chairman, APC, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, told an NWC meeting that Lawan was the consensus candidate purportedly chosen by President Buhari to succeed him.
A groundswell of opposition immediately rose against Adamu’s announcement from the NWC members as well as the rest of the party, especially among the supporters of other presidential aspirants.
Seven members, led by the National Organising Secretary of the APC, Suleman Argungu, told journalists at the party secretariat that Lawan was not the preferred candidate of the party.
Argungu stated that members of the NWC disowned Adamu over his Lawan announcement. He said Adamu did not act accordingly to NWC members’ resolutions.
Also, another source at the national secretariat of the party accused President Buhari for not giving the APC the leadership it deserved. The source said the president ought to have put to rest the issue of who became the party presidential candidate long ago, stressing that he had allowed himself to be caged by a cabal for selfish satisfaction.
Argungu said: “Distinguish members of the press, as you can see all of us are coming from the NWC meeting. We were fully briefed by our National Chairman, distinguished Senator Abdullahi Adamu that Senate President Lawan is the consensus candidate for the APC national convention. That’s just the information he gave us.
“But it’s not an issue that has been discussed on the floor of the NWC. About two days ago, the northern governors had a meeting where they said that the leadership of this country, under the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, should go to the South. The Southern governors also affirmed that.
“So we as members of the NWC are with the governors on what they have said. Some minutes ago the governors of the North have gone to the presidency. They have just briefed the president that they are still on what they said with regards to power shifting to the south.
“So, you see it is just an information he gave us. It is not an issue that has been deliberated upon on the floor of the NWC. It is an information and all of us are entitled to our opinion (about it), we are all democrats. This decision (making Lawan consensus candidate) was never taken by the NWC. It was just an information given to the NWC. It has never been deliberated upon. We want to state that the pronouncement of Lawan as the consensus candidate was the chairman’s opinion and he is entitled to his opinion. It is not the position of the party.”
Others who supported Argungu were the National Vice Chairman (North-West), Salihu Lukman; Deputy National Chairman (South), Isaac Kekemeke; and the National Youth Leader, Dayo Israel.
Obviously realising that his choice of Lawan was going to tear the party apart and very quickly too, especially as it dawned on other aspirants like Vice President Osinbajo who was hitherto rumoured to be the president’s consensus candidate that they had been led into a rabbit hole, President Buhari quickly summoned 14 APC northern governors to Aso Rock where he reportedly retracted his choice of Lawan and conceded to the governors’ stance that the President should sit out the presidential primary and allow democracy to take its course at the Super Tuesday APC presidential primary holding on 7June, 2022 at the Eagle Square.
In a face-saving measure, the presidency quickly issued a statement absolving President Buhari of any complicity in the Lawan consensus saga. The statement, entitled “I Have Anointed No One, There Shall Be No Imposition, Says President Buhari” issued by Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity), Garba Shehu, entitled reads in full:
“President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday afternoon cleared all doubts about where he stands on the choice of a presidential candidate for the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, declaring before the party’s 14 governors of northern states that he has “no preferred candidate,” and has “anointed no one,” and is determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party.”
“Speaking at a meeting with the Governors at the State House, Abuja, President Buhari said the party is important and its members must be respected, and made to feel they are important.
“The President said he had a clear mind about what he was doing and asked the APC governors to feel the same way: “You were elected as I was. Have a clear mind as I have. God gave us the chance; we have no reason to complain. We must be ready to take pain as we take the joy. Allow the delegates to decide. The Party must participate, nobody will appoint anybody.”
Continuing the damage control offensive to stem the building bedlam, the governors also came out of the meeting to address the media.
At the State House Briefing, Chairman, Northern Governors Forum, Governor Simon Bako Lalong and Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of the Progressive Governors Forum, affirmed the position of the Northern Governors that the party’s candidate in the presidential election shall come from Southern Nigeria. Lawan is from the North East.
The northern governors stated that the President had confirmed to them that he had no preferred candidate, assuring that they stood by their decision to zone the party’s presidential ticket to the South.
However, this media briefing was also not without its own drama as a sulking Kogi State Governor and presidential aspirant, Yahaya Bello, stormed out, obviously dissatisfied with his brothers-governor’s decision to zone the party’s presidential ticket to the south, which would cut him out of the race.
But in a communiqué issued after the meeting, the governors said: “After careful deliberation, we wish to state our firm conviction that after eight years in the office of President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 elections should be one of our teeming members from the southern states of Nigeria. It is a question of honour for the APC, an obligation that is not in any way affected by the decisions taken by another political party.
“Mr. President, as a believer in democratic process, believes that any candidate must emerge through a transparent process. Mr. President told us that for this election, for now, he has no anointed candidate and therefore directed that the Progressive Governors Forum meet with the National Working Committee of the party to agree and proffer further solutions and recommendations for his own succession.”
Commenting on the Bello tantrum, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, claimed that the Kogi governor “excused himself” from the meeting, stressing that it was not compulsory for all 14 of them to agree on the southern ticket.
His words: “We all met before coming to meet with Mr. President, including the governor of Kogi State. As you can see, he’s not the only aspirant, the governor of Jigawa State is also an aspirant and he’s here with us and we met. But the governor of Kogi State chose to excuse himself from meeting with Mr. President because he believes that he does not agree with our position. There are 14 APC governors out of the 19 northern states. The 13 of us are on one page on this subject and we all came to see the President, but the governor of Kogi State excused himself and it is within his democratic rights to excuse himself. But 12 out of 14 is a super majority. 13 out of 14 is an even bigger super majority and the 13 of us met with the President today.”
Other northern governors in attendance were Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), Aminu Masari (Katsina) Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa) Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Abubakar Bello (Niger), Yahaya Inuwa (Gombe), Babagana Zulum (Borno) and AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq (Kwara).
The governors later left Aso Rock to meet with the APC NWC members, a meeting which the Adamu was conspicuously absent from as he increasingly became the fall -guy of the chaos the party was descending into following the Lawan announcement.
In a swift reaction, the camp of a leading presidential aspirant of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, issued a statement denouncing Adamu and the purported consensus candidacy of Lawan.
The Tinubu bloc, in a statement by Director; Legal Directorate, Tinubu Campaign Organization, Mr. Babatunde Ogala (SAN), wrote: “The media is inundated with reports that the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (“APC”) has unilaterally announced the purported adoption of a
certain aspirant the consensus presidential candidate of the APC for the forth coming presidential election in 2023.
“While the National Chairman is yet to deny or offer any clarification on the alleged declaration, it is necessary to state that such a declaration is a legal impossibility. This is because under the regime of the Electoral Act 2022, consensus, though provided for as one of the means by which a political party may produce its candidate, must specifically occur in a precise form.
“Section 84(9) (10) and (11) of the Electoral Act 2022 are the relevant provisions and they state as follows:
“(9) A political party that adopts a consensus candidate shall secure the written consent of all cleared aspirant for the position, indicating their voluntary withdrawal from the race and their endorsement of the consensus candidate”.
“(10) Where a political party is unable to secure a written consent of all cleared aspirants for the purpose of a consensus candidate, it shall revert to the choice of direct or indirect primaries for the nomination of candidates for the aforesaid elective position.
“(11) A special convention or nomination congress shall be held to ratify the choice of consensus candidates at designated centers at the National, State, Senatorial, Federal and State Constituencies, as the case may be”.
“Instructively, none of the above conditions have occurred in respect of producing the presidential candidate of the APC. Therefore, any declaration of a consensus candidate would be premature and a violation of extant provisions of the law.
“We are confident that as a law-abiding entity, the APC will not be part of such. We are further persuaded to urge our supporters to disregard this report
considering that the overwhelming majority of the APC Northern Governors who, after meeting with the President, re-affirmed their preference for a president from the Southern part of Nigeria. This patriotic decision is widely accepted by all Nigerians as a demonstration of deep understanding of the nuanced fault lines of our nation.
“In the circumstance, a unilateral declaration by the National Chairman of a consensus presidential candidate for the party will not only violate the law, but set the party on collision course with its Governors who are critical stakeholders in the party. Thank you.”
Consensus Still On The Card
Although the Lawan consensus candidacy has apparently hit the rocks, the APC may still adopt the consensus option at its Tuesday presidential primary in Abuja.
However, it is unclear who the consensus candidate would be among the 23 aspirants.
Akpanudoedehe Dumps APC
Meanwhile, former National Secretary, APC Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, CECPC, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, has resigned his membership of the party.
In a letter dated 4th June, 2022 addressed to the national chairman of the former CECPC secretary said he took the decision in the interest of his people of Akwa Ibom state.
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