Convention: APC ‘neck-deep’ in crisis over Buhari’s endorsement of cabal’s list of leaders

Wailing and lamentation is the lot of some staunch and loyal members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the forthcoming national convention that is expected to produce party leaders.

A cabal inside the All Progressives Congress which includes some governors of the northern extraction and aborigines of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) which President Muhammadu Buhari was the founder before the merger with other political parties in what is today known as APC, have listed the next Executive Committee and the list has been adopted by President Muhammadu Buhari.

CAPITAL POST learnt on Friday night that President Buhari has woken up to taking over the control of APC’s national leadership based on advice of some powerful elementary within the party, hence, those jostling for party positions are currently feverish over the development, which some envisaged would not give them fair opportunity to contest the party’s leadership offices.

To that extent, President Buhari has not hurriedly shown openly his choice of successor, but after handpicking party national executives, it would be easier for him to decide who flies the party’s presidential ticket.

Sources close to the Villa confirmed that list of the proposed Executive Committee which was presented to him by the cabals has been endorsed.

The endorsement was leaked through an unknown source(s) to some aspirants who have been consulting and campaigning into various party offices ahead of the National Convention.

Also, leaked documents late Friday further confirmed that President Buhari has signed off on Senator Abdullahi Adamu as National Chairman, Senator John Akpanudoedehe from the south-south geopolitical zone as National Secretary, and Senator Ken Nnamani from the south-east as Deputy National Chairman (South). The president also signed off on other positions that have been pinned down to geopolitical zones.

Another close source speaking from Kaduna State Government House on the matter did confirm that “Baba” has endorsed endorsed the zoning formula and the candidate has closed any further debate on the matter.

“People will make noise even if it is their own brother that is given this position. So, someone must make decisions to end some of this back and forth at some point,” he said.

Analysis of the documents showed that the President first endorsed a set of documents setting out zoning arrangements on February 1, 2022 while he endorsed Adamu and others on February 25, 2022.

A party chieftain opposed to the arrangement lamented that a bad precedent has been set to weaken Nigeria’s democracy.

He stressed that “President Buhari has the right as the party’s de facto leader to show the direction the party should go, but this aspect of one person sitting in a parlor and constituting the APC EXCO is bad news for democracy in Nigeria.

“This is dictatorship baring its fangs and we cannot afford the luxury of silence.

“What is the essence of wasting time and resources on an elective national convention if the president and a couple of governors have constituted the exco in their spare time?

“We will challenge this legally,” he declared.

Another chieftain expressed worry that President Buhari could have verbally directed those he wanted to be elected to the exco without committing ink to paper the way he did.

According to the chieftain from the northwest of the country, “I have seen the documents and my own worry is that the President should not have gone to the extent of appending his signature to the papers.

“This is the same signature he uses to conduct matters of the state and to now contemplate the same signature on documents that amount to illegality is demystifying the office of the President.”