This is a decisive week for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. Ahead of its March 26 National Convention, the party hierarchy is expected to iron out the issue of zoning of offices especially that of the national chairman and 2023 presidential ticket.
Jostling for both positions and the attendant bitter contests have flung the party to the edge of the precipice. Various camps in the party are at daggers-drawn over which of the three zones in the South should get the presidential ticket, and likewise, which of the three northern zones the national chairman should come from.
However, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the ruling APC has the capacity to resolve its differences regarding the forthcoming national convention.
President Buhari, who left Abuja yesterday, for London, United Kingdom for what The Presidency described as “routine medical checks”, also said that going by constitutional provisions, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will take charge of governance in his absence.
The APC has been embroiled in internal wranglings over zoning of political positions, which is threatening to tear it apart.
It was reported that President Buhari has endorsed Senator Abdullahi Adamu, a former governor of Nasarawa State as consensus candidate for the party’s chairmanship position but other aspirants for the seat have allegedly kicked against what they described as imposition, which they said runs contrary to the tenets of democracy.
Despite the agitations and crisis in the party, President Buhari said that there is no cause for alarm, as the party has what it takes to handle every issue.
Fielding questions from journalists before he departed for London on what he would tell a section of Nigerians who have expressed doubt over the ability of the APC to conduct a successful national convention, the President said:
“Well, they should wait and see. How did we come as a party to take power from the ruling party, who had been there before us for so many years? So, we have the capacity, everything will be all right.”
On the vacuum to be created as a result of his absence, he said: “Well, I cannot claim to be doing the work alone. The government is fully represented. The Vice President is there. Constitutionally, whenever I’m away, he’s in charge. And the Secretary to the Government and then the Chief of Staff, so, no problem.”
Al-Makura denounces opposition to Buhari
Meanwhile, the Al-Makura Campaign Organization, ACO, has faulted reports in a section of the media to the effect that the former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Tanko Al-Makura, was bent on opposing President Buhari in the choice of a consensus national chairmanship candidate of the APC.
The campaign organization said Al-Makura could not have been opposed to a purported consensus chairmanship choice of the president when neither the president nor the party leadership has made any public statement on the matter.
In a statement issued by its Director-General, Comrade Dominic Alancha, the ACO said: “Senator Al-Makura as a bona fide aspirant for the position of the National Chairman of the APC was in Ondo to consult with Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in continuation of consultations with APC governors, party leaders and stakeholders, which he commenced many months back.
“It is therefore mischievous and unkind for anybody to claim that he was working against President Muhammadu Buhari’s choice of a consensus candidate for the position of the National Chairman of our great party. This is a deliberate, albeit failed attempt, to paint a renowned party man and one of the founding fathers of the APC in bad light.
“This is even more so when neither the President, whom Senator Al-Makura holds in very high esteem, nor the party leadership has made any statement to the effect of any endorsed consensus candidate.”
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