Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Tuesday met a brick wall when their attempt to convince President Muhammadu Buhari to change his mind on his preference for Senator Abdulahi Adamu as the consensus candidate for the national chairmanship of the party fell flat.
They met with the President at the presidential villa, Abuja shortly before he departed for Kenya, hoping to get him to change his mind on the former Nasarawa State governor who has since emerged as the President’s favourite for the party top job.
The President was said to have bluntly refused to shift ground when the governors advanced their reasons against the serving senator representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District becoming the national chairman.
The governors were led to the meeting with the President by the chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum and governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu.
Apart from Bagudu, other APC governors at the meeting included Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Aminu Masari (Katsina), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), Yahaya Bello (Kogi), Hope Uzodinma (Imo), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Sani Bello (Niger), Umar Ganduje (Kano), and outing deputy governor of Anambra State, Nkem Okeke.
The chairman of the APC Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, (CECPC) and Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni, was however absent at the meeting.
The governors affirmed that there is no plan to move the national convention of the party from its scheduled date of March 26 in Abuja despite the tight time frame provided by the timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) just released for next year’s general elections.
There had been speculation that a section of the party was pushing for the postponement of the national convention so that both the election of the national executives and the primaries to select its candidates for the 2023 elections can be done simultaneously.
But fielding questions from correspondents after the meeting with the President, Bagudu, assured that the party will maintain the March date for the exercise.
He said the governors met with the president to congratulate him for signing the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and as well on the victory of the APC in some of the by-elections conducted over the weekend.
Asked if the idea of further postponement of the convention was discussed at the meeting, Bagudu stated: “Last week, we were in this hall (villa), about 20 APC governors, and this question came up and we clearly said we came to discuss the national convention, which is slated for March 26 and are working hard to ensure that on March 26, we have our convention and elect our national officers and that remains the case.”
The Kebbi governor dismissed speculation the APC state chief executives were still divided over the direction of the party, especially after what seemed to be an altercation among them as they emerged from the meeting with the President.
He said: “There’s no altercation, I’m not aware of any. Mallam Nasiru (Kaduna State governor), again last week, answered that look, if by altercation people are talking about differences of opinion before a decision is arrived at, then maybe, that is what people can… but as a body, the 22 governors of APC are united behind the party and behind Mr President.”
On the necessity for the meeting on Tuesday, Bagudu explained: “Today, Tuesday, 1st of March, a number of APC governors came to Mr President to, among others, congratulate him on signing the Electoral Act.
“This is something many Nigerians have expressed different views about, but Mr President had once again taken the courageous step of, even while having observations, signed and requested the National Assembly to look at it. So, we congratulate the National Assembly for the passage of the amendments and equally congratulate Mr President for signing the amendment.
“Secondly, our party, the All Progressives Congress, participated in a number of by-elections over the last weekend and equally we congratulated Mr President and in addition, we spoke about other issues that concern our party.”
Bagudu dismissed the insinuation that governors were still not comfortable with certain provisions of the Act, saying: “I’ve always had cause to address this, there was no time…Legislation, everywhere in the world, is based on continuous improvement. Constitutions that are 200 years old are subject to reviews sometimes and those reviews are not cut and dry. Even people who truly believe in the need for legislation may have worries about the implications of it.
“As I said, we’re never against the principle of amending laws. They (governors) are never against the National Assembly, but even among the National Assembly, there’s debate and this debate is also in the…To imagine that there is some legislation that is punitive to the governors or to the National Assembly, I think that will be tantamount to negation of the Oath of Office, whoever is participating in doing that.”
It was also learnt that Southeast APC governors also complained about the zoning of the office of the national secretary to South West rather than their region, with Bagudu telling them that it was too late to amend the zoning formula.
Despite the position of the chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, the Southeast governors were said to have expressed their resolve to take their agitation for the party Scribe post to a meeting of the APC governors that was expected to hold later on Tuesday night.
