BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
All may not be particularly well with the ruling All Progressives Congress at the moment as the leadership struggles to hold together the party, which seems to have broken into factions.
There have been reports of crises rocking the party, ranging from the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment on the Ondo governorship election, which the party’s candidate and incumbent governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, won by a whisker, to the outcome of the Wards, LGAs and States Congresses that produced factions and factional leaders.
But the party’s National Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee has often dismissed every story linking the party with any form of crisis with the wave of the hands, claiming that those cooking up crises reports were not known to the party and its governing laws. National Secretary, CECPC, John Akpanudoedehe, had unequivocally declared them as jokers.
However, last week’s declaration by the Progressives Youth Movement of a factional CECPC and its inauguration, led by Mustapha Audu, as the new face of the party, threw the Buhari House national secretariat of the party into commotion.
Prior to the eventual emergence of the factional CECPC, spearheaded by the PYM, several youth arms of the party had stormed its national secretariat in search of a peaceful settlement of the barrage of crises rocking the party.
A few months back, a group known as Rebirth APC, led by Abubakar Sadiq, came calling at the Buhari House to urge the party hierarchy to jettison the actions taken at the various congresses capable of destabilising the party and hindering its chances of retaining the Presidential Aso Villa after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
However, the several moves by these youth groups met the brick walls as the party continued to progress in the same line of action.
Though it is not unusual for party members to have divergent views and parade different opinions and thoughts on many issues affecting the party, efforts are often made to ensure that such divergent views do not cause the party to disintegrate or affect its foundation.
Leader of the Rebirth APC, Abubakar Sadiq, had warned that the APC was heading towards extinction if the leaders continued to play the Ostrich by leaving the fate of the party in the hands of money bags and godfathers rather than returning it to the masses, who, he claimed, were the original owners of the party.
Sadiq insisted that the party had lost the flavour that endeared it to Nigerians who were tired of the Peoples Democratic Party as the ruling party then and demanded a change.
He argued that the APC had failed to continue with the Change mantra, which brought it to power in 2015 just because the party had been hijacked by a few people who were not on the same page with the President, known for his integrity.
“Apart from the national secretary who comes to the secretariat, but not often, other members of the CECPC, including the National Chairman, Governor Buni, do not come here again. When was the last time they visited here? In fact, we cannot pretend that all is well
“
While the group treated with caution and restrained itself from calling, outright, for the cancellation of the congresses, owing to observable flaws, it insisted that the party should not delay any longer in conducting its national convention.
This call came before the main opposition party, the PDP, conducted its peaceful national convention. But the ruling party, trying to pacify its members and numerous lovers and followers, fixed February 2022 without a particular date for the conduct of its national convention.
Last week, precisely on Monday, the PYM inaugurated a factional CECPC as a quick response to the APC Youth Leaders and Stakeholders’ media briefing on Sunday where it gave a 100 per cent approval and support to the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led CECPC and various committees set up to attend to the matters.
The PYM sacked the Buni-led CECPC and all the committees and replaced it with PYM-CECPC with Mustapha Audu as its chairman.
The leader of the group said, “Today, we are here to inaugurate the PYM – CECPC. These young men and women of noble repute have been carefully selected and mandated by all the well-meaning young stakeholders of our great party, the APC, to plan and execute our convention before the end of February 2022.
“We are aware of the plethora of issues within the party, our party has had a history of shying away from true reconciliation and in many cases inflicting chastisement on members that should have been rewarded for their effort towards building the APC.
“We will also be setting up a reconciliatory committee to help reconcile aggrieved members within the party. It is clear that in the last couple of years the party has been on a regressive course and it is necessary for all well-meaning party members to roll up our sleeves and do the needful to ensure that we correct the mistakes that have been made to ensure victory in 2023 for all stakeholders.
“I would advise all party members to look inwards and understand the need to do things differently so that we can ensure we win back the trust of the Nigerian people as we move closer to the election year.
“Let’s join hands and strengthen our internal democracy in our dear party, the APC, and show Nigerians that we have what it takes and we deserve their votes in 2023.”
A faction of the APC Youth Leaders had through its national Deputy Leader, Bolaji Hafiz Repete, drummed support for the Abdullahi Adamu-led reconciliatory committee and encouraged aggrieved members to explore the opportunity made available by the CECPC to settle the differences.
“The APC youth leadership also encouraged all members of the party with any form of discontent to take advantage of the national reconciliation committee headed by H.E. Senator Abdulahi Adamu to air their grievances and seek adequate recompense rather than slugging it out on the pages of newspapers, Social Media, Television or Radio stations,” he noted.
However, in response to the sacking of the Buni-led CECPC and the inauguration of the PYM-CECPC, the National Secretary of the CECPC, Akpanudoedehe, disclaimed the group and accused the members of treasonable felony against President Buhari who is the leader of the APC.
Akpanudoedehe, who described the action as laughable, said, “However, how laughable, the criminal attempt of the purported group to usurp the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari now borders on treasonable felony. Relevant security bodies must now check and address their unscrupulous activities.”
He maintained his stand that they were attention seekers but noted that they would not get such attention from the party.
“The attention the purported group is seeking will not be given to them by the party. We can only advise that the general public completely disregards them. Members of this group are not registered members of the APC and are being used by opposition elements and fifth columnists to cause confusion,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the PYM-CECPC has claimed that it scheduled February 26, 2022 for the APC national convention but the APC Progressives Governors Forum met and announced February 2022 without any fixed date.
A top staff at the APC Secretariat told The Point that members of the CECPC were no longer seen at the national secretariat these days, despite the fact that they should be seen more often as the 2023 general elections were drawing nearer.
“Apart from the national secretary who comes to the secretariat, but not often, other members of the CECPC, including the National Chairman, Governor Buni, do not come here again. When was the last time they visited here? In fact, we cannot pretend that all is well,” the staff, who craved anonymity, said.
Whether all is well or not, observers have said that the APC needs to cross many hurdles of reconciliation before its February 2022 convention, if it eventually holds.
