By Abdullahi Mohammed, Abuja Ahead of its March 26, 2022 national convention, President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday urged governors and chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to explore the option of getting a consensus chairman to run the affairs of the party.
Chairman of the APC Governors Forum and governor of Kebbi state Mr Abubakar Atiku Bagudu said this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of a meeting between the APC governors and the President at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
“President Buhari is a believer in consensus as one of the options of producing leaders and he urged us to explore consensus, while recognising that many people who have indicated interest are equally competent but only one person will ocuppy the office at the end of the day, consensus is part of our constitution and he urged us to work towards consensus.“We have produced a number of national chairmen by consensus; Bisi Akande emerge as the pioneer chairman of the APC through consensus, John Oyegun emerged by consensus, Adama Oshiomhole emerged by consensus so the President reminded us of that.
“And the governors I have said earlier have also been working to ensure that as part of equitable arrangement, zoning and consensus are incorporated. We have done that at the lower levels, and even at the national level it’s almost certain that we will achieve it,” he said.He said the APC Governors had officially informed the President of the new date for the party’s national convention where officials are expected to be elected.“The date of the convention, the caretaker committee briefed us yesterday of their meeting and the proposed March 26, 2022. And today, the Governors informed Mr. President that we have had that we have had the briefing from the caretaker committee and we are supportive of their position,” he said.On the proposed zonal congresses which many argued have no provisions in the party’s constitution, the governor said all available options would looked into.
“I think there has been so much debate. Yesterday, there was a statement to the effect that even the letter that has gone out was withdrawn. So, zonal congresses are not explicitly stated in the Constitution. “Particularly, how you do zonal congresses. And we have in the past done them with National Convention, but nothing again in the Constitution, stop them from being done outside the national convention. But the final form will be decided, given the input we have provided,” he said.He said contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the APC Governors are not divided.“Are Governors divided? Not at all the 22 Governors of the APC are united. We are in total support of Mr. President, we are appreciative of his leadership, we commend him for his leadership. We are appreciative of the sacrifice of the national caretaker, an
d extraordinary convention Planning Committee. And we thanked them to the successes recorded under them. Our party like I said, is greater and stronger, with more members by the day,” he said.Also speaking, Governor Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai of Kaduna state said the governors were hitherto divided on the issue of timing for the national convention.“We were divided over the timing of the convention. Some Governors felt we should not have the convention until we resolve all the congresses issues in some states because in some of the states, these matters are even in court.“So some Governors held the view that we should wait until all these are resolved and that was not borne out of any agenda or selfish interest but just a realistic opposition to avoid violating any laws or putting our party structures or elected candidates in future.
“But after our meeting last night to deliberate on the proposal by the national caretaker committee and our briefing with the President today, we are all on the same page,” he said.He said the APC has resolved the zoning formular to be used for national offices of the party.“We have agreed on a zoning formular for all the six geo-political zones and essentially we swapped the positions, such that now northern zone will take positions that the southern zone had in the last eight years and vice-versa.“It is a very simple, equitable and fair formular. We will now go back and consult at the zonal level and look at the positions that are available and the process of preparing for the convention will start in earnest,”he said.Also speaking, Governor Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau state said the APC would outlive the tenure of President Buhari by retaining power in 2023.
