APC governors meet state chairmen, secure support for tenure elongation for Governor Buni
In a move to secure tenure elongation for one of their colleagues, saddled with administration of their party national secretariat, governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress on Thursday night met with Forum of state chairmen and Non- National Working Committee, National Executive Committee members of the party.
Yobe State governor and chairman All Progressives Congress Caretaker /Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Mallam Mai Mala Buni has in recent times been facing opposition from certain chieftains of the party opposed to an extension of his tenure beyond December.
Governor Buni on Wednesday met with the federal lawmakers on the platform of the party at the national assembly where he pleaded for their understanding and cooperation for tenure extension for his team ahead of the party National Executive Committee fixed for December.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, led his colleagues to the meeting.
At Thursday meeting with the Forum of State Chairmen and Non-NWC held at Barcelona Hotel, Abuja were Kebbi State governor and Chairman of the APC Governor’s Forum, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, his Jigawa State counterpart, Mohammed Abubakar Badru and Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello.
At the closed-door meeting, the governors sought their support for an extension of tenure for the Caretaker Committee and its proposed national membership register of APC members.
Those opposed to tenure elongation have maintained that the Governor Buni interim leadership has a life span of six months sequel to the dissolution of the substantive national working committee led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole at the emergency NEC meeting held last June at the Presidential Villa.
The trio of Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Mohammed Abubakar Badru and, Yahaya Bello refused to talk to newsmen at the end of the meeting which lasted for over four hours.
Speaking with newsmen, former National vice-chairman Northeast of the party, Salihu Mustapha and convener of the joint meeting between Forum of State Chairmen and Non-NWC NEC Members who were evasive on the resolution of the meeting, however, told newsmen that there was no definite tenure for the Caretaker Committee.
He said: “I don’t know what you are talking about tenure elongation, in the first place the Caretaker Committee doesn’t have tenure, they only have a timeline to actualize the mandate given to them. “They don’t have tenure because they’re not voted for.
“In line with what I just answered, there are prerequisites to this convention. There are things you need to achieve before we get to that convention.
“First of all like the registration, there is no party that will exist without standard registration. We have registration because the Constitution says we should update our register every six months. We are going to now do a general update and the revalidation of our own register which has not been done since 2014. This is now the biggest mandate which this Caretaker Committee has after which we will now rejig this party.
“When we are saying rejig, we will do some reaffirmation from bottom to top which will now culminate into the convention. There are some prerequisites we need to do before we get to the convention so we will not want to put the cart before the horse.
Now we’re talking about registration, we will take them one at a time when we finish registration we will talk about how we are going to rejig the party, we will see the reaffirmations within the ward, local governments and states then we will now culminate into the convention and then we’ll now have a solid, one, indivisible party.”
In his remarks opening remarks at the meeting before it dissolved into a closed-door session, Delta State Chairman and Deputy Chairman, Forum of APC State Chairman, Jones Erue appealed to his members to put past grievances behind them and work as one united family.
Also making a case for the Caretaker Committee, he asked his colleagues to disregard what he dismissed as mere rumour, the alleged plot by the Governor Buni team to dissolve the state chapters executive.
“Today, we are here because we want our number to count. The only way our number can count is for us to agree to work together and the only way we can work together is for us to throw away our past grievances and come and support our party to grow.
“People may misinterpret our goal, our goal is the unity of our party.
“I want to appeal to you, we have been hearing rumours of dissolution, they will dissolve you, people, from ward level to national, you have the strength. If they dissolve you, then you decided to dissolve yourselves. Can NEC dissolve NEC?
So, I want to let you know that nobody is prepared to dissolve you right now. We have not heard from anybody, it is a rumour.”
Post Comment