Uduegbunam ChukwujamaThe new Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Sani Bello will chair his first National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Tuesday March 15, 2022 with President Muhammadu Buhari joing virtually from London where he has been on medical checkup since Last Sunday.
Prime Business Africa reliably gathered that the meeting which will take place at the party headquarters in Abuja will be hybrid, to enable he President attend.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelAll members of the party’s NEC, except Governor Mai Mala Buni who was removed as Chairman of the Caretaker Committee on Monday, and the Secretary, John James Akpanudoedehe who reportedly tendered his resignation after a weak resistance to Buni’s ouster on Monday morning.
All members of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), an umbrella body for the governors elected on (or defected to) the platform of the APC, will also be in attendance, Prime Business Africa gathered on Tuesday.
Issues on the agenda, it was also gathered, will be the party’s National Convention.
Recall that part of the reason for Governor Buni’s removal as chairman was his alleged plans to delay or torpedo the Convention with the intention of being the one to preside over the choice of APC’s presidential candidate in the crucial 2023 general elections.
Prime Business Africa had exclusively reported the confusion in the APC, following the President’s signing of two conflicting zoning arrangements in just one week.
READ: Confusion As Buhari Signs Two APC Zoning Documents In One Week
The Party, as also first reported by this newspaper four months ago, had zoned its Presidency slot to the South and Chairmanship position to the North in a flip-flop arrangement, based on the previous positions during the time of former Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole (from South South) as chairman.
Read: Southern Presidency: APC Officially Confirms Prime Business Africa’s Exclusive Report Again
It is believed that the horsetrading trailing the competition for who becomes the party’s 2023 presidential candidate and who presides over that decision created a lot of subterfuge and bad blood within the ranks of the ruling party, especially among the caretaker committee led by Buni. This created distrust and high-level politicking for the ears and trust of Mr President, with its attendant deception and confusion.
READ: Trouble In APC As Buni Dares Buhari, Creates New Date For Congresses
Although the former Chairman had set up Convention Committees comprising more than a hundred leaders of the party, those opposed to him believed that he did not want the Congress to hold, as he failed to book the venue; neither did he write the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in good time.
READ: SALIHU LUKMAN: Rescuing the APC, A Task For All Party Leaders
Tuesday’s NEC meeting, Prime Business Africa was told, will t seek to rally all members with a view to not only resolve the issues precipitated by long months of dangerous politicking and horsetrading but also attempt to prevent expected defections as a result of the change in leadership.
President Buhari had, on Friday, abridged his London medical trip en route Nairobi-Kenya to return to Abuja and had to continue the journey on Sunday because he wanted to ensure adequate security for Governor Bello’s takeover as chairman.
Impeccable sources within the Presidency and the APC told Prime Business Africa that Tuesday’s NEC meeting ”is very important to Mr President because there is a lot of iron in the fire. We need to recover a lot of time lost to unnecessary politicking and horsetrading. Mr President’s virtual presence from London on Tuesday is critical in assuring all APC members and Nigerians that he is solidly behind our Chairman, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello.”
Meanwhile, the convention committees constituted by Buni have been disbanded by the new chairman as exclusively reported by Prime Business Africa and ”new one swill soon be set up,” a high-profile member of the party who would not want to be named said early Tuesday evening.
READ: APC Suspends Inauguration Of Buni’s Convention Committees As Bello Takes Over
”The new chairman does not need a NEC meeting to constitute his own convention committees,” a source very close to the Presidency and the party said when asked if constituting new convention committees would be part of the agenda at Bello’s Tuesday March 15 NEC meeting.
READ ALSO: APC Crisis: Govs Uncover New Plot To Stall March 26 National Convention
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