Malami, Buni, Shun Osinbajo to Hold APC Congresses

• After what allegedly turned out to be a heated debate, it was gathered that everyone at the meeting agreed that the first step to addressing the “elephant in the room” was to suspend the congresses, which unfortunately was held last weekend.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami as well as the Chairman of the National Caretaker and Convention Planning Committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Mai Mala Buni have shunned the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo to hold the party congresses in the last weekend.

Recall that the 3/4 minority judgment of the Supreme Court between Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu versus Eyitayo Jegede of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which stated that the Chairman of the National Caretaker and Convention Planning Committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Mai Mala Buni should not hold elective and appointive positions simultaneously, going by the APC and 1999 Nigeria Constitution, President Muhammadu Buhari directed Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to see to the legal uprisings in the ruling party and come up with a decision to rescue the party from slipping away.

Osinbajo immediately swung into action, summoned a meeting of all the lawyers in the cabinet to deliberate on what to do as the congresses were just about to hold the following day, Saturday.

Citing competent sources privy to the details of the meeting, This Day reported that consensus opinion was that the party should pause the congresses stated for last Saturday before considering other options.

However, only Malami was reported to have objected to the majority option, he argued that the exercise could go ahead, irrespective of the court and constitution’s position.

The meeting which was held at the Vice President’s office was attended by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola; Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Minister of State for Labour, Mr. Festus Keyamo; and Professor Tahir Mamman, a former Director-General of the Nigeria Law School and legal adviser/member of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the APC.

After what allegedly turned out to be a heated debate, it was gathered that everyone at the meeting agreed that the first step to addressing the “elephant in the room” was to suspend the congresses, which unfortunately was held last weekend.

Following the decision of the Minister of Justice, Malami and Yobe State Governor, Buni to shun the directive of the Vice President, the congresses later recorded one death and many were injured in Ekiti, parallel exercise in Lagos and Ogun, and bickering in Akwa Ibom, Osun, Abia, and Delta and many other states.

At the meeting chaired by Osinbajo, many of the attendees shared some of the arguments that followed the Supreme Court judgment on Ondo and agreed that it was only logical to minimize the damage the APC might suffer in the final analysis, by suspending the congress, and then, design possible options for ways forward.

But Malami rejected all options. “He disagreed with the submissions of others and insisted that the congresses could go ahead.”

“The resolution reached was to suspend the congresses,” the source stated.

During the debate, the Vice President was said to have made a move to reach the President by phone to update him on the state of things but could not reach him.

Following the decision at the meeting to suspend the congresses, Osinbajo decided to call Governor Buni to inform him of the decision to suspend the congresses.

But the Vice President was shocked when Buni flatly rejected the directive, like Malami, insisting that the congresses would go as planned.

Recall that Malami and Buni belonged to the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC) caucus of the APC.

Osinbajo remained bemused, watching helplessly as Buni refused to obey his directive to suspend the congresses.

Sources posited that the decision of Malami and Buni to discard opinions of the experts despite obvious danger was due to the fact that some people identified as cabal in the presidency did not want to lose their current hold on the party, especially, they were believed to have had a choice presidential candidate in mind, in which a change in the course of the party could halt.

The truth of the matter is that the APC is currently facing an existential threat as two major tendencies wrestle for control of the party. These tendencies as represented by the legacy parties that merged to form the ruling party – the Congress for Progressive Change and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

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Indeed, there was said to be an understanding at inception that while the CPC, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, would control the government, how the party is run would be the prerogative of the ACN, a party led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Unfortunately, the fear of what might likely be in 2023 has begun to dawn on and force the CPC caucus to not only renege on this understanding but also doing all within its reach to completely take over the party and dominate the other tendencies especially, the ACN.

Therefore, while the PDP wing of the merger, led by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has since been relegated from exerting any form of control or accorded any sense of belonging especially, that his other allies had since returned to their former party, the PDP; the CPC caucus has literally taken over the party now and is desperately working to consolidate its hold ahead of the 2023 general election.

Thus, by going ahead with the congresses last weekend, despite concerns about the legal implications that option portended for the party, it demonstrates once again that it is willing to risk the existence of the party in pursuit of its narrow objective. The CPC’s caucus clearly sought to plant his loyalists across the board and finally cut other tendencies to size even when its equity to the merger (states controlled pre-2015 polls) was the least when compared to other legacy parties.