APC has been bogged down with its chieftains jostling for who controls the incoming leadership of the party and by implication who has the upper hand in deciding the party’s next presidential candidate.
The division in the All Progressives Congress (APC) has deepened after some key party members discovered that President Muhammadu Buhari has single-handedly dictated the composition of the next Executive Committee of the party, multiple sources told SaharaReporters.
APC has been bogged down with its chieftains jostling for who controls the incoming leadership of the party and by implication who has the upper hand in deciding the party’s next presidential candidate.
President Buhari has avoided formally naming or endorsing his successor. However, it is believed that he has an aspirant whom he prefers to succeed him.
“I wouldn‘t (mention the name of the person I want as my successor) because he may be eliminated if I do. I better keep that a secret,” Buhari had said recently during an interview with Channels TV.
It was however gathered on Friday that the President has handpicked the APC National Executive Committee that will enable him to single-handedly decide who runs to succeed him on the party’s ticket.
Documents sighted by SaharaReporters showed that Buhari personally endorsed all the plans and choices of candidates presented to him by a clique in the party reportedly made up of some Northern state governors and ministers in his cabinet.
The documents show that the President has signed off on Senator Abdullahi Adamu as National Chairman, Senator John Akpanudoedehe from the South-South geopolitical zone as National Secretary, and Senator Ken Nnamani from the South-East as Deputy National Chairman (South).
Buhari also signed off on other positions that have been pinned down to geopolitical zones.
“Baba (Buhari) endorsing the zoning formula and the candidate has closed any further debate on the matter,” a presidential aide told SaharaReporters.
“People will make a noise even if it is their own brother that is given this position. So, someone must make decisions to end some of this back and forth at some point.”
The documents further show that the President first endorsed a set of documents setting out zoning arrangements on February 1, 2022, while he endorsed Adamu and others on February 25, 2022.
A party chieftain opposed to the arrangement lamented that a bad precedent has been set to weaken Nigeria’s democracy.
He said, “President Buhari has the right as the party’s de facto leader to show the direction the party should go, but this aspect of one person sitting in a parlour and constituting the APC EXCO is bad news for democracy in Nigeria. This is dictatorship baring its fangs and we cannot afford the luxury of silence.
“What is the essence of wasting time and resources on an elective national convention if the President and a couple of governors have constituted the exco in their spare time? We will challenge this legally.”
Another APC member expressed worry that Buhari could have verbally directed those he wanted to be elected to the EXCO without committing ink to paper the way he did.
“I have seen the documents and my own worry is that the President should not have gone to the extent of appending his signature to the papers. This is the same signature he uses to conduct matters of the state and to now contemplate the same signature on documents that amount to illegality is demystifying the office of the President,” the APC chieftain from the North West of the country said.
Party Dump by Sahara Reporters on Scribd