APC Crisis Deepens As Buhari’s Imposition Of Adamu, Others Tear Party Apart

ABUJA – Indications emerged on Friday to the effects that the division in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may have deepened further after some key par­ty members discovered, via leaked documents, how Pres­ident Muhammadu Buhari single-handedly dictated the composition of the next Exec­utive Committee of the party.

The APC has been grap­pling with conflicts of in­terests with its chieftains jostling for who controls the incoming leadership of the party and by implication, has the upper hand in deciding the party’s next presidential flagbearer.

President Buhari has tactically avoided openly naming or endorsing his suc­cessor, but handpicking the APC Executive Committee according to insiders within the party, will enable him to single-handedly decide who runs to succeed him on the party’s ticket.

Documents made avail­able to this newspaper on Friday, shows that President Buhari personally endorsed all the plans and choices of candidates presented to him by a clique in the party that is reportedly made up of some northern 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). The president also signed off on other posi­tions that have been pinned down to geopolitical zones.

A source close to Kaduna Government House, who craved anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed the documents, saying, “Baba (President Buhari) endorsing the zon­ing formula and the candi­date has closed any further debate on the matter”.

“People will make 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,” he said.

Analysis of the docu­ments showed that the Pres­ident first endorsed a set of documents setting out zoning arrangements on March 1, 2022 while he endorsed Ada­mu and others on February 25, 2022.

A party chieftain who op­posed to the arrangement, and wished not to be named lamented that a bad prece­dent has been set to weaken Nigeria’s democracy.

He stressed that “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 par­lor 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,” he declared.

Another chieftain who also pleaded anonymity ex­pressed worry that President Buhari could have verbally directed those he wanted to be elected to the Exco without committing ink to paper, the way he did.

Independent

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