Convention: APC Leaders To Meet Buhari Sunday

By Uche Mbah

President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to meet the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Sunday, to determine a date for the party’s National Convention.

Internal wrangling have held the Convention at bay, with different interest groups insisting on being in control of the party.

President Buhari had recently said that opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  may clinch the Presidency if APC does not put their house in order.

The party had proposed a tentative February date for the convention.

Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with the President, Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, confirmed the agenda of Sunday meeting with the President is the Party’s National Convention.

Fielding question on the efforts of the party leaders to avert a collapse, the Governor said: “Yes, I agree that all the times there are meetings, especially taking final decisions on the party, I’m always part of it and part of it was also why I visited the President and the President still stands committed that there must be an immediate convention.

“You know, when the convention is coming there are fears here and there, some people will tell you it will work, it will not work. I don’t want to jump to a conclusion, but the visit to the President has already assured us and you know that there is already a notice that all the governors are meeting on Sunday. By Sunday we will tell you when we’re doing the convention.

“We’ve taken a date already. I think our first date before Christmas we said we’re going to do a convention in February and we are still working for convention, as far as I’m concerned, except things change from another angle. But as far as I’m concerned, we’re working for our convention in February.

“These are things that the President was raising his fears, but we’ve already given him assurances that nothing will stop us from having a very peaceful election.

“Some parties have done their own, the PDP did their own, nothing will stop APC from doing their own.

“So, all the fears that we’re talking about, which the President also re-echoed, is also telling the governor’s please do more, and keep the party alive. So, by God’s grace, we’re going to put our party alive.”

Noting that steps will be taken to tackle every issue militating against the convention, Lalong continued:

“Well, these are things we’re going to discuss, but I’m not drawing conclusions, but I always tell you that a political party is a cumulation of interests. The interests may be the same, they may not be the same, but at the end of the day, what we’ll do is that we are going to elect people who are going to represent you.

“People will come with different interests and so when you are preparing like this, you have different interests and those different interests will be aired in different ways.

“But I just want to assure you that in so many ways, when we meet, we’ll harmonize all interests and we’ll come out as one APC and that’s what we’re hoping that whatever will be the interests that we’re going to discuss, I have a very great hope that at the end of the day, our goal is to elect people who will take care of our party because that will be the beginning of the process towards electing those who will take over from this present government.”

On the issue of court cases against the convention, Lslong said it is not likely to affect the convention. “There are procedures to holding court processes. Many of the court processes were there when we set up the caretaker committee, but up to this moment, if you go to take a census of some of the court proceedings, you will realize that a lot of them have been resolved out of court. So, it’s still the duty of the party, it’s still part of the functions of the party to resolve.

“But we must not wait to resolve all court presses before you go for the convention. I don’t think so because there is also machinery for resolving the court processes, even after the convention.

“I had a court process in my State, that did not stop me from going on and at the end of the day, we resolved the court process and we’re still going on, preparing and waiting for the convention.”

On whether the APC can meet the speculated February 5 date for the convention in view of the need for a mandatory 21-day notice to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), he said: “Well, I’m not the chairman of the convention committee, but I want to assure you that we’ve called a meeting for Sunday and if there is a meeting on Sunday, and you’re thinking about next Friday. Just wait and see what will happen before next Friday. I don’t want to draw a conclusion now.

“You’re already talking of litigations, you draw conclusions, somebody will go and file a case tomorrow. So, I don’t want us to draw a conclusion on that, but I want to assure you that we are meeting. We already sampled the minds of many of the governors.

“We’re meeting and we’re very hopeful that we’re going to keep and then with the admonition given by the President, it’s a warning signal to all of us to sit up and ensure that we have a seamless, very clean, fair and transparent convention so that our party will not get disintegrated.”