By Adesina Soyooye
Those who had wondered why President Mohammed Buhari suddenly aborted, and rescheduled, his two-week medical trip to the United Kingdom, last week, should wonder no more.
The President had been scheduled to travel to the United Kingdom from Nairobi, Kenya, where he had gone for a Summit, for a routine medical check-up. But, to the surprise of Nigerians, he headed back to Abuja after the meeting, and travelled out two days later to the UK.
What many who wondered did not know was that Buhari came to put out the fire in his backyard. He came to play politics. His Party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, was on fire, and on the verge of literally collapsing.
The Party’s National Convention, which had been aborted before, was on the verge of being aborted again. The Party found out it had saboteurs within. Saboteurs who did not, out of alleged selfish interest, want the Convention to hold.
The Party was beginning to be a joke before Nigerians. The main opposition Party, People’s Democratic Party, PDP, which had held a successful National Convention was beginning to yab the APC. A ruling party which could not hold a National Convention, the PDP yabbed, cannot rule the Country.
To the shock of some APC chieftains, they discovered that a couple of people within its leadership cadre was responsible for their problem. It was even more of a shock to them when they found out that it was, allegedly, the Chairman of its Interim National Committee, Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, the Secretary, Dr John Akpanudoedehe, and about four State Governors who were behind it. Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, called the four Governors, “yahoo – yahoo Governors.”
They were to discover that Buni and Co already were in possession of a Court injunction to abort the National Convention scheduled for March 26, 2022, without, even, to the knowledge of the President. They wanted to surprise the Party at the last minute. They wanted to continue in office.
When their plan was discovered, the President was briefed. That necessitated the President flying back from Nairobi to Abuja to give an order for the sacking of Buni.
As Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State put it during an interview on Wednesday with Channels Television, the President came back, held a meeting with the Governors, set in motion the sacking of Buni, hopped on a chopper to the Airport, and travelled to the UK
El-Rufai: “The President held a meeting with us (APC Governors), and gave us a clear directive and responsibilities and went into his waiting chopper at the airport. The President in his wisdom knew that we have the capacity.
“It is just that some of us decided to take the back seat and allow things to even get to this point because we believe that once we were elected, we should focus on governance, and leave the party administration to those who are better at it.
“But clearly, it got to a point that something was going to go wrong. the party was being placed at great risk, and we had to do something.
“I’m happy that the Caretaker Committee headed by Abubakar Sani Bello has issued a notice for an Emergency National Executive Committee Meeting.
“The President will join us virtually. Of course, His Excellency, the Vice President, all the Governors and all the State Chairmen of the party will converge on the Party Headquarters, and we will take certain decisions that will lay a very solid foundation for the Convention taking place March 26.
“We got to know of a Court Order last year. it was obtained in November. A member of the party went to Court to say there must not be a Convention until his case against the Party is disposed of which can take months or years and the lawyers of Buni went to Court and agreed with the person and nobody knew about this order.
“It was a hidden nuclear weapon to destroy the Convention which further made us believe that there are fifth columnists in the party that want to bring this party down because if we don’t have (Convention) and we go ahead with the Primaries, we might likely have our candidates lose all their seats as the case in Zamfara.
“We reported to the President that no action had been taken on the order. He said the Niger State Governor must take over on Monday and we should use whatever legal means necessary to make sure that the Convention is delivered.
“Bello has the President’s full backing and the backing of at least 19 of the 23 progressive Governors and Deputy Governors. There are some Governors not fully on board, and are the ones planting fake stories. Since Monday he took over, we have substantial progress.”
El-Rufai also disclosed that the President has signed some recommendations and endorsed the issue of zoning. However, he said that the Secretary to the Caretaker Committee, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, “refused to take instructions from Governor Bello who is Acting Chairman”.
El-Rufai: “I can assure you that even when he (Buni) returns to the country, he will handle no position. The National Secretary, I believe, the CECPC has taken action against him already. The CECPC has taken a decision on him. The CECPC will explain this decision in due time.”
Buni is on a medical trip in Dubai. On Thursday, a letter was in circulation, a hand-over letter, purportedly, from him to Bello to oversee the affairs of the Party in his absence. But Bello denied getting any such letter from Buni. The Yobe State Governor has, definitely, lost out.
He is the second National Chairman of the APC to be sacked, unceremoniously, by Buhari. The first was former Edo State Governor, Adam Oshiomhole who the President replaced with Buni.
