The forthcoming convention of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has split governors elected under the political party into three different groups.
While the group of second term governors wants the convention to hold as planned and are assiduously working towards settling for a candidate, the second group, which is made up of mainly first-term governors, want the convention either postponed and a mechanism to return the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee designed so that Buni can continue.
On the other hand, the third group of governors also want the convention to hold, and for Buni to continue or the convention postponed.
However, it was learnt that President Muhammadu Buhari met with Ekiti State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on the matter before he travelled, and the decision they both arrived is yet to be disclosed.
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Due to the development, there is palpable tension, apprehension, and misgivings in the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) over the choice of a consensus national chairman for the APC as there were also indications that the leadership of the party had begun to consider March for a possible new date for its national convention, earlier slated for Saturday, February 26.
But one of the frontrunners for the chairmanship position, Mallam Saliu Mustapha, said on Wednesday that February 26 remained “sacrosanct.” Mustapha said with the kind of energy the caretaker committee was devoting to preparations for the convention he believed they knew what to do.
Mustapha said:
I don’t want to dispute or argue over speculation, since they have not come out officially to say it will hold or it will not hold. For now, we will still retain earlier information that February 26 is sacrosanct. So, if anything is contrary to that, we will have to wait for the official channel of the party to report it to all of us.
A few weeks ago, the interim national leadership of the party was forced to fix February 26 for the convention, after pressure from the APC governors and other aggrieved stakeholders, who had expressed their displeasures over foot-dragging on the matter.
