Buhari insists on March 26 date for APC convention, urges members to learn from PDP failure

President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday urged leaders and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to intensify preparations for the party’s national convention slated for March 26.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President insisted that the date for the party’s convention remained sacrosanct.

He also warned the leaders and members of APC to desist from name-calling and backstabbing.

Nigerians were stunned during the week when the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, claimed that the President had approved the removal of his Yobe State counterpart, Mai Mala Buni, as acting of APC over an alleged plot to scuttle the party’s convention.

He claimed that Buni and his supporters planned to undermine the exercise through frivolous court injunctions.

The governor added that President Buhari had directed his Niger State counterpart, Abubakar Sani Bello, to take over as APC acting chairman and supervise preparations for the convention.

The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, corroborated El-Rufai’s claim 24 hours later.

In a statement issued by his media aide, the Ondo State governor accused some of his colleagues whom he branded “Yahoo Yahoo governors” of working with Buni to circumvent the collective will of the majority of APC members.

However, in his statement, Buhari urged the APC members to learn from the failure of the Peoples Democratic Party (APC) and put the party’s interest above other considerations.

He said: “Look at the once-powerful, main opposition Peoples Democratic Party now enfeebled and adrift and learn lessons in disunity, mismanagement and corruption.

“They (PDP) failed in 16 years in power and a failure as opposition.

“Yes, we are entitled to our own share of dissent and intra-party discord. These are common in all parties, left and right all over the world.

“But parties splintered by competing egos destine themselves to the worst possible fate.

“As the country prepares for the long run-up to the 2023 presidential election, we all expect a robust debate on the issues that matter, and what is going on in the APC should be a reflection of this, not the infighting we are seeing. There must be no more distractions ahead of the convention to choose new leaders.

“This is a party (APC) that has been in existence barely for eight years, becoming the dominant party because it has thrown open its doors to defectors from other parties, big and small.

“This alone, in addition to the fact that we didn’t start on the note of arrogance of power, nor see government as a vehicle for self-aggrandisement, to be held at all costs, but a vehicle to bring development to all without discrimination-political, ethnic or regional to our dear country made this success possible.

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“Given all that is at a stake, we can expect contests into offices as we are now faced with to be heated although candidates and their promoters for party offices are not so much debating policy differences but differences of management, personality, character, and suitability for the most important leadership roles in our country and therefore the continent.”

He also cautioned the media on the coverage of the ruling party.

Buhari added: “It is equally clear that over the last week or so, the internal management affairs of the APC have been afforded generous media coverage – over and above its importance to the voters of Nigeria.

“It is important to ask what benefits the poor are getting during the period of intense negative coverage.

“When precisely the party’s convention is held and who is the party’s chairman is hardly a matter for the average voter: vastly more important is who convention delegates will elect as the party’s flagbearer in the coming weeks to take forward the party’s platform to the people in the general election in February next year.

“It is therefore important for the media to put such matters into perspective. No one is debating policy differences here. That is for the general election. None of the declared aspirants and any of those that may step forward will change because of who may be in the party in the chairman’s seat. It is essentially the same party.”

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