Barely 24 hours after the meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and governors of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Abuja, ended in deadlock on Tuesday, the governors appeared to have had a change of mind and agreed to conduct fresh congresses for officers in the three tiers of government.
Consequently, the 24 governors of the party threw their weight behind President Buhari’s decision to end the tenure of the incumbent National Chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun and other members of the party’s executive.
President Buhari had met with APC governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday over tenure elongation of the National Working Committee, NWC, in which majority of the governors had insisted on having tenure elongation for the NWC.
This new development came on a day the 10-man committee set up Tuesday by Chief Odigie-Oyegun, to resolve the tenure elongation logjam, promised to submit its report today, though it was given till Friday to do same.
Addressing State House correspondents after the meeting with President Buhari, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, and Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, explained that the meeting on Tuesday at the State House was extended to yesterday for more consultations, adding that they all accepted to be on the same page with the President. Governor Yari also said the governors will meet with the National Working Committee later in the day to come up with names of the members of the convention team as well as the time-table for the convention.
We are on same page with Buhari — Govs He said: “Gentlemen of the press, you know yesterday (Tuesday), we left you in the dark after the meeting and today we have seen so many captions that there is disagreement among the governors over the issue of party chairman or about the party leadership. “No.
We had a meeting with Mr. President yesterday (Tuesday), and we extended the meeting till night and we followed up with the consultations with the President now. “We consulted and all the 24 governors of the APC are on the same page with Mr. President — that we are going to respect our party’s constitution; we are going to respect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Therefore, we collectively agreed that we will have congresses at all levels, local, state and national. “The committee set up by the National Secretariat of our party, headed by governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, is presenting its report later today (yesterday).
The governors are also meeting with the working committee today (yesterday) so that we come up with convention committee names as well as time-table of the election. “So, there is no deadlock in our meeting; we have progressed and very soon, you will have the names of the convention committee members as well as the time-table.”
Also speaking, chairman of APC Governors Forum and governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, said: “I just want to let you know that there is no crisis in the APC at all. And we want to use this opportunity to advise media operatives to stop spreading rumours of crisis in APC.
There is no single crisis in APC. “The issue was one of people who believe that we did not have enough time to organize a party congress and run election. Some people felt that it was a good idea but the most important thing is that, if we do that, we will be contravening both our party constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
That is the major issue that we have that they call crisis. We do not have virus. “This morning (yesterday), we met with Mr. President to fine-tune issues. One, regarding the congress and we have resolved that the congresses at all levels will hold and the chairman of the elongation committee is also fine-tuning the arrangement in the same line.
To this effect, the convention committee will be set out, it will be announced. “But let me correct one impression, the issue of congress and convention does not mean that the previous people who have served the party have done badly, and it does not mean that they cannot come back or that they cannot re-contest.
That is not it. “We are simply saying that their tenure has ended and those who wish to re-contest can re-contest and can be elected into our party structure. So we are all one as a family and we are set to go for 2019 elections in victory.”
The five governors that briefed journalists were Abdulazeez Yari of Zamfara, Simon Lalong, Plateau, his Imo State counterpart, Rochas Okorocha, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State and Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State. Meanwhile, Governor Lalong whose committee was inaugurated on Tuesday by the National Chairman of APC, Chief Oyegun, to resolve the tenure elongation logjam, said the committee would submit its report yesterday.
He said the technical committee to recommend a way out of the imbroglio over the tenure extension started work immediately after inauguration. Recall that the APC governors had maintained sealed lips after their meeting with President Buhari at the State House, with some fuming that they were not ready to allow someone hijack the party machinery.