Immediate past Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman, has written an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on the perceived tardiness of Governor Mai Mala Buni led All Progressives Congress Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee towards the conduct of the national convention of the party.
Lukman in the letter titled, “APC Convention: Caretaker or Undertaker Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari,” said the failure of the interim leadership to commence the sale of forms on Monday as earlier scheduled was disturbing.
The former DG, PGF noted that no decision has been taken on the zoning of offices, less than two weeks to the scheduled February 26, 2022, National Convention, giving credence to speculation of an alleged plot to sabotage the conduct of the national convention.
His letter read in part: “Based on the schedule of the Convention as issued by the CECPC Secretary, Sen. Akpanudoedehe on January 19, 2022, Sales of Forms to all aspirants is supposed to commence February 14, 2022. As it is, today, February 15, 2022, forms are not available anywhere and the excuse from all available sources is that unless the zoning of offices to be contested are decided, forms will not be available. Why has the CECPC not concluded on zoning up to now? When will they conclude on it?
“Looking at the schedule of the Convention, the CECPC is expected to publish Convention Sub-Committees on Saturday, February 19, 2022. The question is, has the Sub-Committees been set up and are already working? If they have, what are these Sub-Committees and who are the members? If not, when will they be set up? What are the details of these Committees and their mandates, which is to be implemented within less than one week to the Convention?
“Your Excellency, the way the CECPC is approaching the organisation of the National Convention gives enough ground to suspect internal sabotage. Is the leadership of the CECPC working to ensure that the Convention doesn’t hold on February 26, 2022? Recall that initially, the Convention was scheduled to hold on December 28, 2021. Through consultations, it was moved to February 5, 2022. Unfortunately, we found ourselves, as a party, in the embarrassing situation of having to contend with speculation about the alleged ambition of His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni to manipulate his emergence as the substantive National Chairman of the party, which means a reluctance to organise the National Convention and handover to elected leadership. Somehow, here we are, from February 5, 2022, the Convention had to be moved to February 26, 2022.
“Even while consultations were going on leading to the decision to move the Convention to February 26, 2022, there was media speculation that the leadership of the CECPC want the Convention moved to either May or June 2022. Some sponsored media campaigns were openly promoted to canvass for these positions. Although the alleged ambition of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni to emerge as the substantive National Chairman is very difficult to believe, however, with the way the leadership of CECPC under his watch is sluggishly handling the organisation of the National Convention, it gives strong credibility to the speculation.
“As things are, the CECPC leadership is using sophisticated strategies to force the hands of party leaders, including blackmails and wildcat promises of electoral opportunity to emerge as candidates of our party for the 2023 elections. This is very unfortunate and must be redressed urgently. Your Excellency, as the moral leader of our party, and one of the leading initiators of the merger negotiations that produced the APC in 2013, you never demanded an automatic ticket to emerge as the Presidential candidate of our party. You contested with other four aspirants on December 10, 2014, in a keenly contested primary election in Lagos and became our Presidential candidate. That was the orientation you provided. Why should the leadership of the CECPC be setting the stage for destroying a veritable democratic tradition, which was one of the important attractions that guaranteed our party the historic victory of the 2015 general elections?
“Your Excellency, we are faced with a very critical situation, as a party. Sadly, we have some leaders in our party, including the leadership of the CECPC who believe that they can manipulate every situation to impose their choices on the party without going through the needed processes as established in the constitution of the APC. We can’t be a part of change and overlooked situations whereby these very leaders continue to take us and the country back to the dark days when party politics is reduced to the circus of undemocratic practices. This is a very painful reality, which must be urgently redressed.”
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