Buhari, APC Govs Meeting Cancelled At Last Minute As Uzodinma Hints On Postponement Of Convention

In what has thrown All Progressives Congress, APC, into confusion, the scheduled meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the governors on the platform of the APC was botched at the last minute without prior notice.

The meeting was convened to discuss issues surrounding the party’s National Convention and the electoral bill before the president for his assent.

As expected, governors and principal members of the National Assembly on the platform of the party arrived at the presidential villa but were shocked that the meeting was not holding.

Those who arrived were the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and Ekiti state governor, Mr Kayode Fayemi; Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Simon Lalong of Plateau State, Ben Ayade of Cross River, Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna, Hope Uzodinma of Imo)l and Yahaya Bello of Kogi.

Also at the villa were Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omon Agege and Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Ahmed Wase.

Although the president was expected to depart for Belgium for Europe-African Union Summit after the meeting, it was the manner in which the governors and NASS members were treated that shocked them especially having known that the President’s trip was not an emergency.

But speaking with State House Correspondents, Imo State Governor said, “ We have said it is the 26th (the convention). If anything, for any reason tomorrow, it is not doable in the opinion of the party, we will move.

“We shouldn’t worry about little issues. I think our focus and attention should be towards having a workable democracy in Nigeria, like we have shown, supporting government policies and programmes and then being patriotic.

“Our democracy will do better if supported with the right attitude. You may not like my face, but the federal government is the federal government, the state government is the state government.

“We should be able to exhibit a sense of nationalism and patriotism. We should be able to support a government that is in power. Today, the President, even though produced by APC, is President of all the political parties in Nigeria and the government of all the political parties in Nigeria.

“This mentality of war, war, war, politics and democracy is not about war, it’s about ideology and the ability to sell your policy and the people will buy into it.”

He dismissed fear of the convention tearing the party apart, saying, “Don’t forget that the APC is not a mushroom party, APC is a giant, it’s the largest party today in Africa and that is the party that other small parties should copy. Because small parties come to do zoning and all that does not mean their internal mechanism must be the same as that of APC.

“APC is already the party on the ground that owns the federal government of Nigeria and up to 21 state governments. So, the discretion on how and when to do their convention should be an internal party affair and APC is the one wearing the shoe, with credible leadership, they know when to move and when not to move.

“So, I think we should just watch because, under the constitution of APC, buying form is one thing. We have three modes that we can adopt to elect our officers; either by direct primaries, by indirect primaries or by consensus. What if APC has adopted consensus and is not yet to the public knowledge? We don’t need again to begin to sell forms and do that zoning or not zoning.”