By Olusegun Olanrewaju and David Lawani
After a long drawn period of curious politicking, the curtain finally fell yesterday on Mai Mala Buni as the caretaker chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

That marked some dramatic tempering down from the intractable crises rocking the party, which has for a long time now been unable to muster home a national convention barely a year into 2023 general elections.

President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly approved the removal of the Yobe State Governor, Buni, who doubles as the chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party before yesterday.

There was tension at the party’s secretariat in Abuja as no fewer than 15 patrol vehicles of security operatives blocked access roads as early as 9 am.

Also, 70 armed operatives blocked Blantyre Street, preventing all human and vehicular movements into the Secretariat.

However, APC workers were allowed access to the complex after they were screened and visitors and journalists were turned back.

In the absence of the now fallen political czar, Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, was named to act as APC national chairman, though in an acting capacity.

Immediately after his announcement, Bello immediately performed some important functions like presiding over a meeting by the CECPC and state chairmen of the party.

The Niger State governor, who sat on Buni’s former seat, after Buni’s two years, said, “The states’ chairmen took their oath of office today.

He also received the report of the eight-man APC committee ahead of its National Convention scheduled for March 26, 2022, chaired by Kwara State governor, Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq.

But a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena, asked Bello to shelve his alleged plan to summon a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.

•Why Buhari showed him the exit door

However, the last straw that broke the camel’s back in the Buni story was an alleged ‘bitter complaint by a faction of the APC governors, which allegedly told the Buhari that Buni was not inclined to holding the convention as rescheduled, “because there were no preparations on the ground to indicate so”.

Miffed by what he was told, the President was said to have immediately directed that Buni be removed and replaced.

Buni is currently in Dubai for medical reasons and was not around to defend himself, but the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, and another top Presidential Villa player, were said to have intervened on behalf of Buni when they got wind of the development and advised the President to exercise caution against such action.

They were said to have reminded Buhari that it was only the NEC of the party that could convene and remove Buni, and that would be after he must have been given a seven-day notice of removal.

The complainants, it was however gathered, contended that anything outside the laid down processes could be challenged in court, with the potential of disrupting the rescheduled March 26 Convention date.

It was not certain, however, whether the intervention changed the president’s mind or not. But some insiders, who spoke to journalists on the development yesterday morning, expressed displeasure that some governors went to ambush the president just before he left the country without their knowledge and created a false narrative that Buni did not want to hold the convention.

How Police arrested BRT driver over Oluwabamise’s death

“They are creating unnecessary crises in the party, because of their selfish interests. How can they claim there are no preparations to hold the convention when various convention sub-committees have been announced? The zonal committee is announcing the zoning formula on Monday.

“Committees will be inaugurated in a few days. These people are not sincere. Some governors have been scheming to take over the functions of CECPC to further their interests.

“The immediate way out of this is; if Buni voluntarily resigns, which he had two weeks ago threatened to do during the APC governors meeting in Abuja,” they claimed.

Nonetheless, the President, on Sunday, assured party members before departing the country for his two-week medical trip that he would do everything to ensure the convention was held as scheduled on March 26.

He also took time to clear the air of misgivings about the structure of his government, when he said, constitutionally, his deputy, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, was always in charge, whenever he was away.

Speaking to journalists before departing Abuja for London, the President, who told his party members not to forget how a relatively new APC beat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the polls in 2015, reiterated that, “everything would be done to ensure that the party holds the national convention as scheduled.”

And in further allaying existential concerns, Buhari stated: “Well, they (APC members) should wait and see. How did we come as a party to take power from the ruling party, who had been there before us for so many years? So, we have the capacity; everything will be alright,” the president said.

Earlier, a former Director-General (DG) of Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Dr Salihu Mohammed Lukman, has berated media reports that Buni was sacked.

In a statement, the former administrative head of the progressive governors’ group described the alleged change as ‘sensational’ and ‘mischievously planted’.

He alleged that part of the plot was that, once they heard that President Buhari had agreed with some party leaders that necessary steps to save the party should be taken, which require a change of the CECPC leadership, “they decided to present it in the media that the president has sacked Mai Mala Buni as the Chairman of the CECPC and appointed Abubakar Sani Bello as sole administrator.

Lukman stressed that attempts to delegitimise the process of changing the leadership will only confirm their undertaker mission, rather than serving as leaders of the CECPC.

“All party leaders and members should support other members of the CECPC to rise to this occasion by ensuring that they effectively enforce collective leadership in the CECPC at this critical point in the life of the APC.

“Similarly, all leaders and members of the party must be vigilant to ensure that the new leadership of the party emerges from all the internal contests currently going on are leaders that will faithfully implement all decisions, especially the scheduled March 26, 2022, APC Convention.

“If anything, what is going on in APC today proves that it is the only party where an internal contest is taking place.

“It is the only party that acknowledges its challenges and confronts them without any pretence. Thanks to the leadership of President Buhari, APC is going through a very tedious and difficult process of rebirth. Part of the challenge facing the party has to do with internal betrayals by trusted leaders. However, with the courageously unbiased leadership of President Buhari, in the last two years, the party can confront its leadership challenges.

“Nigerians must be reminded that the leadership challenge facing the country, however, defined, “cannot be remedied without a democratically functional political party with a leadership that is honest and trustworthy.

Celebrities react as missing BRT lady passenger found dead

“This will not be achieved through denials. In other words, any party whose leadership is corrupt and dishonest can only produce corrupt and dishonest leaders in government. Since 2020, APC has been going through processes of internal leadership cleansing as part of efforts to ensure the emergence of honest and trustworthy candidates for the 2023 elections.

“As party loyalists, we must remain vigilant, confident, and courageous, to continue to support and engage all our party leaders to take all the painful decisions, which are needed to ensure that the March 26 APC Convention restore all the democratic structures of the APC and put the APC back on the path to electoral victory in 2023.

“APC is a party, which in its short period of existence has proven that leadership is about trust. Once a leader betrays the trust invested in him, the needed democratic process and structures will be activated to re-organise and produce new leaders who will honestly serve the party. May Allah (SWT) continue to guide all our APC leaders to put APC back in the direction of providing the needed political leadership to facilitate politics of change in Nigeria, Amin.”