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“Everyone can lead when the plan is working. The best lead when the plan falls apart.”
—Robin Sharma
By Omoniyi Salaudeen
The Chairman of Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mai Mala Buni, Tuesday, came to the end of the road in his long-drawn battle with his aggrieved colleagues in the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) with dramatic emergence of Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State as the acting chairman of the party.
The embattled governor of Yobe State lost the bid to save his job which he had jealously guided by guile and intrigue.
Prior to the civilian “coup d’état,” not a few attempts had been made to terminate the tenure of his committee on the basis of its alleged illegality, but he managed to survive the serial mutiny one after the other.
His run of luck, however, came to an abrupt end, last week, when his counterpart in Niger State suddenly emerged as the acting national chairman of the party.
By this latest development, the Forum has rendered Buni completely hors de combat. And as he continues to rue some of his immediate past actions and inactions, he must also take a frank audit of his failings in power, at least, for one or two lessons.
It is a fatal error of judgment for a politician not to read correctly where the wind of change is blowing. Buni has over pushed his luck for too long by taking the party for granted, postponing the evil day.
He deliberately walked himself into troubled water with his vaulting ambition to be the running mate of a particular presidential candidate whose identity is yet unknown.
In retrospect, the committee was put in June 2020 following the ouster of Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) for specific purpose of organising the national convention of the party.
But somehow along the line, the committee assumed a life of its own and began to threaten the very foundation of the party on which its existence and legitimacy were predicated. Rather than focusing on his mandate, Buni constituted himself into an albatross weighing heavily on the neck of the party and shifting convention plans on flimsy reasons.
As at the last count, the proposed convention has been shifted for three consecutive times. Those in the know claimed that the endless postponement was a deliberate ploy to combine the national convention with the presidential primary. He got it all wrong.
To affirm the ascendancy of a new regime, Tuesday, Bello, who is a member of the 13-member caretaker committee of the party, was at the national secretariat, where he presided over the affairs of the party for the first time. And he did so with the strong backing of governors Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, his Jigawa State counterpart, Muhammed Badaru Abubakar, Plateau State’s Simon Lalong, Kebbi’s Abubakar Atiku Bagudu and Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna who had met with President Muhammadu Buhari earlier on Saturday to firm up the imminent change of leadership before he embarked on his medical trip abroad.
It was reported that the president was informed of the purported plans by Buni and his cohorts to truncate the convention slated for March 26 by securing a restraining order of a Federal High Court in Abuja.
The outcome of the meeting was the emergence of Bello. Acting in his capacity as the Chairman, the Niger governor, in his schedule of duty, sworn-in the new chairmen of the party and also received the report of the party committee on zoning chaired by the Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
Now that the party stakeholders have ratified the zoning of chairmanship position to the North-central, Bello has technically got a blank cheque to continue as the head of an emerging new National Working Committee (NWC).
If the plan to make him carry on sails through, he would have one more hurdle to contend with. First, he has to grapple with the forces Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State described as “yahoo yahoo” governors, who are acting behind the scene to give support to Buni’s act of illegality.
Akeredolu said in a released statement: “The installation of the Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the APC was beyond a call to service. It was a child of necessity moulded to one, instill discipline in leadership and engender coherence among stakeholders and more importantly, to deepen the rule of law in our party.
“However, the insidious and appalling happenings within our party in the last few months, especially under the immediate-past leadership clearly posit a huge embarrassment. Without necessarily dwelling on details that are known to critical stakeholders, the path taken lately by Governor Mai Mala Buni, the immediate past head of the CECPC and an indivisible few, is an unenviable trajectory undeserving of our dear party. It is a disdainful narrative.”
El-Rufai too had earlier declared that Buni’s removal as caretaker chairman was approved by 19 governors in the party. The truth is that to lift the current pall of darkness over the party, the new leadership would have to work out a reconciliation plan that could guarantee a united front ahead of the next general elections. And time is of essence.
It is not settled yet whether the planned convention would hold on March 26 as scheduled.
But according to the Kaduna State governor, postponing the convention further even by one week would lead to a prolonged delay till the end of Ramadan in May, which by implication could affect the conduct of presidential primary behind the timeline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Under the present scenario, Bello’s administrative capacity, his forthrightness, and focused leadership would definitely be on trial. Already, he has been assured of the backing of the majority of the progressive governors. The assurance remains a promissory note. He shall see our full backing come Thursday, March 17, 2022 at the National Executive Committee meeting,” Akeredolu said.
Even at that, as things currently stand, it would be a herculean task to pull back the party from the brink. Such assignment is surely not a job for political neophytes.
Bello, a graduate of Economics, is the eldest son of a former military governor of the old Kano State, Col. Sani Bello (rtd). Before his election as governor, he had served as the Commissioner for Commerce and Investment of Niger State in the administration of erstwhile Governor Aliyu Babangida. He is currently serving out his second tenure as elected governor on the Platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC). Events in the days ahead would show the degree of his political dexterity.
