The All
Progressive Congress, APC, caucus and National Executive Council, NEC, meetings
coming up on Monday and Tuesday, will consider setting up a National Caretaker
Committee to run the affairs of the party, instead of the National Chairman,
John Oyegun.
Findings on Sunday, showed that
Tinubu has been unhappy with the tenure elongation of the John Oyegun-led EXCO,
and has as a result gone cold on his reconciliation drive in the party.
Recall,
that on February 6, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari charged a Tinubu-led
Committee with the task of reconciling aggrieved party members, a task the
party Leader took very seriously and swung immediately to action.
However, Tinubu’s peace voyage
seems to had hit the wall, on February 27, 2018, the day the party’s National
Executive Committee, NEC, took what many saw as a “divisive decision” to extend
the tenure of the party Executives, whose current term of office should have
ended on June 30, this year, across all levels.
Tinubu and Oyegun have been at
loggerheads for a while, and entrusting the Reconciliation Committee by the
President, was seen as a crucial blow to Oyegun’s chances of holding on to the
reins of the party, and an indication that the pendulum was swinging in the
direction of Tinubu.
However, since the unprecedented
move of February 27, which swung the pendulum firmly in Oyegun’s direction,
Tinubu has remained silent, and activities of his Committee have ground to a
halt.
However, the noise from Tinubu’s
camp has been that of discontent over the tenure elongation.
“What Asiwaju is saying is that
things should be done rightly, I mean constitutionally”, Tinubu’s Media Aide,
Tunde Rahman, revealed.
“Personally, I have looked at the
APC constitution, and I did not see where it granted elongation of tenure in
whatever form to Executive Committees of parties. Even the 1999 Constitution as
amended, speaks about what is right with respect to the periodic tenure of
party Executives. That is in Section 223”, he said.
“Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has gone
very far about the reconciliation task. That much I can tell you right away. He
is even putting together an interim report for submission to President
Muhammadu Buhari. I can also tell you, however, that I have heard him say to
Journalists who asked him how far he had gone about the reconciliation work,
that he would only give the progress report on his assignment to President
Buhari who appointed him. And I think we can only be fair to him, if we grant
him that indulgence. The President asked him to lead the consultation,
reconciliation, and confidence-building efforts in the party, and he would
render account to the President”, he said.
Elsewhere,
credible sources in the party revealed on Sunday, that the issue of a Caretaker
Committee will be raised at the caucus and NEC meetings, with a view to
reversing the one-year tenure extension given to Oyegun. This, it was also
learnt, was all in an effort to placate Tinubu.
However, facts have continued to
emerge that Tinubu may have backed out of the onerous task of protest over the
tenure elongation.
“For now, Tinubu has literally
backed out of the APC reconciliation because he feels betrayed by the
very people who gave him the task”, a source close to the politics playing out
in the APC said.
“Let me put it this way: Tinubu
has sent a strong signal to President Buhari that he will not continue with the
reconciliation move, provided the tenure extension stands; it has pre-empted
whatever effort he would make. The grievance of some people is that Oyegun
should go, and the powers that be said Oyegun must stay; so Tinubu is
frustrated”, he said.
It was gathered that Tinubu, who
had been the lone member of the Reconciliation Committee, had completed his
preliminary contacts ahead of announcing names of those he would work with, but
had to rescind after the tenure elongation.
“You are right if you say the
Committee is dead for now, because Tinubu is the only member till date, and
from all indications, he might not go ahead with recruiting anyone unless the
party, or rather the Presidency intervenes by going back to the drawing board”,
another source said.
Sources within the APC said some
Governors preferred Oyegun to take the party to the next general elections,
saying they succeeded in convincing President Buhari to agree, a reason adduced
for the extension of tenure.
He said, on the other hand,
Tinubu and some other Governors wanted fresh personalities to take over the
mantle of leadership, as soon as their tenure expires on June 30.
However, despite this, a source
said the unusual silence of Tinubu and sudden cessation of his reconciliation
trips have been giving party Leaders causes for concern.
This
development, the source added, was part of the reasons for likely meetings by
the NEC and NWC of the party this week. And one of the solutions on the table,
is replacing the Oyegun-led NEC, pending the resolution of the matter.
“Asiwaju is not supporting the
continuation of the Oyegun-led NWC. He prefers a Caretaker Committee. The issue
will be discussed at the coming emergency caucus and NEC meetings”, the source
also said.
The tenure extension for Oyegun
may be the last straw that broke the camel’s back in the misunderstanding between
Tinubu and Oyegun.
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