Last week, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) finally laid to rest the controversy on whether it will postpone its national convention or not when Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, who is the Chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party announced that the convention will hold on Saturday, February 26.
Buni who made the announcement at the APC Progressive Women Conference in Abuja yesterday urged the women to come out massively and contest in the forthcoming “national convention holding by 26th of February 2022.”
“We look forward to having more women contesting in the forthcoming National Convention of the party slated for February 26th, 2022 and the 2023 general election. The party under my stewardship conducted the membership registration and revalidation exercise. We found it expedient to constitute a Special committee on Women and Youths before the commencement of the exercise.”
Despite settling the issue of the date, the party may be facing another hurdle as various interest groups in the party are divided over the consensus arrangement being planned by the governors and the party leadership.
A credible source in the party said he was not surprised at the announcement as Buni and his colleagues in the APC Governors Forum already have a date in mind since last year November when President Muhammadu Buhari approved February for the convention.
According to him, the governors had kept the date hidden because they are unable to agree on a unity list and consensus candidates for the vacant positions in the National Working Committee (APC), especially the position of the national chairman.
He also said the date was not announced so as to give the party’s National Reconciliation Committee headed by Senator Abdullahi Adamu ample time to reconcile the warring parties in many states and also find a common ground among the various interest groups within the party.
