APC CRISIS: Osinbajo Speaks

   

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, APC governors and some stakeholders are seeking a safe landing for the party.

   On the instruction of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Vice President is working out a safe option to resolve the internal political quagmire that came on the heels of the Supreme Court ruling, last week on the fate of the current APC national caretaker leadership led by Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State. Since last week, Vanguard gathered the Vice-President had been holding consultations with party leaders and governors on a solution that will save the party from future legal traps and at the same time be acceptable to all within the APC.

   Last Friday, on the eve of the ward congresses, the Vice President first held a legal review session with lawyers in the federal cabinet where the issue was discussed. He later engaged APC governors and others in wide consultations before the ward congresses of Saturday. Buni was also reported to have rushed down to the Villa over the weekend with Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, to explain the stance of the party leadership to Osinbajo after efforts to reach him earlier on Friday failed.

   Sources said last night that the Vice-President is widening the scope of the engagement on account of the dangerous dust spewed by the ward congresses in many states of the country. One source said had the APC harkened to informed ‘pleas’ to suspend the primaries the party would not have been mired in the snarl it is now.

Options before the party are hard and require nervy deliberations and understanding to push through. The options include: retaining Buni as chairman with olive branch and accommodation extended to aggrieved APC stakeholders; getting Buni to step down; cancelling the Saturday ward congresses and fresh ones conducted in crises-prone states by a new national chairman to avert legal swords of Damocles cutting APC’s electoral fortunes in the future.

   Now, Osinbajo is determined to ensure that the party benefits from what seems to be a legal warning from the Supreme Court ruling which had a 4-3 verdict with three justices questioning the constitutional validity of a sitting governor holding such an executive post as national party caretaker chairman. While a last minute cancelation of the congresses was on the table Friday night, APC governors were said to have told the VP that majority of them would rather prefer to go on with the exercises even though some felt an outright cancelation would be inevitable if it went ahead.

   A source familiar with ongoing consultations said it is not true that the VP directed the Attorney-General on the matter, especially since the AGF is not a party official. As for Governor Buni, there was no communication between the VP and him until late Friday night when he reached out to the VP around midnight. By then the governors had already argued for the continuation of the congresses, although some governors including one from the North had strongly argued against proceeding with the ward congresses.

   A top Villa source said last night that “the VP is of the firm view that the Supreme Court ruling, last Wednesday, is a clear legal ditch which is best avoided, and he wants to ensure that the interest of the party is what is paramount, hoping that all stakeholders will eventually find a way in the interest of Nigerians who have reposed so much confidence and support in the party.”