APC convention: Presidency, govs in trade-off

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor & Omeiza Ajayi

The quest for supremacy in All Progressives Congress, APC, was last night turning into a mutual collaboration between the Presidency and the governors to express their character in the next leadership of the ruling party.

President Buhari with APC Chieftain Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and APC Gubernatorial Candidate in Ekiti State Dr Kayode Fayemi

Majority of the governors were also rallying round their leader, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, with a fury against what they alleged as the plot to humiliate him.

The governors, who were as at last night meeting in the Imo State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro area of Abuja, it was gathered, would fine tune their list before moving to present it to President Muhammadu Buhari.

With the top three positions of national chairman, national secretary and national organising secretary being conceded to the President, there was speculation that the Presidency had also fixed its sights on the position of deputy national chairman, North, with one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s long known political fixers, Farouk Adamu, now in serious contention.

Vanguard, however, gathered that the momentum behind Adamu was being generated by a North-West governor and a former southern governor turned minister riding on the influence of the president.

Govs rally round Okorocha against Izunaso

Meanwhile, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s ascendancy in the race for national chairman strengthened, yesterday, after one of his rivals, Senator Oseriehmen Osunbor, said he would bow to his (Oshiomhole’s) experience and withdrew from the race for the immediate past governor of Edo State.

Before the APC governors entered into the closed door meeting yesterday, Vanguardgathered that the governors were expressing bitter resentment at what they alleged as the plot to humiliate a fellow governor and that they had now joined forces to stop the re-emergence of Senator Osita Izunaso as national organising secretary.

Izunaso, who is from Imo State, was an arrowhead in the allied forces of APC stakeholders in Imo State who collaborated to pull the party structure from Okorocha.

Despite Izunaso’s endorsement by the South-East caucus of the party, Vanguardgathered, yesterday, that the governors had reached an agreement to either force him out of the race or collaborate to vote him out on the convention ground.

“This humiliation given to our chairman could also happen to anyone of us, so there is no way we can allow this to go like this,” one governor privy to the plot was quoted as saying in reference to Okorocha, who is chairman of the APC Governors Forum.

The Presidency, it was gathered, would not be opposed to the scheme of the governors as it was gathered that the President was also smoothening the grounds for his own presidential primaries through a double flanged policy of strengthening himself in the party and collaboration with the governors.

“The President knows that the governors control the structure and that cooperating with them would also be to his advantage during the presidential primaries,” one party operative privy to the scheme said, yesterday

As part of the President’s efforts to strengthen his hold on the party, his preferences for national chairman, national secretary and national organising secretary, it was learned, would pass on effortlessly.

Oshiomhole vows to ensure party supremacy

Oshiomhole also, yesterday, pledged to ensure that party supremacy became effective under him by subjecting even the President and other officials to the dictates of the constitution of the All Progressives Congress APC.

The former governor, who is aspiring to the office of national chairman of the party, spoke when he held an interactive session with young stakeholders of the APC.

“My hope is that, if by the special grace of God I become the APC National Chairman, we will need to be very clear about all these and other issues and that anyone elected on our platform, including the President, will be expected to conduct government and governance in a way that promotes the core values of progressive governance,” he said.