Buhari’s illness delaying APC convention – Governor

Governor Abdulaziz Yariof Zamfara state let the cat out of the bag during the joint APC National Working Committee (NWC) and APC Governors meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, July 19, 2017.

Yari who doubles as the chairman, Nigerian Governors Forum said President Buhari’s illness has delayed the APC national convention.

“We have been on this matter of convention but you know that as a party, the ruling party, the president is the leader of this party,” Yari began.

“Before getting to the convention, there is some kind of process - the national working committee (NWC) - must agree on the time and at the same time, we have to adopt the report submitted by NWC to the larger NEC members which the president must be in attendance as a leader of the party and you know the situation of our president.

“We have been fixing time but because of his illness we are unable to hold the meeting but we have to put a kind of process in place, so that we can at least a mid-term convention, it is not an elective convention. These congresses that is going to commence on July 29 is to come for this convention to fill some vacancies taken in the executive sides, those that died or went for other appointment.

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“This has nothing to do with PDP. This convention has no connection with the PDP convention.

“We have agreed collectively that we are going to meet with acting president. Acting president should understand that that he is acting in capacity of the president of the country as well as the vice-president. Tomorrow he is going to perform the function of vice-president as chairman of NEC and the entire issue of security, economy, administration lies on him. So we cannot take him as an easy man to deal with. It's two in one.

“Therefore, the committee is in place as we are talking today we reinstate that we going to create room for other issues and the issue of convention," he added.

Yari described APC’s loss in the Osun-West bye election as a wakeup call for the party.

“We discussed the election of Osun which we really know what happened, the media and everyone in the party, we know what happened, it was APC, APC. PDP doesn't have muscle to win the election and we are on top of the situation. It is a wake-up call on dealing on things like that in the future," he added.

Highlights of the meeting was the naming of the ten-man committee on restructuring.

Members of the committee include, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna); Rauf Aregbesola (Osun); Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (Kano), Simon Lalong (Plateau); Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Former Edo state governor, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor.

Others are APC national organising secretary; Osita Izunaso; APC national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, Fatima Balla and Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi.

In his remarks, APC spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi noted that committee would articulate the meaning of restructuring according to the APC.

“When we talk about a committee on restructuring, what we are talking about is a committee that will articulate what APC means by restructuring because we have realized that over a couple of days now or weeks.

“When people use the word restructuring we don't know if we are talking about the same thing and people have gone about saying APC promised restructuring.

“So we really need to sit down to develop a shared understanding of what we mean by restructuring in our manifesto. So this committee that is setup that will now be chaired by the governor of Kaduna is mainly to define what APC means by restructuring, so that every member will know what we exactly mean,” he added.