There are strong indications that the Lagos State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and possibly the party’s national leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, may be severely impacted in the aftermath of the ongoing membership registration and revalidation exercise, as directed by the Caretaker/Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee, led by Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State.
Before the exercise even commenced, pundits and some loyalists of the national leader had expressed reservations over some of the policies introduced by the Buni-led committee to reposition the party since the former party Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, assumed to be Tinubu’s stooge, was unceremoniously removed. It was a move some say was deliberately designed to whittle down the influence of the former Lagos State governor in the party.
But since June last year when the National Executive Council (NEC), led by President Muhammadu Buhari, disbanded the National Working Committee (NWC) and removed Oshiomhole, the party’s highest hierarchy has also approved some radical changes introduced by Buni. These decisions include the revalidation and registration of membership exercise, the dissolution of states, local governments and wards executives and extension of tenure for the Caretaker/Extraordinary Planning Committee.
Obviously, these do not augur well with the national leader and his loyalists and on several instances, their voices had been raised, crying out that some persons were trying to renege on the agreement to return the presidency to the Southwest after Buhari’s two terms in 2023.
Some supporters of the national leader, who raised the alarm include Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, Chairman, Lagos State Caretaker Committee, Chief Balogun, former governor of Ogun State, Aremo Segun Osoba, the lawmaker representing Ajeromi Ifelodun Federal Constituency, Mr. Kolawole Taiwo, among others.
As a matter of fact, the lawmaker representing Ikeja Federal Constituency, Mr. James Faleke, who contested as running mate to late Prince Abubakar Audu in Kogi State but lost, has written to the national caretaker committee to stop the registration and revalidation exercise because of Covid-19, but his suggestion was rejected.
Part of the grouse exhibited by the Tinubu camp against the exercise is that it is a ploy targeted to deprive the Southwest zone the opportunity to produce the president in 2023 and specifically to stop the yet-to-be declared presidential ambition of the national leader, as purportedly agreed before the presidential ticket was conceded to Buhari in 2015.
Although it was alleged that Tinubu and his loyalists were uncomfortable, there is little or nothing they could do to stop the exercise despite Faleke’s letter to Buni, suggesting the process be cancelled. Faleke is one of the ardent loyalists of Tinubu and has been in the House of Representatives for three terms with Tinubu’s backing. It is therefore not hidden that the ongoing exercise would affect the Lagos chapter.
