President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday gave his go-ahead the registration of new members for the All Progressives Congress (APC), when the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, led by the Acting Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee and the Governor of Yobe State, Mr. Mai Mala Buni, submitted the timetable for party registration to him.
Buni told journalists in Abuja that his Committee was not working on a tenure elongation as alleged by some angry members, noting that members were not job seekers
His words: “You are all aware. We have three sitting governors in the committee. And you should know that none of the governors is seeking for job. Already, we have a job. But we have to sacrifice to ensure that we reposition the party. So, anybody who is thinking that maybe we are job seekers is wrong. We are not job seekers. We are here to reposition and reunite our party so that we have a party we can all be proud of. This is our mandate and we are ready to discharge our mandate. (Tenure elongation) is left for NEC of the party to decide. It is not me or caretaker committee to decide. We are operating within the limit of our assignment because NEC of the party said we must rebuild the party bottom up….So, it is not for us to say that we are extending.”
The registration of new members in the over 119,000 polling units in the country, the governor said is “In accordance of section 9.4 of the Constitution of the All Progressives Congress (October 2014 as Amended), The Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee consulted all stakeholders and have organized for membership registration. The said Section 9.4 provide as follows:
“A Register of members shall be compiled and maintained at the Ward Level and be transmitted to the Secretariat of the Party at the Local Government Area, which shall transmit a copy to the State Headquarters, National Secretariat. Provided that the Party shall update its membership records every six months and remit updated copies to appropriate Secretariats. Thereafter, it shall be the responsibility of a member to ensure that his or her name is duly entered in the Ward Register.”
Buni applauded the reconciliation work of his committee that led to the return of former party members former Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and others like Senator Barnabas Gemade.
He denied allegations of tenure elongation, which is rippling through the party. Many insist the committee should call a convention to replace the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) sacked four months ago.
The Yobe Governor was not forthcoming on when the much-postponed convention, one of the sins of the Oshiomhole NWC.
Buni announced that the National Executive Committee (NEC) will meet before year’s end to chart a path for the party.
He ignored the two weeks ultimatum given by some party members for his Committee to resign suggesting the committee was only answerable to NEC
Weighing on the troubling issues rocking the party, lthe Governor of Kebbi, Atiku Bagudu, said: “You may also recall that two days before the caretaker committee was saddled with the responsibility of leading the party, the party lost a serving governor to the opposition, so the chairman came at the time when the morale was weak.
“But the committee worked so hard including the winning of the Ondo State gubernatorial election with the reconciliation of members.
“The national executive committee meeting that ushered in the caretaker committee did not give a definite date, we are conscious that these assignments will unfold and intervening circumstances across the country has made it more difficult , but certainly they are not people that are not seeking for appointments or seeking to stay, particularly the chairman the sacrifices in Yobe and daunting challenges he faces and he will rather remain there everyday.