The controversy over zoning and whether the party will adopt consensus arrangement in electing new party executives at the All Progressives Congress (APC) national convention has halted the sale of forms for the position which is supposed to start today.
The failure of party power brokers to decide on these two thorny issues has also altered the programme for the convention which holds on February 26.
It was however learnt that the party leadership will start the sale of forms after a meeting of its governors with Buhari over the issues later in the week.
The governors are expected to meet in the raptly hours of Monday over the matter after which they will communicate to the President their decision on the issue it was learnt.
According to the scheduled of events the party was supposed to commence the sale of forms today for the party offices. But the disagreements over zoning and consensus has caused a stalemate over commencement of sale of forms.
So far, no fewer than 11 aspirants are in the race for national chairmanship position and they are all from the North.
Out of these number, those coming out of the north east include Sen. Ali-Modu Sheriff, a two-term former governor of Borno, Danjuma Goje also a former governor of Gombe and Mr Sylvester Monidafe all from the the North East.
From the North Central, there is a former Deputy National Chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Malam Saliu Mustapha, a former governor of Nasarawa State, Sen. Tanko Al Makura, Sen. Mohammed Sani-Musa and the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Dr George Akume,
Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari a former governor of Zamfara and a former Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) is also in the race among others.
Recall that the Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Committee of APC had several times denied the zoning of party offices following the speculations over the issue.
However, an aspirant for the national chairman seat yesterday told LEADERSHIP thus: “I learnt that the forms for national chairman of the party will not be available tomorrow. It will be available in the course of the week, probably on Thursday. Other forms would likely be available for sale. The reason for the sale of form is because of the zoning and consensus debate that is on going.
Another source who spoke on the matter corroborated that the forms won’t be available for sale until after the President Muhammadu Buhari and the party governors decide on micro-zoning and the possibility of a consensus arrangement.
The source who noted that the party governors will meet in the early hours of Monday would later meet the President over the thorny issues.
One of the chairmanship aspirants, Sunny Mondiafe, said it has become obvious that the sale of forms can’t commence as planned because the party has not communicated to them yet on the issue.
While he admitted that the unresolved issues around zoning and consensus options were responsible for the delay, he added that it shouldn’t take forever to resolve the issues.
He however noted that the delay will not affect preparations for the convention, adding that if the stakeholders are determined all the issues acne be resolved within 24 hours
“Apparently, I don’t think it will be possible tomorrow (today) being February 14 as slated because the party has not communicated to us yet. We don’t know which documents we are supposed to come with, how many people will sign and all other formalities, like screening and all that. I have been campaigning for the past 20 months, going all over the place. I just hope that they sort these issues put on time.”
How however it is not late for the party to sort the issues out ahead of the convention.
“It is not too late. Twenty four hours is a long time in politics s they can call all of us into a room and we all agree on the way forward,” he said.
Meanwhile The Saliu Mustapha Campaign Organization, has dismissed claimed that the chairmanship seat has been zoned to the North East zone.
The spokesman of the campaign, Dapo Okunbanjo, in a statement yesterday said “We do not dwell on rumours or innuendos. We dwell on concrete, verifiable information that are properly.
The people at the helms of affairs of our party are serious minded people; they are not known to be flippant. So, as far as we know, party decisions as important and critical as zoning or mode of elections are usually thoroughly debated, arrived at, and properly communicated. It is not going to be a subject of rumours, speculations or gossips.
“But be that as it may, the stakeholders that are agitating for the North-Central zone to produce the party’s National Chairman in the February 2022 convention have made their case abundantly clear. We believe the party hierarchy, being people who cherish fairness, justice and equity would consider the merit of these agitations in arriving at their decisions for the best interest of the party.
“We believe our candidate, Mallam Saliu Mustapha, having done his homework as dutifully and diligently as the circumstances demand of him, remains the candidate to beat. He is in pole position from the rest because he ticks all the right boxes as the best man to lead the APC into victory in the next election circle in 2023,” he said.