*President no longer attending NEC as it is removed from schedule
*’It is unclear if Buhari’s non-attendance of NEC can help Oshiomhole’
*As Acting National Chairman vows no court stops NEC from holding
Embattled National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, gets a lifeline Monday as President Muhammadu Buhari meets with the party’s governors in Abuja.
Oshiomhole, who has been battling to retain his position following his suspension by an Abuja High Court, also got a hefty relief on Sunday as the party’s National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, threw his weight behind him, dismissing the move to oust the national chairman as a selfish one being organised by those he said saw Oshiomhole as a stumbling block to their 2023 ambitions.
According to a media report, reliable presidency sources Sunday night had revealed that the President had decided to intervene in the leadership crisis that has produced multiple court rulings, which threatened to tear the party apart.
Subsequently, said the source, the National Executive Committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow would no longer be attended by the president since he intends to use today’s meeting with the governors to douse the crisis.
Oshiomhole’s seat was endangered by an Abuja High Court ruling earlier in the month, which gave teeth to his suspension by his ward in Edo State. Although he got another ruling from Federal High Court, sitting in Kano restraining the party from implementing the suspension by his ward, he also appealed the Abuja High Court ruling and applied for a stay of execution.
His application for stay comes up today at the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division.
Whatever the outcome of the appeal, the president’s meeting with the party’s governors today holds the ace for the national chairman as it would take the sail out of the wind of his traducers that have been pushing for his ouster.
The rebellion, which has also polarised the National Working Committee (NWC), is believed to be backed by some of the party’s governors who are said to be nursing presidential ambition for 2023.
According to ThisDay, President Buhari, who presidency sources had said authorised Tuesday’s meeting, is said to be pulling out of the parley on the ground that it might not be sustained by the provisions of the APC constitution.
It was learned that the president had sanctioned the meeting in the mistaken belief that the Acting National Secretary, Chief Victor Giadom, that signed the letter of request for the date was authorised to do so.
“With the controversy generated, the president directed the Attorney-General to look into the constitutional issues around the meeting and he would appear to have advised caution,” a presidency source told reporter.
Tinubu was also said to have prevailed on President Buhari to reconsider his decision to attend the meeting, warning that the parley could eventually divide the party down the middle, a possible occurrence that would do incurable damage to the president’s legacy.
He was also said to have told the president from faraway London that although everyone, including himself, had issues with the national chairman, but that if he had to be removed the constitution of the party had to be followed.
Tinubu would appear to have persuaded Buhari to back out, according an authoritative media report which was told that Tuesday’s meeting was no longer on the president’s schedule for the week.
Perhaps emboldened by Buhari’s change of mind, Tinubu stood up for Oshiomhole on Sunday with a statement, dismissing the efforts to oust the national chairman as a product of ‘old ambition 2023 virus,’ capable of undermining the unity of the APC.
However, the National Vice Chairman North-east of the party, Mr. Salihu Mustapha, at the weekend, dismissed efforts to stop the NEC meeting, saying no court order will stop it.
Mustapha said no court order would stop Tuesday’s NEC meeting and, according to ThisDay, he said that preparations were in top gear for the NEC meeting.
When asked if the conflicting court order would prevent the NEC meeting from holding, he stated that no court order would stop the NEC meeting from holding.
“The court order that the people are parading…court order cannot stop us from having our meeting now, unless if the court is trying to say we are no more an organisation and deregister us as an organisation. We have freedom of association and what have you. So you cannot just come and stop us from doing something. In fact, there is no court order that can stop us from doing NEC meeting. So we are doing NEC meeting,” he stated.
When asked if Ajimobi and others would be allowed to be part of the meeting, Mustapha said: “We are going to look at the constitution. If they are members of the NEC, we will admit them, if they are not, we will not admit them. What I’m assuring you is that we are going to adhere to our constitution.”
While responding to the allegation made by Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Yekini Nabena, that the ‘acting National Chairman,’ Mr.
Victor Giadom, resigned his position as NWC to contest as running mate to the governorship candidate of the party in 2019 election in Rivers, Mr. Mustapha said Nabena was not a member of the NWC and did not know what happened at the NWC.
The APC vice-chairman added that Giadom was given a waiver like most of the people that contested.
Speaking against the backdrop of the order of a Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos, that a former Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi; Mr. Waziri Bulama and Paul Chukwuma must be allowed to take part in the gathering, he said they would only be allowed to take part in the meeting if they are NEC members.
Ajimobi was at the last meeting of NEC in February named the deputy national chairman of the party (South); Bulama, secretary and Chukwuma as auditor.
Tinubu, who described the APC crisis as a sickness he identified as ‘old Ambition-virus 2023,’ said this illness, unlike the coronavirus, afflicts many in the political class along with their allies in the media.
He noted that while coronavirus has been presently contained in Nigeria, the old ambition-virus 2023 has become another sickness that seems rampant within a certain segment of society.
He faulted the convocation of the NEC meeting, saying the convener had no power to summon such a meeting.
He added that the convener had the temerity to make such a move because he was instigated by powerful individuals, who he thought would reward him or protect him for committing the wrongful act.
He described Oshiomhole as a tireless campaigner and mobiliser for the party.
