APC Still Shopping for Board of Trustees Chairman

 Asiwaju Bola Tinubu,

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja, THISDAY......

One and a half years after the election of its first National Executive Committee, the ruling All Progressives Congress is still searching for a suitable person to fill the post of chairman of its Board of Trustees that would be acceptable to major stakeholders. THISDAY learnt that the search has been difficult and drawn-out due to an atmosphere of mutual distrust among key chieftains of the party.

APC has been shopping around for a BoT chairman that the main segments of the party would agree with since the election of its national leadership at the maiden convention held in Abuja on June 13/14 last year. This follows lingering disagreements among the party’s foremost gladiators over the choice of a leader for the influential body. Several groups have canvassed diametrically opposed positions on the question of the BoT leadership, with the party’s national executive finding it difficult to aggregate the various interests and decide on an acceptable choice.

Among party stalwarts believed to be at the forefront of the contest for the headship of the APC BoT are former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, APC national leader and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former pro tem national chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, and former acting national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje.

Speaking on the latest challenges with the composition of the BoT, the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said the party was looking for a BoT chairman that could command the confidence and trust of all the major stakeholders. He said the leadership of the party had embarked on renewed consultations to try to assembly a board that would help to stabilise the party.

Odigie-Oyegun said the initial delays in the inauguration of the BoT stemmed from the fact that the party needed to allow President Muhammadu Buhari to fully set up his administration before constituting the board. He said the party was now preoccupied with getting the right leader for the board.

“We will be doing that anytime from now,” Odigie-Oyegun said regarding the constitution of the BoT. “Discussions are on and we do not want to get it wrong. As a party, we are consulting, trying to put things in place so that by the time we form this team, we want to bring people that are capable of harmonising the current situation. It is something that at the end of the day, we will come up with a fantastic BoT.
“Whoever the party will bring as BoT chairman, we believe that he can put the party on the right footing and stabilise the differences in the party at all levels.”

However, it was learnt at the weekend that a behind-the-scenes supremacy wrangle between some powerful segments of the party was the actual reason for the delay and difficulty in the constitution of the BoT, a vital organ of the ruling party.
Article 13.2 (X) of the APC Constitution, October 2014 (as amended), which deals with the powers of the BoT, stipulates, “The Board of Trustees shall elect its chairman, deputy chairman, secretary and other officers as it deems necessary, and formulate its own rules and procedures to regulate its meetings and activities.”

The BoT, though a largely advisory body, is seen as an embodiment of the conscience, soul and sanctity of the party. One of its main statutorily duties is to intervenes in “all disputes and crisis in the party to ensure stability at all times.” The APC constitution further gives the BoT the power to enforce discipline and promote reconciliation among aggrieved members of the party – which makes its decisions final and binding on all members.

However, key leaders of APC are still feuding among themselves and attacking one another’s interests with the aim of gaining strategic advantage. This ugly scenario has had its consequences on the activities of the party. The situation has affected the funding of the party's operations, as many of the stakeholders are said to have withheld their financial support to the party.

A reliable source within the APC hierarchy told THISDAY that the distrust and atmosphere of intrigue that saw some northern elements pitted against loyalists of Tinubu during the leadership tussle in the National Assembly still subsisted and was fast spreading to virtually every activity of the party. The supremacy battle among major political gladiators in the party, particularly, Atiku, Tinubu, and the group of five former PDP governors, which came to light during the National Assembly leadership dispute, has not only intensified, but it is also threatening to destroy APC.

A source at the APC national headquarters confirmed the dire situation of things in the party, saying, “The party leadership does not want to create another division within its BoT membership around these tendencies, as was the case in the National Assembly. That is why inauguration of the BoT has continued to drag on while reconciliatory efforts are going on to resolve the issues.”

The source said the divisions within APC also manifested in the attempt to get a substitution for the deceased APC governorship candidate in the recent election in Kogi State, as the South-west group and their northern counterparts feuded. He added that the APC deputy national publicity secretary, Timi Frank, was not allowed to speak for the party even after the national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had left to assume duties as Minister of Information and Culture, due to the misgivings in the party. “Due to the underlying intrigues over his loyalty, Frank was shoved aside from assuming the duties of the spokesman of the party,” the source said.