- Confusion over disconnect between Presidency and Party leaders
The secrecy with which the perceived kitchen cabinet in the Presidency has been handling the vacation of President Muhammadu Buhari in London, United Kingdom, as well as the controversies over the President’s health status has continued to generate bad blood within the rank and file of the All Progressives Congress (APC), National Daily investigation revealed.
Events surrounding the President’s medical vacation overseas and denial of access to APC leaders to see the President or ascertain the true health status, have created a scenario of in-groups and out-groups within the APC, some party stakeholders have said. This phenomenon, the stakeholders disclosed, has caused deep gulf between APC leaders and the Presidency, in a government controlled by the party. Indeed, they decried that APC leaders have been disconnected from President Buhari by the political appointees surrounding the President.
Since the controversies over the President’s health status and the protracted vacation overseas, some notable state actors, namely, the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki; Speaker, House of Representatives, Right Honourable Yakubu Dogara; as well as leading political actors like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, chief Bisi Akande, among others, were at different times reported to have visited President Buhari in London and came back with messages of hope.
It is an irony that executive members of the APC are still complaining of being shut out of access to President Buhari. Was it that those who were reported to have visited the president didn’t see him?
National Daily investigation also revealed that some APC leaders are beginning to perceive signs of leadership vacuum and opening opportunity for them to control the party’s machinery and the government but are merely being cautious until the coast is clear. Those managing the President were also conceived to be hoarding information from APC leaders about the President’s health status at the moment. All these were gathered to have been raising suspicions within the ruling party, as well as the temptation for power control.
Meanwhile, the continuous prolonging of President Buhari’s vacation overseas is having a multiplier effect of subtly reinforcing the out-group in the quest to take over the control of the party, or, further have preponderant influence in the decision of who gets what, when and how much from the party-government.
The scenario was gathered to have culminated into a meeting in Abuja involving APC Governors and the National Working Committee (NWC).
There was the allegation that denial of access by some aides of President Buhari to top-ranking members of the NWC to see Buhari in London may dominate the deliberations at the meeting.
“NWC members are not happy with the fact that they were relegated to the background, especially, the refusal by a cabal in the Presidency, to allow them visit the president in London. Some NWC members were actually prepared to travel to London to visit the President last month but the cabal refused to approve the trip on the excuse that the president won’t be allowed to see them. I can tell you that all is not well in the party and all these will form part of the discussion during the meeting,” an APC stakeholder was said to have disclosed.
However, APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, was gathered to have admitted the convening of a meeting, but remarked that it is going to be “a consultative meeting ahead of the national convention.” He was said to have also admitted that “they would likely deliberate on other national issues that might crop up during the meeting.”
Some APC stakeholders, who spoke toNational Daily, identified the Buhari controversy as a major pressing issue in the party.
Accordingly, 24 APC governors and members of the NWC are to be in attendance at the meeting which holds this Thursday.
It will be recalled that President Buhari proceeded on vacation on January 19, 2017, to London; He was expected to resume duty on February 6 but, on Sunday, February 5, the President transmitted another letter to the National Assembly, extending the medical leave indefinitely.
While going on vacation, President Buhari requested that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo assumes the powers of an Acting President pending when he returns.