The return of Mai Mala Buni as chairman of the CECPC and what it may portend for the party

About a week ago, the media was awash with news of the sack of the Chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Mai Mala Buni, who is also the Governor of Yobe State.

The governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello, reportedly took over as the acting CECPC Chairman and immediately began making key decisions.

It was later revealed that Buni had left the country on medical leave and had duly transmitted power to Abubakar as required by law, but forces against the Yobe State governor had hatched a plan to seize the opportunity to oust him from power in a palace coup style.

It turned out that President Buhari had given his approval for Buni’s sack as Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State later revealed on a Channels Television program.

However, the President seems to have allowed reason to prevail having been informed that a unilateral decision to sack Buni amounted to him usurping the powers of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) in whose purview such power resides.

On Wednesday particularly, the President reportedly gave Buni the go-ahead to return to his position as the CECPC Chairman and ensure the conduct of the scheduled March 26 APC National Convention.

One of the key decisions that Bello took was to fix a meeting of the party’s NEC. The meeting was scheduled for today, Thursday, March 17.

Buni marked his return to power with the immediate cancellation of that meeting.

A terse statement issued to that effect by the equally returning Secretary of the CECPC, Sen. Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, late Wednesday, read:

“As directed by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning (CECPC) and Governor of Yobe State, H.E. Mai Mala Buni, a purported emergency meeting of the Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) slated for Thursday, March 17, 2022, is hereby canceled.”

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While leadership crisis raged, Buni’s opponents had accused him of so many grievous misdemeanors, including clandestinely working to scuttle the party’s scheduled national convention and attempting to elongate his stay in office to preside over the party’s presidential primary election later in the year.

But does his return mark the end of the crisis and the return of peace to the party?

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I doubt it very much. Instead, I suspect that his return may yet escalate and deepen the leadership crisis. That is because the powers that want him out are hell-bent on achieving their aim and will stop at nothing to frustrate him.

Buni, on his part, will fight back with a vengeance.

Besides, the crisis is all about the politics of the 2023 presidential election. The warring parties are attempting to strategically place themselves in vantage positions to achieve their predetermined objectives regarding the election. Each camp wants to be the one to determine who will eventually emerge as the party’s presidential candidate.

For this reason, the power tussle in the party will continue as no one side will be willing to sheath their swords.