There is uncertainty over the national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) scheduled for June as the tenure of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party will expire next month without any timetable for the exercise.

The committee was constituted in June 2020 to conduct an elective national convention in December last year, but it sought a six-month extension, which was granted by the National Executive Committee (NEC) in December 2020.

After the committee’s tenure was extended, rather than put plans in place and issue timetable for the conduct of congresses and convention, it embarked on the membership registration and revalidation exercise.

While the membership registration exercise was going on, the committee constituted an eight-man committee to review the party’s constitution, which initially stoked a fresh crisis amongst the power blocks within the party.

Even though the ongoing membership, revalidation and registration exercise has been largely successful, it remained inconclusive.

However, following a report at the weekend that the leadership of the party will release the timetable for the convention this week, sources in the party were unable to confirm the development.

Despite the fact that there were no strong indications that the party would conduct the convention next month as scheduled, the National Secretary of the party, Senator John Akpanudoedehe told Flavision that the committee was committed to conduct the national convention.

He said,

I have told you before; we will do it.

However, he declined to disclose whether the convention will hold next month or not.

A chieftain of the party also told Flavision that the party leadership would hold a meeting soon to decide when the NEC meeting of the party will hold.

Flavision further gathered that the conduct of the party’s convention in June is not certain, stressing that the committee should have released the timetable for congresses which would culminate to the conduct of the party’s convention next month.

A party source also hinted that it would be unlikely for the leadership of the party to release the timetable for the convention this week since the congresses have not been conducted.

On the conduct of the party’s convention next month, the source said:

Everything is still dicey as regards the convention because there is a possibility that the tenure of Caretaker Committee may not be extended.

But now it remains a month for the tenure of the committee to elapse, the revalidation exercise remains inconclusive, while the congresses have not been conducted. So, how will they do convention without congresses?

Ward congress has not been conducted; same as Local government congress and State congress and these are the people that will mop up delegates to the National Convention.

Asked when the committee will call for the NEC meeting of the party to seek for another extension, he added:

What the committee is after now is the extension of their tenure. So, before December they can organise convention after the congresses.

At the moment, there is no confirmation about the NEC meeting; maybe after the Salah break. They will have to convince the President because they must follow the rule of the law.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.