The CECPC has put APC on a strong footing

By Dennis Okorie

The All Progressives Congress (APC) is today on a far stronger footing to contend with the challenges of being a ruling party than it has ever been since coming to power in 2015, all thanks to the organisational and managerial acumen of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).

With time, members of the APC will come to appreciate the great vision of President Muhammadu Buhari in setting up the CECPC which saved the party from implosion due to the crisis that engulfed it during the chairmanship of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Today, the APC is on a stronger footing, better organised, more focused and inclusive under leadership of the CECPC led by Mai Mala Buni. Even though the Party is not where the Buni team envisaged it to be, it is far from where it was when the CECPC was set up. It now boasts of notable achievements and successes that have redefined its operational pedestal.

Recalling the achievements of the party under CECPC leadership that has further endeared the party to the electorate and the entire population of Nigeria, without controversy, APC is a stronger party than it was years back.

It is very easy to identify and list the achievements of CECPC overtime because they are uniquely visible for all party members and Nigerians to see. Among the many landslide feats achieve for the party by the committee are:
The conscious efforts to bring the party totally out of conflicts that had bedevilled it, with the emergence of a reconciliation committee that worked assiduously and recorded huge outcomes.

The coming of the CECPC was central to the stabilisation of the party. It was on record that the party was bedevilled with numerous conflicts and litigations, with many strong members taking their leave from the party and the party losing its number of strategic political officeholders in its fold.

The conflict resolution committee set up by CECPC did a good work that led to various consensus agreements that led to the withdrawal of almost all court cases against the party and among members of the party. Few days ago, Kano, the party’s biggest stronghold witnessed a transformation as all warring parties sheathed their swords to embrace peace for the sake of the party. That was phenomenal because of the place of Kano in the affairs of the APC.

Mai Mala Buni has expressed his hope that by the time the party holds its convention; other factions in other states would have towed the path of peace and embraced the Kano example.

It is important to note that for the first time in the history of a political party in the country, and as an aftermath of the peace that was restored in the party after the conflict resolutions, CECPC on behalf of the party puts together the plan for and executed a nationwide membership registration that has significantly swollen the membership population of the party and has allowed the intake of many bigwigs that trust the party enough to dump PDP for APC. Thanks to the successful membership registration exercise, the party now enjoys a robust membership register across the 36 states and FCT.

Not limited to these alone, in the course of the period under review, CECPC successfully set up a constitutional review committee that reviewed the Party Constitution to give the party a more contemporary and proactive rules of engagement.

The party under the administration of CECPC has assumed total ownership of the Party National Secretariat, after meeting all financial commitments with the former owners of the structure. Before now, the building has been held by the party on a yearly rental agreement, a situation that is unbefitting of the status of the party as a ruling party in the country.

Also, when CECPC came on board, the party was hugely indebted to lawyers as a result of several lined up litigations in the immediate past. It is now on record that CECPC has offset the entire bulk of this debt in the course of the period under review.

As part of the preparation for the party national convention and the 2023 elections, the party began its array of congresses with successful ward congresses across the 36 states and FCT. The ward congresses were uniquely successful, because unlike past experiences of political parties in the country, we were able to midwife peaceful, seamless congresses without a single report of casualty or litigation.

The LGAs congresses had followed suit with similar success levels across the entire local governments in the country. The state congresses were conducted towards the end of the year and recorded successes in about 80 percent of the state, enough to judge it successful.

It is without controversy that the party under the leadership of CECPC has become much better than anticipated, with a stronger membership base, influx of political bigwigs from other parties and a whole list of successful pertinent undertakings, including legal prerequisites to the convention.
By any reasonable consideration, CECPC deserves many commendations and at these critical times, a vote of confidence that it is more than capable to round up its assignment by delivering to the party a national convention that bears the same mark of successes associated with the committee.