Facts have emerged on why the All Progressives Congress dropped the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, as Chairman of the National Convention Central Coordination Committee and replaced him with former Katsina State governor, Aminu Masari.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Some senior officials of the APC told Sunday PUNCH that the leadership change was necessitated by the need to accommodate and show respect to \u2018old leaders\u2019 of the party.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0The APC convention is scheduled for March 27 and 28, 2026.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0In a statement by its National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, on Friday, the party announced the change in the central coordination committee, unveiling Masari as the new chairman and former Senate President, Pius Anyim, as Vice Chairman I.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Uzodimma, who was a few weeks ago announced as the chairman of the 73-member committee, was reassigned as the treasurer in the new arrangement.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Responding to enquiries from Sunday PUNCH, APC officials said the party leadership decided to change the committee\u2019s leadership because of zoning considerations and the need to give a sense of belonging to old leaders of the party.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0A current member of the National Working Committee of the APC said Masari and Anyim represented old leaders of the party and were considered suitable to lead the convention committee.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe leadership of the party felt that the old leaders should be accorded the respect of holding the chairmanship position. That was why they settled for Alhaji Masari and also Senator Pius Anyim. They are experienced hands of the party and, for now, are not seeking political office. So, they may be more even-handed in bringing their experience to bear in those positions.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe convention committee leadership change has nothing to do with whether somebody has something against Governor Uzodimma, contrary to speculations. That is why he was chosen as the treasurer of the committee. He will still play a very prominent role in the convention, particularly as the chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum,\u201d said the NWC member, who does not want to be identified because he was not authoritised to speak on the matter. <\/p>\n
\u00a0Another ranking party leader said the APC played the \u2018zoning card\u2019 to decide the new convention chairman.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0He said since President Tinubu is from the South, it would be appropriate to have a northern APC leader as the convention chairman.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWhen you also look at the composition of the committee, it is all-embracing. Aside from the governors, we have all the principal officers of the two chambers of the National Assembly, as well as former presiding officers who are members of the party. It also has all the former national chairmen who are still within the party,\u201d the official said.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0He added that the committee was all-inclusive to give a sense of belonging to stakeholders of the party.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe committee also has some other key functionaries from the Federal Executive Council, like the Ministers of Defence, Interior, Works and others.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe convention is likely going to be built around consensus for the emergence of the National Working Committee. The process for the congress is already in top gear. People have been buying forms, and we expect to have a rancour-free convention,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n
When asked the reason for the reconstitution of the committee, the APC National Secretary, Basiru, said he could not comment on the matter.\n<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI have nothing to say about that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facts have emerged on why the All Progressives Congress dropped the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, as Chairman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[39997,40755,1931,30931,30932,122,9287,40756,40757,40758],"class_list":{"0":"post-71029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria","8":"tag-ajibola-basiru","9":"tag-aminu-masari","10":"tag-apc","11":"tag-hope-uzodimma","12":"tag-national-convention","13":"tag-nigeria","14":"tag-nigerian-politics","15":"tag-pius-anyim","16":"tag-progressive-governors-forum","17":"tag-zoning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116035438700821059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}