One would have thought that a ruling party that within the course of one year snatched ten sitting governors and a bevy of Federal and state legislators from opposition parties is already regarding the 2027 elections as a slam dunk. It should be popping up the bottles in celebration, but it looks like the Tinubu Presidency and APC national leadership is wider-eyed than that.
On Christmas eve, at his Lagos residence and without prior announcement, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inaugurated a Committee on Strategy, Conflict Resolution and Mobilisation to resolve conflicts within the All Progressives Congress, APC. He tasked the committee to strengthen party cohesion, resolve lingering disputes, and craft a unified mobilisation strategy capable of sustaining APC’s dominance at the polls.
All three are tasks that will task the Greek divine hero Hercules. Improve cohesion in a party founded by four legacy parties and a lot of recent defectors, many of them aggrieved and all of them ambitious, is no piece of cake. To resolve lingering disputes between now and 2027 will require the wisdom of Solomon. To craft a unified mobilization strategy, when different party camps are pulling in many directions, will require the political equivalent of super glue.
It was no accident that the man called upon to lead this committee is the Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni, with former party legal adviser Muiz Banire as his secretary. Other members are Senator Muhammad Adamu Aliero, Kwara State Governor Abdulrahman AbduRazak; Imo State Governor and Chairman of Progressive Governors Forum Hope Uzodimma; Governors Hyacinth Alia of Benue, Umar Namadi of Jigawa, Bassey Otu of Cross River, Abiodun Oyebanji of Ekiti, Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta, Uba Sani of Kaduna and Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers. Also in the committee are Minister of Marine and Blue Economy Adegboyega Oyetola; Minister of State for Defence Bello Matawalle and former Governor of Kogi State Yahaya Bello.
What was the main formula that went to the assembling of this team? It must be, “find the coolest minds in APC” [except for one or two, lest there is too much peace in the committee.] Cool headed committee members are very important, but the coolest of all heads must be the committee’s chairman. Mai Mala Buni fits the bill squarely. As Governor of Yobe State for six and a half years now, he is ramrod stiff, self-effacing, cheerful, respectful of others and he walks without the gait associated with men of power. He never stirred up controversy; never made a gaffe; never engaged in political quarrels; never fought any godfather; never boasts about accomplishments; is media shy; confronts his far northern state’s security, infrastructural and environmental challenges with studied attention; and he embraces tasks with the calmest mien.
Mai Mala Buni was not given this task only because of character traits. Age wise, he is a bridge between party elders and party youngsters, with a foot in both. All his political life he has been in APC and its legacy parties, AC and ANPP. He was a Local Government councilor; Local Government Assembly Speaker; a National Assembly Legislative Assistant; member of University of Uyo Governing Council; state chairman of Action Congress for three years; Special Adviser on Political Affairs and Legislative Matters to Yobe Governor Ibrahim Gaidam for three years; pioneer Yobe State APC Chairman in 2013; the first elected APC National Secretary for five years; board Chairman of Nigeria Shippers Council; Governor of Yobe State since 2019; Caretaker APC National Chairman and chairman of its Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee in 2020-2022; and is a second term governor with a rich and stable record of accomplishments.
Three Herculean tasks for a man with light steps but big footprints. As we say in my village, Bigi Sai Bigi; big tasks for big men.
