Mai Mala Buni’s vote of confidence
By Salisu Na’inna Dambatta
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on February 26, 2025, passed votes of confidence on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration and Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the acting national Chairman of the Party.
Many Nigerians can agree that the President deserves that vote of confidence for sustaining the country as a single entity despite distractive agitations by separatists in the South East and the South West; his patriotic pledge to complete the ongoing railway and road projects, rehabilitation of refineries and a willingness to bolster agriculture.
A State House informational quoted the President saying, “I am happy with your vote of confidence, and I accept it. The vote is a challenge to do more work; we will vigorously pursue our sovereignty in food security, investment and development.”
The vote of confidence for the acting national chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje was justified by those who unhesitatingly voiced their vote of confidence in his leadership.
But a different vote of confidence was passed on the former national secretary of the Party, Chairman of the rested Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) and Governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni, by appointing him to chair a seven-member team to amend the APC constitution, promote inclusivity, win back aggrieved and alienated members and end the many internal squabbles that can weaken the APC.
While it is a tacit admission that the party is crises-ridden, Mai Mala Buni’s appointment by NEC profoundly recognises his ability to restore faith in the party among its disenchanted members. As the party’s national srcretary from 2014 to 2019, he led in building and strengthening the APC to ultimately win the 2015 general elections in which Muhammadu Buhari was elected President.
His ability to resolve crises in the party and convince other politicians with real political network and verifiable followership to join the APC, is legendary. As chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, his talent of building durable political bridges was manifested
once more.
He led that Committee in the backdrop of an intense internal disputes and inertia in the APC. The party nearly lost focus, direction and unity of purpose.
Working harmoniously with members of CECPC, he literally rebuild the party and made it formidable and attractive enough for Nigerians to trust it with Presidential power for the third time in 2023.
What is Mai Mala Buni doing differently in winning back the trust of unhappy members of the APC? His knack for peaceful resolution of political grievances and restoring the loyalty of aggrieved party members to the party is simply marvelous.
He listed some of his methods in his farewell speech as Chairman of CECPC during the party’s national convention on March 26, 2022.
“Upon assumption of office, the committee (CECPC) embarked on a genuine and all-inclusive reconciliation process to give everyone a true sense of belonging, confidence, and reassurance in the collective ownership of the party,“ he said
“We, first of all, visited some critical stakeholders to engage them in resolving the disputes and other hanging disagreements in the party While some of these visits were made public, others were done out of the public glare and without media publicity,” he explained.
Meanwhile, a damaging crisis in the APC that needs the attention of the Mai Mala Buni-led team is in Kano state, the home state of the party’s acting national chairman. There, Alhaji Yusuf Abdullahi Ata, a Minister in the Tinubu cabinet threatens to resign from office and the party if the long-serving Kano state APC chairman, Prince Abdullahi Abbas, continues in office.
“We are going to resist any attempt to reinstate him” said Ata. “The best way forward is to change the APC leadership in Kano state by getting people of integrity.”
Salisu Na’inna Ɗambatta is APC National Director (Publicity) on leave
