Former Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum and National Vice-Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress, Salihu Lukman, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to beam his searchlight on the national secretariat of the platform that brought him to office, the APC.

Lukman, in an open letter entitled, ” Rebuilding the APC to Reform Nigeria Politics: Tasks before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” the member of the APC National Working Committee, asked President Tinubu also to seek reform of his party.

Lukman said the party that was formed with an ideological orientation has since lost focus as he alleged that reactionary forces are in control of the party’s national secretariat.

Lukman restated his concern that functions of statutory organs of the party, like the National Caucus and National Executive Committee, have been usurped under the watch of the national chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.

Detailing alleged breaches of the party Constitution, the national office of the party said the Board of Trustees, which is a statutory organ of the Party, has never been allowed to function, while the NEC meetings have been convened only 8 times in more than eight years.

He said, “With the election of leaders of the 10^th National Assembly concluded on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, and the victory of the nominated candidates of the APC for the two chambers (Senate and House of Representatives), President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, being the leader of the party needs to prioritize rebuilding the APC to reform Nigerian politics so that our political parties are developed to grow beyond being mere election vehicles.

“Rebuilding the APC is simply about returning the party to its founding vision of truly becoming a progressive political party. Prioritizing rebuilding the APC to return it to its founding vision is basically about ensuring that all the organs of the party are constituted and allowed to function in line with the provisions of the APC constitution.

“Since the time of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun as the National Chairman, the National Executive Committee (NEC), which by the provisions of Article 13.3 A is empowered ‘to be the principal Executive body of the party,’ discharging ‘the functions of National Convention in between National Conventions’ has not been meeting quarterly as provided under the APC constitution.

“In fact, between 2015 and today, not more than eight meetings of NEC were held when if the statutory requirement of quarterly meetings provided under the APC constitution has been respected, not less than thirty NEC meetings would have been held.

Had the NEC been meeting as provided in the APC constitution, members would have had stronger power in managing the affairs of the APC, and most of the challenges facing the party could have been resolved based on decisions of the organs of the party.

“As it is now, the management of the party is limited to the discretion of the National Chairman, and when it is convenient, he involves members of the National Working Committee (NWC).

In a few cases, the National Chairman gets the NWC to legitimize his decisions when the APC constitution only assigns administrative responsibility of implementing decisions of superior organs such as the NEC, National Caucus, and National Advisory Council (NAC) to the NWC.

In addition to implementing decisions of superior organs, the APC constitution gives the NWC the power to make specific proposals to facilitate decisions of organs. So far, the powers of superior organs of the party have been illegally usurped by the National Chairman and, by extension,- the NWC.

“It is quite worrisome that since its formation in 2013, the party’s Board of Trustees, now renamed National Advisory Council (NAC), was never constituted. Not more than five meetings of the National Caucus have been held, and under the current leadership of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, none has been held.

Lower organs of the party, such as Zonal Executive Committees, Zonal Congresses, Working Committees, Executive Committees, and Congresses at states, local governments, and wards, suffer the same problems.

“Requirement to set up Senatorial District Committees as provided under Article 13.10 of the APC constitution is redundant. Women’s, Youth, and Persons Living with Disabilities Wings provided in the APC constitution are left to the discretion of the National Women’s Leader, National Youth Leader, and National Leader of Persons Living with Disabilities.

“Five Standing Committees established by the APC Constitution were never constituted. These are Establishment, Finance, Publicity, Intergovernmental, and Conflict and Reconciliation Committees. Perhaps, the slightest exception is Conflict and Reconciliation, which on about three occasions, there were attempts.

“The sad reality is that the APC as constituted today is only a shadow of itself with a National Chairman that is highly unaccountable running affairs of the party more as a garrison commander. He relates with his colleagues in the NWC just like his appointees.

In their name, he meets other leaders of the party and seeks to manipulate party decisions to suit personal vested interests that are only known to him.

“Recall the shameful attempt to impose Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the consensus Presidential candidate of the party. In all the so-called consultations he claimed to have had with other leaders of the party on the matter, perhaps except for the National Secretary, no member of the NWC was either informed of the details of the consultations or invited. Similarly, the NWC was never invited to consider any proposal being negotiated.

It was only on June 6, 2022, ahead of June 8, 2022, National Convention, that Sen. Adamu invited the NWC only to inform members that a consensus Presidential candidate in the person of Sen. Ahmed Lawan, has been chosen. Members were not even given the opportunity to comment on the matter.

“Similar scenario repeated itself around the negotiation to decide on the candidates of the party for the leadership of the 10^th National Assembly.

Instead of developing proposed guidelines to guide negotiations within the structures of the party as provided in the APC constitution, Sen. Adamu claimed to be carrying out consultations to the exclusion of members of the NWC and to the exclusion of all structures of the party.

But for the steadfastness of President Tinubu, Sen. Adamu would have led the party to a disastrous outcome, which could probably be worse than the rebellious leadership of the 8^th National Assembly.

Even after the NWC endorsed the proposal from the consultations by Sen Adamu and representatives of NWC with President Tinubu adopting standard bearers for the two chambers, Sen Adamu encouraged opposition to the decision of the NWC and didn’t consider convening superior organs to ensure the decisions of the NWC is respected by all elected representatives of the party in the two chambers.

“Beyond all, there is also a clear case of reckless financial management of the party. With more than N30 billion realised during the sales of forms for the 2023 elections, Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore have embarked on spending extravaganza based on their discretionary decisions without any form of a budget as required by the APC constitution. With NEC not meeting as required, they give no financial report to anyone, not even to the NWC.

Having got the NWC around July 2022 to approve the suspension of Directors, they have proceeded to employ new Directors as well as more staff at the National Secretariat without recourse to the Establishment Committee, which is yet to be formed. All these have increased the running cost of the party without the approval of NEC.

“Unlike the vision of establishing a people-oriented progressive party that would facilitate the democratic development of the country, we sadly have in our hand an APC, which is in contempt of its own rules led by a determined and decidedly conservative, reactionary, and undemocratic leadership who are opposed to allowing any form of internal accountability to party organs and members. Consequently, the APC has been reduced to only an election vehicle, like other parties in the country.

To the disappointment of many founding members of the party and Nigerians, almost all the undemocratic practices associated with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), such as the imposition of candidates, are now common In APC”. (Nigerian Tribune)

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