A member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mallam Salihu Lukman, has said the party now “is a shadow of itself” under the leadership of Senator Abdullahi Adamu as the National Chairman and Senator Omisore as National Secretary.
Lukman, who also the party’s National Vice Chairman in the orth-west zone, accused the duo of National Chairman and the National Secretary of “highly” unaccountable to the party.
In a statement released Friday in Abuja, titled ‘Rebuilding the APC to Reform Nigerian Politics: Task Before President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’, Lukman said it is worrisome that organs of the APC like the national advisory council (NAC) have not been constituted since 2013.
“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 said.
“He relates with his colleagues in the NWC just like his appointees.
“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.”
Lukman said under the leadership of Adamu, APC is in contempt of its own rules.
“We sadly have in our hands 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,” he said.
“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 imposition of candidates, are now common in APC.”
The vice-chairman said President Bola Tinubu should focus on rebuilding the party.
According to Lukman, 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 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 held.
“Had the NEC been meeting as provided in the APC constitution, members would have stronger power in managing affairs of the APC and most of the challenges facing the party could have been resolved based on decisions of 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 few cases, the National Chairman gets the NWC to legitimise his decisions when the APC constitution only assign 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 powers to make specific proposals to facilitate decisions of organs. So far, powers of superior organs of the party have been illegally usurped by the National Chairman and by extension the NWC.”
