-Warns Ngige, says we‘re not jittery
-I wasn’t offered oil bloc – Saraki
-‘Begging defectors not cowardly’
-I ‘ll decide on Thursday – Ortom
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has threatened to sanction any minister or political appointee that operates at variance with the party’s policies and directives.
Specifically, he warned the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige to sit up or face the party’s wrath.
The party chairman, who spoke soon after he held a meeting with President Muhamadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, said Ngige must inaugurate boards of agencies under his ministry or be suspended from the party.
The former Edo state governor spoke against the backdrop of the refusal of Ngige to inaugurate all board members appointed under his ministry, in spite of a letter to the President drawing his attention to the delay in bringing the boards on stream.
In the letter, Oshiomhole asked Ngige to inaugurate all board members appointed under his ministry, but the minister responded that he had inaugurated three boards in the ministry, and would not be in a hurry to inaugurate that of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), because of an alleged N40 billion corruption scandal by the former board.
Apparently not satisfied with the reply, Oshiomhole wrote President Buhari on the same issue and followed up with a meeting with the President.
He insisted that the current leadership of the APC would not tolerate disobedience to presidential directives by any appointee, noting that if the Presidency condones insubordination, the party would strongly take exception to that.
The party chairman further said he has resolved to return internal discipline to the APC, noting that he would not spare anybody that opts to disobey specific directives that would advance the cause of the party.
“And if the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. And when we expel the minister, we will prevail on the president that he can’t keep him in his cabinet; people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party without which they would not have been ministers,” he said.
Oshiomhole said Ngige was not appointed as an independent candidate, adding that “no minister is above the party, and they have taken undue advantage of the president’s fatherly disposition.
“If the minister refuses, we will suspend him from the party. You know we must return to internal discipline. For me, it is the height of mischief for any minister. You cannot purport to be honourable minister and you act dishonourably, and nobody is greater than the party.
“And it is absolutely illegal for a minister in a democracy to prey on the powers of the board because the laws establishing those institutions are clear, that the boards have procedures to follow.
“So, when a minister sits in his office to appropriate the powers of the board in a democracy, not in a dictatorship, awards contracts that didn’t go through boards, those are clearly abuse of office for which they are liable.
“I am convinced that what they are doing is not with the endorsement of Mr. President. Over the period they have tried to drop the president’s name, but I tell them it is the same authority that appoints these people. So, we are informing them that it is either they comply with the president’s instructions or they comply with the party’s position or they go and be ministers outside the government”, he said warned.
‘Begging defectors not cowardly’
And in a related development, Comrade Oshiomhole has declared that the last minute rapprochement he is making with aggrieved members of the party, planning to jump ship, was not an act of cowardice.
Oshiomhole made the declaration during a book launch organised by Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim (APC Yobe East), yesterday in Abuja.
He said the move was all about working for peace towards getting justice and fairness for those who deserved it and not as a result of being jittery in anyway.
“Throughout the weekend and uptill today (yesterday), many of the national dailies reported different stories with the impression that I have not been sleeping within the last one week as a result of alleged midnight meetings with aggrieved party members who they say I have been begging not to leave the party.
“In some of the reports, insinuations even went as far as saying that I made juicy offers to the aggrieved party members in stopping them from cross carpeting.
“While I will not be too direct in reacting to such reports here, I will only say though I have been meeting aggrieved party members over whatever injustice they felt the party or some chieftains of the party had done to them, but I have not been having sleepless nights as being reported and also not in any way jittery.
“Rapprochement move as far as I am concerned , is not an act of cowardice but a desirous endeavour in making peace since you can’t decree peace but only work for it .
“So, in a nutshell, I am not ashamed of doing that as Chairman of a great party and to those rapprochement moves are being directed to, we want them to appreciate that we are more or less trying to prevent them from making blunder of dumping palm wine for kain kain,” he said.
He added that the said moves were also very necessary since stability of the nation cannot be completely divested from stability of political parties upon which those running the affairs of the state got to power, especially that of the ruling party.
Earlier in his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki, commended Senator Abba Ibrahim for chronicling his experience in politics since 1991 till date in the book titled: “Poorlitics.”
Saraki, who chaired the occasion, commended Abba-Ibrahim’s brand of politics which centres around the people at all times, upon which he got the mandate of Yobe people to govern them three times and even representing them in the Senate for the third time running.
He said: “Senator Ibrahim’s brand of politics as vividly captured in this book titled: “Poorlitics”, is not different from the model of politics my late father, Senator Abubakar Olusola Saraki bequeathed to us in Kwara state.
“It is an all time form of politics anchored on engaging the people at all times in knowing their problems and aspirations and assisting them in confronting their challenges in and out of election years, unlike others who are fond of embarking on three and half years of sabbatical leave after elections only to rush back six months to new elections and yet expecting to get positive results.”
The book launch was attended by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettima, many members of both arms of the National Assembly.
