Politics

Call nec meeting, APC NWC member tells Adamu

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The crisis of confidence among members of the All Progresives Congres (APC) National Working Committee (NEC) is yet to abate.

Yesterday, the National Vice Chairman (Northwest), Salihu Moh Lukman, gave the National Chairman Senator Abdullahi Adamu one week to organise the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting before May 29.

The NWC member threatened to take legal action to enforce compliance with his demand if the chairman fails to commence the process within the time frame.

But another NWC member said the party was already working to resolve all intra-party matters.

The member, who spoke anonymously, said all the the issues would have been resolved but for the chairman’s trip outside the country.

In an open letter dated 19th April 2023 to Adamu titled: “Restoring Constitutional Order in APC – Not Negotiable” Lukman said the letter became necessary, following the drifting of the party’s vision of constitutional order as envisaged by its founding fathers in 2014.

Lukman said he had to resort to the open letter, following the refusal of the Adamu-led NWC to implement some of the constitutional issues he raised in his previous letters to the national chairman.

He said instead of running APC in line with its constitution, the National Chairman and the National Secretary have continued to steer party affairs without carrying along the other statutory organs of the party.

Lukman vowed to join forces with other like-minded party leaders and members to restore constitutional order in the party.

He said:  “As a person, I have concluded that everything must be done to compel you to respect the constitution of our party and manage its affairs based on the requirements of our constitution and not your discretion.

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Therefore, by this open letter, I am serving you notice of one week from today, Wednesday, April 19, 2023, to take all the appropriate steps required to convene an NEC meeting before May 29, 2023, wherein all the issues bordering on the management of smooth transition between the outgoing government of President Buhari and the incoming government of President Asiwaju Tinubu can be considered.

“If by the end of this one-week notice no action is taken to convene an NEC meeting as the first step to restoring constitutional order in APC, I will not hesitate to take further actions, including approaching our courts to enforce compliance with the provisions of our party’s constitution under your leadership.”

Lukman recalled a letter he wrote to the chairman dated April 5 titled: “Restoring Constitutional Order in APC: Demands”, where he placed a nine-point demand before the NWC.

He lamented that two weeks after, the chairman neither acknowledged nor consider all the constitutional issues raised in the letter.

  ”The only conclusion I can reach is that the demands I presented to you are not important.

Perhaps, by extension, I can also conclude that given your disposition to run affairs of the party only based on your discretionary decisions without reference to provisions of the APC constitution, your commitment to the party and its electoral viability is weak.”

He complained about the neglect of the constitution and usurpation of the duties of the statutory organs of the party since the NWC was inaugurated over a year ago.

He added: “To say the least, as a member of the NWC, I am scandalised and embarrassed that after one year in office, we are yet to have a regular NEC, National Caucus or National Advisory Council (NAC) meetings. All the functions of these organs and the decisions expected from them by the constitution are being taken by you, perhaps in consultation with the National Secretary.

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“As a member of NWC, we have never had any session where we were invited to consider any report of activity in the last year. Yet, Article 13.4(ii) of our constitution requires that the NWC submit quarterly reports to NEC. We have never deliberated on any financial report even when Article 13.4(iv) requires that we present quarterly financial reports to NEC. We have never deliberated on a national budget although Article 13.3A (xiv) requires that we present one to NEC and get approval.

“Perhaps, the inability to hold quarterly NEC meetings as provided under Article 25.2(i) of the party’s constitution may be the excuse for not having quarterly reports of activities, quarterly financial reports and national budgets.”

“But when one considers that the only NEC meeting, we had on April 8, 2022, decided only to allow the NWC to exercise its powers for 90 days, it means that all the sense of urgency permissible to warrant discretionary decisions is only allowed for a limited period of 90 days from April 8. Thereafter, any decision requiring the authorisation of NEC, as from August 2022, must be referred to NEC.”

Efforts to get the reaction of the national chairman failed, as the former Nasarawa governor was yet to return from his trip overseas. 

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The NWC, who spoke in confidence said the party may not publicly react to the allegations raised by the national vice chairman, stressing that the APC has an effective internal mechanism for ventilating grievances from any member of the party, irrespective of the status of such member.

The NWC member admitted that some of the issues raised by Lukman, especially those that border on constitutional matters require the prompt attention of the NWC, but the administrative organ of the party will not bring its internal matters into the media.

He expressed shock that the zonal chairman made public his latest letter to the chairman. He said: “Following his last letter, a five-man committee set up by the NWC met with the national vice chairman last week. We saw reasons in some of the issues raised and we agreed to resolve them as soon as the national chairman returns from his medical trip above.

We agreed with Malam Lukman to stay off the media while we resolve this matter, but we were shocked by his new letter which he made public.

“The truth of the matter is that, since we (NWC) came on board, it has been from one major activity to another. We had a national convention, primary, electioneering campaign and the just concluded general election. These are major activities in the last year. And in all the NWC has been at the centre.

“What I can tell you is that the NWC is seriously working on the issues and we shall reel out our plans soon.” (Nation)

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