We’ve become redundant, APC NWC members cry out

The crisis of leadership in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, assumed another dimension, yesterday, following allegations by members of the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee, NWC, who accused him of dictatorship.

Noting that Adamu now runs the NWC as a one-man show, they added that where he didn’t seem to have his way, he invoked the name of President Muhammadu Buhari to get the NWC members in line.

The NWC members said while Adamu was free to make consultations with stakeholders, he must, however, subject the outcomes of such parleys to deliberations by the NWC, rather than his current penchant to adopt such views as position of the NWC.

Two members of the NWC, Salihu  Lukman, who is the National Vice Chairman, North-West, and Isaac Kekemeke, National Vice Chairman, South-West, made the allegations in a memo sent to other NWC members, yesterday, in Abuja.

Adamu’s media aide, Muhammad Lawal, did not immediately respond to inquiries on the matter.

Entitled, “APC and the Need for Vigilance: Urgent Call for Intervention,” the duo said they were compelled to make this statement, following serial postponements of the scheduled National Working Committee, NWC, meetings, twice within 48 hours.

“We are convinced beyond doubt that this is a deliberate attempt to foist a fait accompli on the NWC on fundamental issues that affect our great party,” they stated, in apparent reference to the screening of presidential aspirants ahead of next week’s presidential convention of the party.

Lukman had at the weekend, written a letter to Adamu and copied some stakeholders of the party, accusing the party chairman of not learning from the mistakes of his predecessors.

In yesterday’s memo, the duo said the NWC had been rendered redundant within two months of its existence.

They stated:“Within just two months in the lifespan of the new leadership of our great party, APC, led by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, the NWC, organ of the party vested with the power of managing the day-to-day affairs, including implementing decisions of the National Executive Committee, NEC, as provided in Article 13.4 of the APC Constitution, has been rendered redundant.

“The National Chairman takes decisions unilaterally. When it suits him, he invokes the name of our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, to blackmail NWC members into accepting his decisions. Every effort to get the Chairman to respect the authority of the NWC as elected by the March 26, 2022 APC National Convention is proving very difficult, if not impossible. Note that NEC’s donation of its powers was to NWC and not to the National Chairman or any individual.”

The NWC members said they had no option but to make this public appeal to all APC leaders to intervene and urgently to call the national chairman to order, immediately.

“The national chairman must be properly reminded to recognise that the business of managing the day-to-day affairs of the party is the responsibility of the NWC as provided in provisions of the APC constitution,” they said.

He is free to consult any party leader(s). Such consultations will not represent decisions of the NWC or any organ of the party unless and until it is adopted by a properly constituted meeting of the NWC or organ in question according to the letters and spirits of the APC constitution.”

“As a party, we have suffered enough judicial embarrassments arising from clearly avoidable leadership breach of our party’s constitution and spelt out rules. As members of the NWC who have the mandate of our members, we hereby serve notice to  the national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, and through him to all APC leaders that, henceforth, any decision taken by the national chairman or any other party functionary, which requires the approval of the NWC as enshrined in the APC constitution, will be considered as illegitimate and an infringement on the jurisdictional scope of the NWC, unless otherwise confirmed as validly approved decisions of the NWC or any other legitimate organ of the party.

“No NWC member is elected at the March 26, 2022 national convention to warm seats or offices in the national secretariat. We, therefore, call on all our colleagues in the NWC to rise to these challenging situations by joining hands with us to save our great party and return it to its founding mission of moving Nigeria forward, based on honest, fair, just and selfless commitment to party building. God bless our party!” The duo said.