The North West Zonal Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Salihu Moh. Lukman has accused the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu of working at crossed purposes with President Bola Tinubu over his choices for principal offices in the 10th National Assembly.
The assembly would be inaugurated on June 13.
A statement issued by Lukman on Wednesday said Adamu has continued his fight against Tinubu, dating back to 2022 when he announced that the party had adopted Senate President, Ahmad Lawan as its presidential candidate.
He said Adamu has handicapped members of the National Working Committee even as he has refused all pressures to hold National Executive Committee meetings in order to consider critical issues affecting the party.
Lukman who has been at loggerheads with Adamu and has gone to court to force the party chairman to hold a NEC meeting accused Adamu of trying to work with “rebels” in the APC to produce principal officers for the 10th Assembly.
He said, “When APC and Asiwaju won the 2023 elections, the structures of the party were blocked from functioning to allow for wider internal democratic consultations, debates, and contestations using the legitimate structures provided in the constitution of the party to facilitate internal negotiations to zone leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
“Practically, in a manner that is nothing more than suspending the constitution of the party, the National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, supported by the National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore has blocked all organs of the party from meeting, except the NWC.
“In the case of the NWC, it is more a case of spoon-feeding members with convenient information. And where challenged as was the case with the court case aimed at restoring constitutional order in the party, the National Legal Adviser, Barr. Ahmed El-Marzuq becomes handy with spurious legal interpretations, which are anything but legal, bereft of any logic,” he said.
He stressed, “The same conservative bloc is now spewing up hardcore ethnic Northern arguments against the zoning decisions approved by the NWC following the outcome of consultations between Sen. Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC team with President Tinubu.
“As if those consultations were not designed to produce agreements, once the NWC approved the recommendation for zoning the leadership of the 10th National Assembly, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, instead of acting as the National Chairman, facilitating the implementation of decisions of organs of the party, he is acting as a factional leader opposing the decision of the NWC.
“Instead of working for the success of the decision of the NWC through activating meetings of higher organs of the party to confer more legitimacy to the decision of the NWC, he seems to be more interested in ensuring that the 2015 model of rebellious leadership emerges in the 10th National Assembly,” he added.
He further said, “As things are, the biggest challenge for APC of concluding the transitionary journey into the new era of President Tinubu is whether the vision of producing a progressive party managing progressive governance initiatives will be produced.
“To have a progressive party requires dynamism, action, and improvement both in the management of the APC and governments it produced.
“This is more about responding to challenges facing Nigeria with unconventional initiatives aimed at producing results that will accelerate Nigeria’s march towards democratic development than anything else.
“Inability to guarantee accelerated Nigeria’s march towards democratic development is the source of frustration for Nigerians and is why Nigerians would find failed and colourless politicians in other parties attractive during elections,” Lukman said.
He pointed out that the first test of Tinubu’s emergence as the leader of the APC as President of the Federal Republic is whether he will allow leading conservatives to continue to block structures of the party from operating as provided in the APC constitution.
According to him, “It is already a tragedy that two undeniably hardcore conservatives will be given the task of leading the APC as National Chairman and National Secretary. How can a party envisioned to be progressive have such a misfortune?
“Part of the test will be whether President Tinubu, having agreed together with the APC NWC on zoning formula for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly just sit and watch conservative right-wing elements within the APC use Northern ethnic arguments to mobilise for the defeat of endorsed APC candidates for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly?
“The take off for the President Tinubu administration will surely define what to expect. The choices are clear. It is either a progressive government led by a reformed and progressive APC with a competent team of dynamic, visionary, and selfless appointees both leading the party and governments it produced; or an outrightly conservative APC managing business-as-usual government led by unambitious team of appointees whose interest is not more than self-enrichment thereby converting public resources into personal assets.”
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