The National Vice Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (North-West), Comrade Salihu Lukman, has urged President Bola Tinubu to urgently look into the affairs of the party .
Lukman in a statement issued on Friday titled; ‘Rebuilding the APC to Reform Nigerian Politics: Task Before President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, accused the APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and the National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore of running the affairs of the ruling party with a personal agenda and only brings other leaders into the picture without considering other member of the national working committee (NWC), of the party.
According to him, the APC is now a shadow of itself because it is being run by Adamu like a Garrison Commander.
The statement reads:
“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 relates with his colleagues in the NWC just like his appointees. In their name he meets other leaders of the party and seek to manipulate party decisions to suite personal vested interests that is only known to him. 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. Similarly, the NWC was never invited to consider any proposal being negotiated.
“It was only on June 6, 2022, ahead of the June 8, 2022 National Convention that Sen. Adamu invited the NWC only to inform members that a consensus Presidential candidate in the person of Sen. Ahmed Lawan has been chosen. Members were not even given the opportunity to comment on the matter.”
Speaking on alleged financial reckless, Lukman said; “Beyond all these is also a clear case of reckless financial management of the party. With more than N30 billion realised during the sales of forms for the 2023 elections, Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore have embarked on spending extravaganza based on their discretionary decisions without any form of budget as required by the APC constitution.
“With NEC not meeting as required, they give no financial report to anyone, not even to the NWC. Having got the NWC around July 2022 to approve the suspension of Directors, they have proceeded to employ new Directors as well as more staff at the National Secretariat without recourse to the Establishment Committee, which is yet to be formed. All these have increased the running cost of the party without the approval of NEC.
” Unlike the vision of establishing a people-oriented progressive party that would facilitate the democratic development of the country, we sadly have in our hand an APC, which is in contempt with 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 noted that 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.
“Critical issues of party funding, for instance, has remained very ad hoc. No defined funding framework has been established,” Lukman lamented.