General Elections Now Easier To Conduct Than APC NEC Meeting, Says DG PGF

The Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Salihu Lukman has reacted to the ongoing crisis in the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), stating that it is now easier to organize a general election in Nigeria than to hold a National Executive Committee NEC meeting of the party.

Lukman stated this in reaction to a commentary by a certain Peter Oparah, who called on the APC Governors to sack him for doing a ‘cheap hatchet’, adding that the task of DG of PGF is separate from the responsibility of being a member of APC.

In a personal statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, he criticised Oshiomhole for reneging on his campaign promises to reengineer the party by activating all its organs.

The PGF DG also did not spare the National Working Committee NWC of the party for its inability to convene important party meetings.

He said no one was using him to fight any cause, adding that political debates are now reduced to propaganda partly because Nigerians take leadership for granted and expect that people working with leaders must always demonstrate agreement.

“Once that is the case, leaders limit themselves to recruiting sycophants to work with them,” he said.

His response on the suspended national chairman reads: “Just as an illustration, it will be useful to recall one aspect of his (Oshiomhole’s) vision statement, which commits him; ‘To promote internal party democracy, we will ensure that all organs of the party regularly meet, as stipulated by the party’s Constitution. For instance, article 25 of the APC’s Constitution provides that National Convention of the party shall be held once in two years; National Executive Committee NEC every quarter and National Working Committee NWC once every month’.

“What did we experience since his emergence as National Chairman in June 2018? The party’s NEC, which should have met every three months was unable to meet for about fifteen months between August 2018 and November 2019. In between, the positions of Deputy National Chairman (South) and National Secretary, among others, became vacant.

“To fill those vacancies, a minimum of zonal consensus was required, which should be ratified by NEC. Instead, it was only in March 2020 when the court granted an injunction against Comrade Oshiomhole that the National Working Committee (NWC) announced “appointments” into these vacant positions. This led to more disagreements based on the question of whether the NWC has powers to make those appointments or not.

“We need to recognise and appreciate that, in APC, sycophancy has weakened the capacity of our leaders to convene meetings of organs. It is easier to hold general elections in Nigeria today than for APC to hold NEC meetings.

“APC National Conventions would appear to only take place when the tenure of leaders expires after four years, notwithstanding the fact that APC constitution also makes provision for mid-term convention after two years.

“We are supposed to have Board of Trustees and seven years after the emergence of APC, it is yet to be inaugurated. In truth, one can argue that part of the functions of APC leaders, especially members of NWC is to undermine the APC constitution and be able to mobilise APC members and other Nigerians to defend such actions. Somehow, these issues are being ignored in the whole assessments of problems of the party.”