By Watchmann

 

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday asked those intending to change the National Working Committee (NWC) members to bury their hatchets.

This was as the National Executive Committee (NEC) passed a vote of confidence on the NWC members during its meeting.

The NEC also passed a vote of Confidence on the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu for good governance.

The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka who briefed the press after the meeting said the meeting did not discuss the 2027 Presidential election, as the President is presently concerned about delivering good governance.

According to him, the NEC reviewed the economic situation of the country and believed that the President was doing well.

Morka also said that the NEC passed a vote of confidence on the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje and the members of the NWC.

According to him, there was no issue of any change of the leadership of the NEC at the meeting, as he said the National Chairmanship of the party has been zoned to North West.

Morka dismissed the insinuations that the meeting was not well attended, as the former President Muhammad Buhari, former governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai, former Minister of Transportation, Chibike Ameachi and some others did not attend the meeting.

According to him, every member of NEC was properly invited and we never expected everybody to be in attendance.

Pertinent to note that the NEC meeting is held just once in two years.

Speaking at the meeting, the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje said, “Your Excellencies, it has been a year and a half since I stood before you to accept the honour and responsibility bestowed on me and my colleagues to lead this great Party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Though the journey, I must admit, has been very challenging to us as a ruling Party in view of the big task we have at hand and the expectation from Nigerians, however, we can sufficiently submit that we have collectively risen to the occasion and challenges.

“Your Excellencies, in order to have a full-fledged National Working Committee (NWC) and in line with the directives of the National Executive, We received at our headquarters, the British High Commissioner, the European Union Ambassador, the Ghanaian High Commissioner, Jamaican High Commissioner, Cuban Ambassador, Vietnamese Ambassador, North Korean and Venezuelan ambassadors, among others.

Further, he said “Your Excellencies, in fulfilment of our promise of taking the Party to the grassroots, the National Working Committee introduced a new people-centred approach to campaign administration.Instead of the usual practice of inaugurating national campaign governorship councils for states in Abuja, the campaign councils are inaugurated in the affected states to allow for more and greater participation by Party members and other stakeholders in their respective states.

“This innovation has helped to engage the right people to organise and manage campaigns in their states for effective delivery before and during the election. Your Excellencies, as you are aware, we won governorship elections in Imo, Kogi, Edo and Ondo, but unfortunately lost in Bayelsa State. The details of the election results are contained in your folder.

“Your Excellency, our focus is now on Anambra and Osun state and in compliance with the time-table released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Party has already begun preparations in earnest for the conduct of the primary elections in Anambra scheduled for April.”

Gandujue also informed NEC about other achievements and interventions made by the NWC under his leadership.

Morka dismissing the absence of some persons at the meeting said, “The presence or absence of some of our leaders for today’s meeting. As far as I know, I have never known the caucus meeting of our party or the NEC meeting of our party to be attended 100% by all of the members of the NEC or Caucus. And I’m not sure that there’s really any political party where that attains 100% attendance at meetings.

“There’s a lot of negotiation, a lot of back-end negotiation of the convenience, availability of key leaders who were required to be at the meeting.

“For example, when you have a President as busy as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with his schedule, it’s not a tea party to reconcile his movements and his schedule to get him to come sit at a meeting for three, four hours. It’s not that easy.

“So whatever day you pick, will be convenient for some, may not be convenient for others. And that’s just the way it is.

“The list of members today was comprehensive. As a matter of fact, we enlarged the list today. For this meeting today, we had more members invited than we did previously.”

Speaking on the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai and his altercations against APC, he said, “Now, as for statements credited to the former Governor of Kaduna State, the organs of the party, whether they are working or they’re not working, look, I think that any Nigerian knows the answer to that question. APC and its organs are working as effectively as possible.

“How else do you explain the vibrancy of the party? How else do you explain the deluge, the witness, the drift of people?

“Today, it was said that more than 18 legislators in the National Assembly, if I’m not correct, if I’m mistaken, give and take a sizable number of legislators who have already decamped from the opposition parties into our party. If their parties were working more efficiently, they wouldn’t be coming to join us.

“And we welcome them because it’s a democracy. Every citizen has the freedom to associate freely. There’s a difference between party men and people who speak because they have a grievance.

“Grievance-driven commentary to me is not to be taken that seriously.

“And to suggest to him that some of his recent engagements are unnecessary for someone who occupies the position that he has acquired in this country.

“Men who are respected must also continue to justify the respect that they get. It’s not, a good idea that once you are dissatisfied, especially when it comes to personal experiences, then you want to visit your personal grievance on a system of equality.”