•NEC writes president over crack in party
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said Nigerians would be shocked when President Muhammadu Buhari rolls out his record of achievements within two years on May 29.
The Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu, who made the statement when he received the Taraba State chapter of the party at the national secretariat, Abuja, also replied critics who have described the ruling party as a divided. He argued that the calibre of persons joining or struggling to join was a testimony to the strength of the party.
He said regardless of the minor internal wrangling, the APC was strong.
However, another organ of the party, the Forum of All Progressives Congress (APC) National Executive Council (NEC) has written to President Buhari to save the party from imminent collapse.
The forum claimed that the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led (NWC) has failed and called for an urgent NEC meeting.
The letter signed by the National Ex-officio, South-west coordinator, Omolayo O. Akintola, titled: “Save our party-APC” warned that if nothing was done by the Presidency, the situation might lead to “preventable, avoidable and unnecessary intra-party cracks, which could spell doom for the ruling party.
But Shuaibu insisted that no degree of infightings would threaten the strength of the party.
In his words: “I want to assure Nigerians that APC is still very strong regardless of the internal wrangling. We know that we are fighting ourselves but why is it that in spite of the internal crisis people are still struggling to join APC? They are not just anybody on the street but eminent Nigerians and even persons elected into public offices.
“What it means is that people still have faith in the APC and still see it as the formidable party that can change what we met in 2015.
“The change mantra is still on course and lots of people out there are struggling to be part of the change and part of history.
“I want us to continue to be one. We are experiencing infighting because we don’t recognise the spirit in which the broom was made our symbol. This broom shows unity and if we cut the rope binding the broom together, everything will scatter. I don’t see our internal fighting as a threat to the strength of the party. We are not going to allow the broom to scatter.
“We have already set up committees to visit our state chapters to reconcile all the feuding members. We have also constituted the entire National Working Committee into a reconciliation committee to settle any misunderstandings within the national level,” he noted.
On the achievements of the party, he said: “I want to urge you to continue to be a little more patient. I want to emphasise that the reward will come in many ways including safety and ability to feed our families. Yes, the reward may not necessarily come into individual pockets, but as general benefits to the entire society. It is not going to come so fast but slowly.
“The President promised the nation that on the day he would clock two years, tremendous achievements must have been recorded. That even before he opens his mouth, Nigerians would start feeling them themselves. Let us give him that benefit of doubt.
“Let me reassure that we have started working and before May 29 when we will listen to the presidential broadcast, we would have seen the tangible achievements recorded already,” he quipped.
Shuaibu thanked members of the party in Taraba State for making the party proud.
“We know very well that APC won the governorship election in the state, but we don’t know how to explain what happened in the court.
“However, whether the decision is to our favour or not, we have to respect it as long as it was a decision that was a product of the judiciary process. That is the reason we decided to keep quiet about it but I want to emphasise that we won the election by our records and our have not changed,” he noted.
The APC Non-NWC (NEC) forum is a body of national officers of the party who are not members of the National Working Committee.
The Forum complained that it had written several letters to the National Chairman, Chief Oyegun, “without any positive reactions hence the ‘save our party’ request.
“We strongly feel that an urgent call on the appropriate quarters of the party be made to ensure that NEC meeting of our party as provided by Article 25 of our party constitution is obeyed to guarantee resolution of matters affecting the party amicably.
“We are equally greatly displeased with the ways of handling party matters solely by the National Working Committee without any recourse to the NEC from which NWC derived her powers.
“Also to be noted for appropriate advice is the exclusion of sizeable number of federating states from the scheme of things within the party because many states are not presently represented on the current National Working Committee, hence, the need for regular NEC meetings pending the much awaited amendment to the present party constitution,” the group said in the letter.