From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Few weeks to the presidential election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has formally admitted there are forces within the ruling party working assiduously to ensure the party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu, did not emerge winner in the February 25 poll.
The party further claimed that schemers that failed to produce the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, or former president Goodluck Jonathan or Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, as consensus candidate of APC are behind the plot against Tinubu.
APC zonal Vice Chairman (North West), Salihu Lukman, who raised the concerns, however, said as Tinubu defeated them to become the presidential candidate of the party despite their machinations, he will also become elected as president.
Lukman, in a statement he signed, said: “Of course, there are forces within the APC that are also not comfortable with the possibility that Tinubu will be the next president.
“Schemers that failed to produce neither Emefiele or Jonathan or Lawan as consensus candidate of APC have unleashed Emefiele’s so-called cashless policy to damage the APC and the candidature of Tinubu.
“But like they failed in the case of consensus presidential candidate, they are also failing in their intrigues to damage the APC and the candidature of Tinubu. Like Tinubu emerged as the presidential candidate of APC despite their machinations, he will also become elected as president, God’s willing.”
Enumerating the antidote to counter the plot, the member of APC national working committee said: “As members of APC, we must remain resolute and focused on our commitment to develop our party and our democracy. We must remain focused to return APC to its founding vision. We must remind Nigerians that the back bone of every democracy is the existence of strong political parties. So far, Nigerian democracy has been strengthened to produces accountable political leaders.
“Sadly, Nigerians, in their frustrations tend to want to submit themselves to power greedy political leaders whose main value is only limited to contesting elections with hardly any commitment to party that present them as candidates.
“This is responsible for why most of these politically greedy politicians contest on different political parties every election. In fact, they are serial aspirants and contestants for elective positions.
“Those of us who have been in the vanguard for struggle for the development of Nigerian democracy must seek to shift the debate to the business of building political parties to emerge as truly democratic and accountable institutions.
“In addition to all the current initiatives to review progress and challenges facing the APC, for instance, we need to also highlight the issue of re-organising the APC immediately after elections.
“We must regulate the approach whereby immediately after elections, attention shift to the lobby of who gets appointed into government. Fundamental as that would appear to be, if not managed very well, it may also lead to the further weakening of the party.
“Part of the first issue that should be immediately corrected is the restoration of life to all party organs. A situation whereby key decisions of the party are taken without recourse to formal organs should be corrected.
“The challenge of accountability also requires that structures of the party meet, and both elected and appointed representatives of the party should be answerable to the structures of the party. This is what party supremacy is about,” he said.