• NWC member accuses Adamu of leading party to political suicide
• Claims party chair, Omisore running party without budget
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The leadership crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) took a worrisome dimension on Friday when a National Working Committee (NWC) member, Salihu Moh Lukman, accused the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, of attempting to pull the party towards committing political suicide.
Lukman, North-West zonal Chairman, in a statement issued in Abuja further claimed that billions of Naira were expended based on discretionary decisions of the National Chairman and National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore. He maintained that till date, no member of the NWC could claim to know how much is in all the accounts of the party outside Adamu and Omisore and perhaps the National Treasurer and National Financial Secretary.
The former Director General APC Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) wondered why an experienced and very conscious politician deliberately failed to convene the meetings of organs of the party.
“By every definition, Adamu’s politics is conservative and reactionary. Unfortunately, however, based on all the unfolding realities, he is on a reckless conservative and reactionary politics, who, if left unchecked, can pull the party in the direction of committing political suicide. All party leaders and members must wake up to this reality and stop Adamu from achieving his mission of self destroying the APC,” Lukman noted in a statement he titled; “Contestation and disagreement are defining attributes of a progressive party.
Enumerating the litany of sins both Adamu and Omisore allegedly committed, Lukman wrote: “Recall that our NEC has not met for more than a year. We have managed the party since April 2022 without approved budget as required under Article 13.3A(xiv) of the APC constitution. No report of any kind to any organ, not even the NWC. Yet, Article 13.4(ii) and (iv) require the NWC to submit quarterly reports of activities and finances covering income and expenditure to NEC.
“We have had Osun and Ekiti elections, which cost the party billions without any attempt to review experiences, and in the case of Osun, specifically identify reasons the party lost the election even when we are faced with the embarrassing situation whereby in Osun, not only did we lose the 2022 governorship election, but we have also been roundly defeated in the 2023 elections.
“We lost all the three Senatorial seats, lost all the seats for House of Representatives and lost all the House of Assembly seats. And this is the state where the National Secretary, Omisore comes from. And he seats shamelessly, pompously and pretending to command political influence when he cannot win any election.
“If we are truly aspiring to be a progressive party, leadership must be earned. Omisore must give account of his leadership in Osun State in every respect. Osun is the only state in the country today where the party has no single elected representative. Maybe we have counsellors, who by this trend would be voted out in the next election,” he mocked.
Challenging them to expel him, he declared: “For the records, if you want to resume deliberations to consider expelling me from the party, you are free to do so. I will defend myself publicly to the best of my ability. APC, as a party founded with the vision of being a progressive party, must accommodate debates and contestations.
“Nobody, no matter how highly placed, should imagine that the best way to win debates and contestation is to bully and blackmail opponents. I can guarantee you; no amount of bullying will stop the campaign to return APC to constitutional order.
“By the way, you are free to expel me from APC, but you cannot expel me as citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. APC is not a private property. It is a public political organisation with rule, which must be respected. Adamu and Omisore can block organs of the APC from meeting to the extent that other leaders of the party are willing to permit.
“No one can block me, in anyway, from discharging my right to engage the issues both as Nigerian and as a member of APC, expelled or not. For your information, I am currently working to document all these experiences, which I will publish, God willing, so that it contributes to the body of knowledge in the development of party politics in Nigeria.
“Whether you respect my right to hold membership of APC or not, I can proudly say that my publications will remain references for anyone who wish to understudy the APC for the foreseeable future,” Lukman noted.