ABUJA – Less than three weeks to the commencement of campaigns by political parties, indications have emerged on why the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) has consistently failed in many attempts to organize a meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC).
A member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for the situation saying he was reluctant to approve a date for the much-awaited meeting.
He told newmen that holding the NEC meeting was necessary to meet the three months statutory requirements and also retrieve the powers given to the party’s national leadership, the NWC, after the expiration of the 90 days duration.
He regretted the 90-day period NEC ceded its power to the NWC and said the NWC had carefully restricted its operations to its statutory mandates. He said it had become necessary to avoid any legal implication of exercising expired NEC powers unlawfully.
It was, however, learned that arrangements have been made to organize the NEC meeting, but the schedules of President Buhari have continued to delay picking a possible date.
The NWC member disclosed that the party’s leadership is still waiting for Mr. President to approve a possible date.
“The NWC is aware that the powers NEC gave to it have elapsed. And that is why the party’s leader is not taking substantive decisions any longer on issues outside the scope of its mandate. NWC has tried to restrict itself within its statutory mandate.
“The leadership is mindful of the fact that some decisions have become no-go areas for the NWC. After the expiration of the 90 days of the powers ceded to the NWC, the leadership is aware that it cannot take any decision that will expose the party or give any undue legal advantage to our opponents. The reality is that if the leadership doesn’t do so, anybody that drags the party to court will certainly be to its detriment.
“Yes, some responsibilities will certainly suffer especially as NEC which is supposed to meet every 90 days did not do so, in addition to the expiration of the powers to NEC. But, as I said, the NWC has restricted itself to only its statutory mandate to avoid committing any legal infraction.
“Already, the leadership is desperate to hold NEC meeting hopefully this month. We initially proposed this month’s end tentatively. The meeting has become very important to enable NEC to either reclaim its powers and exercise them accordingly or extend the absolute powers it gave to NWC.
“However, as it is now, nobody in the party’s leadership can give a definite date for the meeting because it is highly dependent on the schedule and availability of Mr. President. The NWC has made the arrangements and only waiting for Mr. President to approve a convenient and suitable date.”
Meanwhile, the proposed zonal reconciliation meeting by the leadership of the ruling party is expected to officially resume this week Wednesday in Kano and Borno states.
“As for the zonal reconciliation, it will still start this week, Wednesday, as proposed initially, from North West and North East in Kano and Maiduguri, Borno States. We want to see how we can conclude the reconciliation before the kick-off of political campaigns end of this month,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ational leadership has directed party leaders in the South South to ensure the party wins both presidential and governorship elections in Delta State.
APC National Vice Chairman for the South South, Victor Giadom, gave the order when he led members of the zonal working committee on a fact-finding and assessment visit to Asaba, Delta State capital.
Giadom said the visit to Delta State signalled the official kick off of the party’s evaluation tour of states in the zone. He said the tour was aimed at interfacing with leaders and critical stakeholders to ascertain the health of the party in the six states of the geopolitical zone for purposes of securing victory in 2023.
Giadom said the tour was at the behest of the national secretariat to enable first-hand understanding of issues that may inhibit the electoral fortunes of the party.
