Cracks in APC Over Welfare, Appointments

Some national officers of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have expressed their resentment over the handling of the affairs of the party by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.

In a save our party letter dated 6th April 2017 and addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, the affected national officers in particular non-NWC (NEC) forum in the party said that despite many laudable achievements recorded by the present administration, the ways and manner the national working committee members handling the affairs of the party is worrisome, undemocratic and discouraging.

The forum of non-NWC of APC in the letter signed by National Ex-officio and coordinator of the forum, Hon. Omolaoye Akintola expressed dissatisfaction on how the NWC handle the affairs of the party without recourse to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

The forum also alleged that its members who worked assiduously for the success of the party during and after the presidential election in 2015 have been neglected and marginalised in the decision making in the party.

The national officers further said that the exclusion of sizeable number of federating states from scheme of things within the party because many states are presently not represented in the NWC, hence the need to voice out.

The forum in the letter copied the national chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun, Chief Bisi Akande, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Governor Yari Abubakar, chairman Nigeria Governors Forum, Governor Rochas Okorocha,  Chief Audu Ogbeh among others called on President Buhari to take interest in the affairs of the party before its too late.

According to the forum, “we therefore deemed it necessary putting this letter across to Your Excellency, President Buhari for your timely actions to save our great party from preventable, avoidable and unnecessary intra-party/in-house cracks that the present situation might generate.

“we wish to state that should things be allowed to continue in this manner it will affect the party in the future and give room to NWC to completely neglect other NEC members in the forthcoming appointments into the boss and Parastatals of government that were aimed to empower and keep the welfare of the party officials and others committed members at various levels.

“It is a notorious fact that we all worked hard towards the success of our party during elections and we are still doing the best we can (though no motivation) to sustain the tempo, we therefore called for equal and adequate reward by way of appointments as chairmen and members of board and parastatals.

“We also submit that the welfare of other members be given priority as once opined and observed by the President where he observed during our last NEC meeting that the welfare of party officials is paramount because of the sacrifice they made and the risk in not doing so.

The group enjoined President Buhari to normalise things within a good time frame in the interest of the generality and party in particular.