ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The North-West National Vice Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has criticized the National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
Lukman alleged that Adamu is running the party like an army barrack without recourse to the National Working Committee, (NWC).
The Kaduna politician also expressed concerns that the day-to-day administration of the secretariat and key decisions that involve the party activities are taken at the discretion of Adamu.
Lukman made the claims in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday titled ‘Rebuilding the APC to Reform Nigerian Politics: Task Before President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.’
“The sad reality is that the APC as constituted today is only a shadow of itself, with a national chairman who is highly unaccountable and runs the affairs of the party more like a garrison commander.
“He relates to his colleagues in the NWC just like his appointees. In their name, he meets other leaders of the party and seeks to manipulate party decisions to suit personal vested interests that are only known to him.
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“Recall the shameful attempt to impose Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the consensus presidential candidate of the party. In all the so-called consultations he claimed to have had with other leaders of the party on the matter, perhaps except for the National Secretary (Iyiola Omisore), no member of the NWC was either informed of the details of the consultations or invited.
“Similarly, the NWC was never invited to consider any proposal being negotiated. It was only on June 6, 2022, ahead of the June 8, 2022 National Convention, that Sen. Adamu invited the NWC to inform members that a consensus presidential candidate in the person of Sen. Ahmed Lawan had been chosen. Members were not even given the opportunity to comment on the matter,” Lukman lamented.
His claim comes exactly one year after he wrote former President Muhammadu Buhari, the then Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, and other APC stakeholders in a leaked letter about how the party leadership was running a one-man show, Punch reports.
He therefore called on President Tinubu to reform the APC, and warned that if the current situation is not arrested on time, the leadership of the NWC could “snowball” into oblivion like the previous administrations of Adams Oshiomhole and Mai Mala Buni.
He said: “With the election of leaders of the 10th National Assembly concluded on Tuesday and the victory of the nominated candidates of the APC for the two chambers, President Bola Tinubu, being the leader of the party, needs to prioritise rebuilding the APC to reform Nigerian politics so that our political parties are developed to grow beyond being mere election vehicles.
“As it is now, the management of the party is limited to the discretion of the national chairman, and when it is convenient, he involves members of the National Working Committee.
“In a few cases, Adamu gets the NWC to legitimise his decisions when the APC constitution only assigns administrative responsibility of implementing decisions of superior organs such as the NEC, National Caucus and National Advisory Council to the NWC. So far, powers of superior organs of the party have been illegally usurped by the National Chairman and, by extension, the NWC,” he added.
Efforts to get the reactions of the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, and the APC Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, proved abortive.
As of the time of filing this story, they had not picked up the calls or responded to the messages.
“Lukman is a member of the NWC and one of us. What he wrote is from his own point of view. But I can assure you all matters will be resolved at the end of the day,” Deputy National Organizing Secretary of the party, Nze Chidi Duru, told Punch.