Concerned Stakeholders of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) under the aegis of APC Rebirth have demanded that the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) members be elected by open contestation.
The convener of the group, Mr Abubakar Usman made the demand at a press briefing at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja.
He said consensus is a means used by some people to impose candidates on party members.
“As part of activities leading to our National Convention, we have held Ward and Local Government Congresses in a very undemocratic way, clearly imposing leadership on members at the grassroots in the guise of the so-called ‘consensus’ candidate.
While we acknowledge that consensus is one of our party’s Constitutional provisions, it is an irrefutable fact that the APC Constitution did not envisage a situation where certain individuals, whether as governors, former governors or party leaders would coerce members into accepting a premeditated outcome as a mutually agreed option.
A forced outcome is never a consensus because any procedure that does not uphold the freedom of choice of individuals cannot be said to embody the progressive politics that APC ought to represent.
“Consequently, these Concerned Stakeholders demand that open contestation must be the only option for every position in the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, rather than the imposition of anointed candidates in the name of consensus,” he said.
Mr. Usman tasked the APC National Caretaker Committee to make public the dates and plans for the party’s National Convention.
“We equally charge the party’s Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) with ensuring that the National Convention’s date, guidelines, and other arrangements are made public prior to the state Congress slated for October 16th, 2021,” Usman said.
The APC group further called on Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in decisions being made in the party to save the APC from destruction.
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“In 2013, the APC became a mass movement of not only its registered members but also a critical mass of Nigerians who believed in the visions and personalities of President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and some of the other founding leaders of our great party.
“President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other concerned leaders must rise up to reignite the confidence of the people who believe and rely on their leadership by ensuring that we do not only get the forthcoming national convention right, with the enthronement of leaders the APC needs at this time, but also safeguard their legacies from being wiped away,” he said.
Zainab Sa’id
