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- Some NWC members boycott event, frown at late schedule
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC), late Friday night, ignored protests from several stakeholders and finally swore in the six newly appointed National Working Committee (NWC) members and a zonal officer at the headquarters of the ruling party amidst water-tight security.
The initial arrangement was for the swearing-in to take place on Thursday, but the event did not hold as planned because of the protests from the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello and Cross River stakeholders that grounded activities at the party secretariat, venue of the event.
Although many NWC members boycotted the event due to the inconvenient schedule late into the night, the National Chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the secretary, Ajibola Basiru and a few others, had finally conducted the inauguration by 9 pm on Friday after close to 48 hours of torturous standoffs, ignoring the protesters.
The APC 12th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held on August 3, this year in Abuja, had transmitted its powers to the NWC, directing it to fill up the six other vacant positions in its leadership.
Those sworn in late night were Deputy National Chairman, North, Ali Bukar Dalori (Borno State); National Vice Chairman, North West, Garba Datti Muhammad (Kaduna State); National Legal Adviser, Prof. Abdul Karim Abubakar Kana (Nasarawa State); National Welfare Secretary, Donatus Nwankpa (Abia State); National Woman Leader, Mary Alile Idele, PhD (Edo State); and, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Duro Meseko (Kogi State).
A nominee initially pencilled for the North Central Zonal Organizing Secretary, Ikani Shuaibu Okolo, from Kogi was however dropped to pacify the state Governor, Yahaya Bello whose nominee for the office of Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ismail Yahaya, was dropped.
Speaking after the inauguration, the party’s boss said that since the ruling party is not a lawless entity, they have resolved through dialogue to compensate the aggrieved who lost out of the power play with other appointive positions.
The former governor of Kano state admitted that the party is currently putting its house in order, adding that they are determined to win the forthcoming off-season governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa States.
Ganduje disclosed that the party would be in the various state capitals to inaugurate its National Campaign Councils for the three governorship elections, as a way of connecting with the grassroots.
His words: “There is no doubt that during the last meeting of NEC of our party, the NWC was mandated to undertake some tasks on behalf of NEC. We have succeeded. We consulted with stakeholders, governors and others. We know there are some aggrieved people and they are very important. We will discuss with them and I will speak later on that.
“We have taken a decision that every Wednesday, we will conduct our weekly NWC meeting. It is very important. Also, we have already made a resolution that our party as an institution will be active throughout the year and not just during election periods.
“Our party will have operational and functional offices right from the wards, Local Government Areas (LGAs), states, and zonal and national offices as you can see. We believe we will be able to abide by all these.
“Very soon we will launch the Campaign Councils for our three states – Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi- going into elections this year. Instead of inaugurating the councils here in Abuja, we have decided to do so in the various state capitals so that we can connect with the various stakeholders.
“All of you are competent. We have seen your credentials and you have been nominated and elected through due process by the various stakeholders therefore we congratulate you. As earlier mentioned, there is no doubt that there are some people who are also competent but you can only fill a person.
“From Kogi state, we have Ismail Yahaya. We have taken note of him and he will be engaged in one way or another. We have Ikani Shuaibu Okolo from Kogi state. He too will be engaged appropriately in our government. Mrs Obinna from Abia, she too will be accommodated. Hon. Dr Stella Ekpo from Cross River. I think she is a medical doctor. She and two others from Cross River state, according to the outcome of our dialogue, will be accommodated in our government.
“With these, I think we have achieved complete agreement and dialogue. We have achieved dialogue and we have deepened dialogue within our party and this is our culture. We are not dictators but that does not mean that everyone must necessarily agree with you,” Ganduje noted.
The oaths of allegiance and office were administered to the new officials by Barr. Mustapha Abubakar, a Notary Public.
Meanwhile, defending the absence of many NWC members, one of them joked that only witches and wizards operate late at night, warning that the leadership has embarked on another wrong direction.
