.To pick Flag-bearer on May 30/31; Governors, May 18

.Avoid Imposition of Candidates, Buhari Warns

By Jude Opara, Abuja

Presidential aspirants who wish to contest on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are to part with a handsome N100 million which the party has announced as the cost of its expression of interest and nomination forms.

Similarly, the ruling party has put its governorship forms at the cost of N50 million. APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka disclosed this at the end of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party in Abuja on Thursday. Morka further revealed that NEC has approved May 30 and 31 for its presidential primary while the governorship primaries have been slated for May 18.The sale of forms commences Saturday, April 23 and ends on May 6, 2022. Also at the meeting, the party’s NEC transferred its powers to the National Working Committee (NWC) led by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu for the next 90 days. According to the National Secretary of the APC, Iyola Omisore, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan moved the motion for the transfer of power and it was seconded by Governor Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna State. This means that the NWC will have the powers in the interim to take decisions that hitherto required the intervention of the NEC meeting. In his address, the National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu decried the constant quarrels between the former and serving governors, noting that such has the tendency of destroying the party if unchecked. Adamu further identified ego between predecessor and successor governors as the main reason behind the conflict. “I was the chairman of the Reconciliation Committee and came out of the assignment fully conversant of the problems. The battle really is a battle for supremacy between serving state governors and their predecessors in office. It is a crisis fueled by ego. So ego is the enemy. Ego between former and serving governors. Ego has turned them into bitter enemies. Because of ego the two groups are putting our party in jeopardy and the effect will be in the polls next year. “The serving governors and past governors are powerful men, each of them are leaders in their own right in there states but when two elephants fight the grass suffers. Similarly, when two powerful politicians fight the party suffers. Because the speech and actions of these powerful men will bring a filthy and odious stench to our party. “Our party must have the courage not to play lip service about it but the serving governors of our party in there various states are the leaders of the party and this is in line with our party’s constitution. It is important that the former governors recognize that the party structure must be respected. Our party’s constitution makes no room for two party leaders in a state. There is no reason to compete with serving governors for the leadership of the party”, Adamu stressed. The Chairman advised that the erstwhile state chief executives are leaders in their own rights and admonished the incumbent governors to also accord them all the necessary respect for peace and harmony. The APC emergency NEC meeting also had in attendance President Muhammadu Buhari who admonished the party faithful to eschew bitterness and work towards the success of the party at the 2023 elections. Buhari also cautioned the NWC against imposition of candidates and the development of dictatorial tendencies warning that such had in the past affected the party adversely. “I enjoin you all to follow due process in all the party processes and more importantly to develop more mechanisms against corruption. I call on all party members to abide by all extant laws, rules, and regulations and to leaders of our party to avoid imposition of candidates that cannot win popular elections. “This dictatorial behaviour cost us many strategic seats in the past. In the recent past this led to some of our strong members unfortunately opting to go elsewhere because of unfairly oppressive behavior of party leaders at state level. “I must caution strongly against any tendency towards developing cliques, in–fighting within the party. We want to win well not succumb to fractions on account of personal acerbity and desire to retain control at all costs. That surely is the road to win”. Meanwhile, the Human Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) in a swift reaction, carpeted the APC for pegging its nomination forms at an exorbitant N100 million. According to a statement issued by the organization and signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emma Onwubiko, the rights group wondered why the same government that cannot honour an agreement it entered with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU) could feel free charging such a high fee for a presidential ticket. “We were only just finished carpeting the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for bastardizing the process of nominating its presidential candidate by inflating the cost of nomination form to a princely sum of N40 million, little did we know that the politicians who run the Federal Government and have ruined the national economy will peg theirs at the extravagant cost of N100 million just to spite the opposition politicians and to make fun at Nigerians as captives who as hostages of politicians can’t do nothing to checkmate this rascality of the political forces. “This same APC government is unable to meet the funding obligations for federal universities and thereby have left millions of students of public schools to roam around in their homes due to industrial strike by university teachers (ASUU) since over two months , yet the politicians have hidden enough stolen cash to buy presidential from at N100 million each.”