JUST IN: APC To Finally Convene NEC On Friday

Barring any last-minute changes, the very contentious National Executive Council (NEC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) should be convening on Friday, November 22, 2019.

The last NEC of the party was convened in August 2018, contrary to the party’s law, which stipulated quarterly meeting of the body.

Reliable sources within the APC National Secretariat confirmed to The Nation in Abuja on Monday evening that a circular had been issued to the effect, saying the party’s National Caucus is scheduled to meet on Thursday, while the NEC is scheduled for the next day, Friday.

It would be recalled that the failure of the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led executive council to convene the NEC for more than a year has been a major cause for concern among party stakeholders, a situation which had led some elements within the party, including the non-National Working Committee (nNWC) of the party, the Forum of State Chairmen of the party and most recently, the Director-General of the Progressive Governors’Forum (PGF), Salihu Moh Lukman.

However, a source in the party’s executive council, who wished not to be named, said the Friday date for the meeting, as at Monday evening was not sacrosanct yet, saying there is a likelihood of President Muhammadu Buhari not being around, a situation that the executive council would want to avoid.

“The President is supposed to chair the NEC, but from the feelers we have for now, he might not be available on Friday, so the meeting might have to be shifted. However, the National Caucus meeting will hold on Thursday”, the source said.

Corroborating the information, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, said a tentative date had been set for the NEC meeting for Friday, saying “yes, the meeting is scheduled, tentatively, for Friday”.

Just last week, the Director-General of the PGF, Salihu Moh Lukman, during a press briefing in Abuja had called on the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to either convene the NEC of the party or consider resignation.

According to him, most of the crises bedevilling the party are such that the NEC mechanism of the party is constituted to either prevent or resolve, saying his call was necessitated by the downwards affairs of things within the party.

“The issue here is that every day the NWC, under Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, continues to run the affairs of the party, without convening NEC meetings, it is working illegally. If you read the (Oshiomhole’s inaugural) speech, he made the commitment that he would run the affairs of the party based on the Constitution. Now, the last time we had a NEC meeting was in August 2018.

“By the Constitution, the NWC, which is today run by Oshiomhole, which is an administrative organ, derives its powers from the decisions of superior organs. It is supposed to be a meeting to map out strategies in terms of how to implement decisions of the NEC and National Convention would have taken and then met monthly to review progress and report progress in the next quarter in terms of implementation. That has not happened.

“I’m hoping that with respect to the judgment about the Bayelsa deputy governorship, appropriate steps will be taken to vacate the judgment. Has that happened? It has not. We are living with the danger of Zamfara being reenacted. We can win the election in Bayelsa and then court judgment will come later to say we didn’t have candidate.

Earlier in October, during the inauguration of its new executive council, the nNWC, led by its new Chairman, Nelson Alapa, called for the immediate convening of the NEC, as well as other superior organs of the party.

“Fundamental basis of this communiqué is to create appropriate awareness necessary in the minds and souls of the founding fathers and leaders of this great party on the urgent and critical need to salvage the party from possible imminent fractures/cracks if things are left in the present ways the party is being currently run/managed by the incumbent leadership.

“As provided in the 2014 APC constitution as amended, Article 11 (Party Organs) National Executive Committee (NEC) members of which this Forum falls, is the third highest organ after the National Convention and Board of Trustees and takes precedent before the National Working Committee (NWC).

“It is disheartening that National Working Committee has usurped completely powers of the National Executive Committee (NEC), the negative effects of which are currently hitting back to all levels of the party, signalling serious dangers to the stability, coherence, unity, loyalty, commitment and preparedness for continuity in governance”, he said.