APC Validation: Nothing Unusual In Tinubu, Akande’s Reservation — PGF DG

*Says party register should be in custody of national secretariat, not leaders

Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman, has dismissed insinuation that recent comments attributed to two chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the ongoing revalidation of members of the party was indicative of lack of confidence in the interim national leadership led by Yobe State governor, Mallam Mai Mala Buni.

Former Osun State governor and pioneer interim chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, had last week dismissed the exercise as a waste of lean resources.

“The APC leadership might be wasteful and unappreciative of the proper use of money in a kind of scanty economy in which Nigeria now finds itself.”

He also warned the Caretaker Committee against the plot to push for tenure elongation.

Speaking at the weekend in Lagos while participating in the process, former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, spoke in a similar vein as he maintained that the party could always fall back on the membership register generated in 2014.

The DG of the Forum of APC Governors in a statement at the weekend said the remarks expressed by the top leaders of the party was not a vote of lack of confidence in the leadership and the exercise.

He argued that in a democracy, chieftains of political parties should enjoy the liberty to express their opinion freely as he noted that it would promote healthy discourse.

He said: “As members of APC, we should be proud of our leaders and their ability to make open their positions about all the issues around the challenges facing the party. We should be inspired by their disciplined commitment to support the decisions of the party irrespective of their personal positions. We should be proud of the illustrious leadership of Chief Akande, Asiwaju Tinubu and all our leaders in APC for demonstrating in very strong unequivocal terms that to remain united is not about denying what your personal preferences are with regard to choices open to the party in addressing challenges.

“Being united should be about accepting decisions that are not necessarily supportive of our personal preferences. Since the time of the APC merger negotiations between 2012 and 2013, there has never been any time when all our leaders are in agreement.

“This is partly why there have always been internal contests within the party. Part of the challenge facing the party today is to ensure that internal contests in the party reflect the freedom of party leaders and members to express themselves within the limits of both the rules of the party and the country.”

Lukman who further noted that both Chief Akande and Bola Tinubu participated in the process despite their disaffection said the exercise was meant to retrieve the party register from certain leaders and take it to the party national secretariat.

“It must be emphasised, therefore, in all the debate leading to the current membership registration/revalidation exercise of the APC, no one has disputed the current membership register of the APC.

“The emphasis has been that it should be updated to delete names of members who have left the party and register new members. In addition, the register should be domiciled in the National Secretariat of the party and not with individual leaders of the party.

“Having the membership register in the custody of individual leaders especially when such leaders are being speculated to have ambitions for electoral contests is problematic. Keeping the party’s membership register in the custody of individual leaders simply supports the bad orientation of handing over structures of the party to would-be-aspirants, which has been the bane of Nigerian politics under the PDP between 1999 and 2015.

“Being a party of change, the most important change APC can introduce in Nigerian politics is a shift in the foundational orientation of our politics to one owned and controlled by Nigerians.

“Part of what should be the focus of the debate now around the APC membership registration/revalidation exercise should be about what needs to be done to ensure that the current exercise and the new register of members of the party after the exercise are not in any way or form in disagreement with the old register.

“Such a disagreement is only possible if some members of the party who are captured in the old register refuse to revalidate their membership and based on the old register still claim to be members.

“With all leaders of the party, including Chief Akande and Asiwaju Tinubu accepting to revalidate their membership, the message is that every party member should revalidate his/her membership. There is no better evidence today that all APC leaders are united other than the ongoing membership registration/revalidation exercise.”