By Adamu Abuh, Abuja
President-elect, Bola Tinubu, has been urged to overhaul the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). National Vice Chairman (North West) of the party, Dr. Salihu Lukman, in a piece entitled, “2023 Nigerian Presidential Election and Matters Arising,” argued that APC was in dire need of reforms in the days ahead.
Stressing the need for party supremacy, he warned against appointment of critics into the cabinet of the incoming administration. He said: “We must acknowledge and thank President Muhammadu Buhari for his leadership. In doing so, we should appeal to Asiwaju Tinubu, being the new leader of our party, to consider this golden opportunity as a call to action to continue the struggle for the development of Nigerian democracy.
“This will require considerable attention and focus on the development of our party, which will require some internal reform measures to guarantee internal competition within the party. Some of the things that should be immediately done are to ensure that the NWC is accountable and respect the constitution of the party.
“A situation whereby the NWC will operate for almost a year without rendering financial report to any organ of the party is unacceptable. Similarly, unacceptable is a situation whereby the NWC will continue to refuse to convene meetings of the National Executive Committee (NEC) as provided in the constitution of the party.
“Being the leader of the party, Asiwaju Tinubu should avoid replicating the mistake, whereby as President of the Federal Republic produced by the APC, he will limit his relationship with other leaders of the party to only the National Chairman and some few leaders of the party.
“He must broaden his relationship with all leaders of the party and mainstream it to nurture the institutional development of party organs.
“In all these, we need to also acknowledge that development of political parties in Nigeria today is being encumbered by funding challenges. As things are, all our political parties lack independent sources of funding.
“As a result, party leaders have been reduced to being surrogates of elected representatives in government, yet we expect parties to regulate the conduct of these elected representatives. In the circumstance, it amounts to sheer mockery to talk of party supremacy.”
BESIDES, elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, yesterday, charged Tinubu on an all-inclusive government. At a press conference in Abuja, he sought re-introduction of National Development Plan for nation building.
The nonagenarian appealed to fellow contestants to accept outcome of the presidential poll in good faith.His words: “My call is to the winner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I am sending my congratulations to you on this well-deserved victory and I urge you to run an all-inclusive government that will give every Nigerian from all parts of the country a sense of belonging.
“This election has shown democracy is evolving and consolidating in Nigeria, and I urge the President-elect to re-introduce the strategy of National Development Plan, which is universally accepted as a panacea for nation building.”
Reacting to comments made by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo regarding conduct of the election, the elder statesman expressed disappointment, saying he did not expect such a call from a person of his calibre.
Source: The Guardian