Crack In APC As Party Postpones NEC Meeting Again By Two Days ·NEC’s member says APC at point of 'rebellious, unmanageable' stage

By Sunday Okobi, Emma Ella and agency report

The National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressive Congress (APC) scheduled for next Tuesday will again be postponed by two days to enable President Muhammadu Buhari present the 2018 Appropriation Bill (the national budget) to the National Assembly the same day, a senior official of the presidency/member of APC told the media in Abuja on Wednesday.

This came as the source said the scheduled meeting is crucial to the survival of the party, adding that “APC is at a point of rebellious and unmanageable stage, and the grenades are about to explode; if we refuse to take critical decisions in the next few days, we will have missed the huge opportunity to save our party.’’

Coming after several postponements, the NEC meeting was finally fixed for next Tuesday according to letters dispatched to all the NEC members, and as a prelude to the crucial event, APC governors met last week to articulate positions on various issues of concern in the party.

But it was gathered exclusively on Wednesday that the NEC meeting would be “postponed by one or two days’’ to give room for President Buhari to present the 2018 national budget to the National Assembly.

“I hate to say this because some Nigerians might think we are not serious, but we have resolved to postpone the NEC meeting again because the president will be presenting the 2018 national budget the same day, and many of us will be there,” the source stated.

The founding member of APC confirmed that key stakeholders in the party are increasingly getting worried that if nothing is done to rally its members through convening of NEC meeting and national convention, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) might gain upper hand ahead of the 2019.

According to him, “The NEC meeting is crucial; our party is at a point of rebellious and unmanageable stage, and the grenades are about to explode. If we refuse to take critical decisions in the next few days, we will have missed the huge opportunity to save our party.

“Our party members are not happy with the current system; they worked and laboured to install a government, but those who are currently being appointed in key positions of government today were not with us during the campaign.

“Those being appointed are not known to the party. For example, all appointments from Enugu State made so far by this government are from one ward in the same local government area of the state; if leaders of the party  were contacted, that unwise decisions will not happened.’’ 

The source continued: “The real danger I see, which many of those surrounding the president are apparently cannot see is the coming national convention of our party that will commence in February next year.

“In the past few years, the party structures at all levels were rendered useless; they were used and abandoned. Are you going to remove them and elect new members thinking they will be happy? That will be the end of APC. So, we need to do something very fast.

“They said the leadership of the party is not active and as a result, some governors and senators want the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, removed for their selfish political interest. But, my question is: ‘do they expect the national chairman to start fighting the president on the pages of newspapers? Do they expect him to start shouting, when he has access to the president?’’

Explaining the difficulty the national chairman of APC and his colleagues are going through in the hands of the executive, the senior member of the party noted that they had been singing it to the president’s ears about the state of the party, saying the leadership of the party is not happy.

“For example, when some of our leaders visited the president in London in September during his medical vacation, they took time to explain to him the urgent need to make some changes within his government; he agreed with them and promised to do it immediately he returned. But until now, he has refused or failed to carry out the changes.

“And unless the president carries out the changes in the next few days, we would have missed the opportunity. Some of us still believe President Buhari should re-contest.

 ‘’But we must save the party first. The party is in a mess; it is not being funded; the government does not carry the leadership of the party along. So many mistakes are being made and we are still pretending as if all is well with us.’’

Assuring that members of the NEC will be frontally frank with the president and other leaders of the party during the scheduled meeting, he added that the party leadership needs to act fast to rescue the party.

On the recent speculations that some 17 APC governors want the national chairman removed, the source said: “I don’t know where that speculation is coming from. The chairman is not the problem of our party; but even if you want him removed, who will replace him?

“I think we need to be careful not to destroy our party. The tension within the party is expected; the general election is drawing nearer; the belief is that those who control the party’s structures will be ahead of others.’’