A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman has urged the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary/Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) to urgently fix the specific date for the party’s national convention, tentatively slated for February, 2022.
Lukman said, fixing the date would help, by not allowing certain issues to go into speculation as information about the date could enable party members to know exactly when the convention is going to hold and prepare for it.
The director-general of Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) who stated this at the unveiling of his new book, “APC and Campaign for New Nigeria” in Abuja on Wednesday also commended the Buni’s caretaker for affirming that the February date is sacrosanct.
He highlighted a major point in his book which is an appeal to party leaders to prioritise the issue of relationship, because the major challenge of politics in the country today is poor management of relationship among party leaders.
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“Our leaders should be able to convene a meeting, possibly, a meeting of National Cucus or National Executive Committee (NEC), before the convention, on the basis of which we can begin to resume the process of reorganising ourselves and facing the challenge of providing leadership to this country as we move to 2023.
“I have the belief that we will continue to advocate for a situation where our politics in the party is issue-based because Nigeria is too passionate about personalities. The commitment of party leaders to issues is what is more paramount,” Lukman said.
On the controversy surrounding the grey areas of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, the APC Chieftain said: “I am not opposed to direct primaries, but there are some conditions which must be met for direct primaries to be able to provide the democratic platform that will confirm the voice of individual members of the party.
“Some of those conditions include the fact that the membership of the political party must be very clear; it should not be in dispute. In APC, we are very clear in terms of ensuring that we prioritise the question of developing the membership database of our party. That was why we went through the process of membership registration and revalidation.
“The whole debate about direct or indirect primary is basically an APC issue. To that extent, my position is to appeal to the leadership of the National Assembly to provide the necessary leadership so that we don’t mix up issues.”
