National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which took place Tuesday in Abuja has refused to adopt President Muhammafu Buhari, as its presidential candidate for the 2019 general election.
Although the meeting unanimously passed a vote of confidence on the president and the leadership of the APC under Chief John Oyegun.
Briefing newsmen shortly after the meeting which lasted for over two hours, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, said even though there was an unofficial motion that was moved nothing of that was adopted.
“Today’s meeting was not about 2019 elections. When we talk about 2019 in the context of the agenda you saw, we are talking about membership registrations, the drive for membership and others. We are not talking about elections.
“Even though there was a motion in the floor that calls for a vote of confidence on the President, some of us felt it was not necessary because there is nowhere that his confidence is shaking. But the motion was taken and passed. But there was a second leg to that motion which calls for the adoption of the candidature of the President, but it was differed for now and no decision was taken because that is not the major reason why we are here.”
On some of the aggrieved members of APC who boycotted the meeting. Dogara said: “I don’t think that you can find any family that is as large as the APC family without some squabbles. No such family exist in the whole world and if there are disagreements, they are okay because without disagreements, you cannot even move forward.
“So, for us, I don’t think we are having a situation or run into a situation whereby we have crisis that the party cannot overcome. What I will advocate is that we should be the ones as the APC family to define what type of crisis and not allow crisis defines us.
“So, we will do everything possible to reach out to whoever is aggrieved. We are not like other parties that will say to hell with you because we value every member of this family. If we have members of the family who have grievances, we will do everything possible to reach out to them and attempt to bring reconciliation. I believe that with God on our side, we should be able to overcome.”
For him, the party spokesman Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the NEC meeting resolved to set up a small committee to put dates to these party activities up to 2018.
“It was agreed that since we have all these activities lined up, including the mini convention, congresses and elective convention, a small team be set up to put dates to these party activities up to 2018. There was no discussion about election of 2019 or who will be the party flag bearer. The committee will decide when all these activities will take place.” (Blueprint)