Salihu Lukman, Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), has said the inability of the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress to amicably resolve disputes, as well as its penchant for constitutional breaches, were largely responsible for the current crisis in the party.
Lukman, who gave the reasons in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, also identified “intolerance of opposing views and sycophancy” as additional enablers.
The PGF, which Lukeman functions as the administrative head of the secretariat, is the forum of all governors elected on the platform of the APC.
He noted that while there was no question about Oshiomhole’s knowledge and competence to administer the party, his departure from the tenets of democracy as outlined in his speech of May 10, 2018, when he took office, remained a growing concern.
Lukman said: “It will be useful to recall one aspect of his vision statement, which commits him to promote internal party democracy and ensure that all organs of the party regularly meet, as stipulated by the party’s Constitution. For instance, article 25 of the APC’s Constitution provides that the National Convention of the party shall be held once in two years; National Executive Committee (NEC) every quarter and National Working Committee (NWC) once every month. What did we experience since his emergence as National Chairman in June 2018?
“The party’s NEC, which should have met every three months was unable to meet for about fifteen months between August 2018 and November 2019. In between, the positions of Deputy National Chairman (South) and National Secretary, among others, became vacant. To fill those vacancies, a minimum of zonal consensus was required, which should be ratified by NEC.
“Instead, it was only in March 2020 when the court granted an injunction against Comrade Oshiomhole that the National Working Committee announced “appointments” into these vacant positions. This led to more disagreements based on the question of whether the NWC has powers to make those appointments or not.”
The PGF DG further said, “Inability to manage disagreements and resolve conflicts bordering on leadership disputes is at the centre of the crisis in APC.”