Ahead of its national cause and national executive committee (NEC) meetings billed for next Tuesday and Wednesday, the crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) has continued unabated, with the national vice chairman (North West), Salihu Moh’d Lukman, alleging that party deliberately refused to fund President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s campaign as well as those of other candidates in the 2023 general election.
The national vice chairman made the allegations barely 24 hours after the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, and national secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, in separate television interviews, described him as a nonentity, coward and black sheep of the party.
Omisore, in particular, had in the television interview on Tuesday taken on Lukman, saying ge was acting alone in the 25-member national working committee (NWC) of the party.
“There are cowards everywhere. So it is not impossible. But the point is that out of 25 members of the NWC, only one person is the ‘black sheep. He is just used to doing the rantings. There is nothing special about it”, the national secretary said.
Lukman had dragged Adamu and Omisore to court, praying the court to compel them to give account of how party funds were spent in the previous year.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja yesterday, the former director general of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) alleged that despite raking in over N30 billion from sale of forms, the governing party refused to give its then presidential candidate, President Tinubu, and other candidates financial support.
He said, “Talking of national budget, we are just coming out of elections whereby we were not able to sustain past precedence. What was the past precedence? Under Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in 2019, every candidate of the party received something from the National Secretariat. In this last election, no candidate of the party received a dime from the party.
“Talking of finances, in our constitution the NEC is supposed to approve some form of sharing formula. I am aware that each state chapter has received about N20 million out of the N30 billion. Put together, that is about N700 million less than a billion which is less than 3 percent of the total income that has been earned.
“Yet we want to sweep this under the carpet. We are having states, zonal, local councils and ward levels who are left on their own. The whole question of funding of the party has not been addressed”.
Asked in specific terms whether Tinubu got anything from the party or not, he said, “He didn’t get a dime from the party. I am making this public. Let them challenge me and contradict me.”
Lukman also faulted the party’s decision to send its budget to the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC for scrutiny, arguing that it is the party’s NEC that has the constitutional power to approve the budget.
He said, “We are expected to present a proposed national budget to the National Executive Committee NEC for approval by the provisions of Article 13(3A)(14) of the APC constitution. I felt embarrassed when I heard the National Secretary (Omisore) say the budget of the party has been sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.
“INEC is not the approving authority of the budget of the APC. The approving authority is the NEC. Till today we don’t have a national budget. Yet we made over N30 billion from sales of forms.
“Till today as a member of the NWC and majority members of the NWC, maybe with the exception of the Financial Secretary, Treasurer and or the Auditor who may have inside knowledge of how much was expended on the renovation of the National Secretariat of the party, we have no knowledge of what is being expended”.
He recalled that former President Muhammadu Buhari got some level of support from the party when he was the party’s candidate in 2015 and 2019.
His words: “Look, in 2015, the party was truly a model party. President Buhari didn’t have money. People were assigned responsibilities to raise money. It is just like Asiwaju and you say Asiwaju has money. So there were people assigned with the responsibility of mobilizing money for the party. If anything was done in 2023 based on that, it would be the initiative of Asiwaju. I am not aware of it as a party.
“If you remember in between, we were busy causing distractions about what should be our roles in the Presidential Campaign Council. Unless if we are humble and honest to admit that these are things that ordinarily shouldn’t have happened and admit we need to correct them and reshape the relationship between us and the government that emerged, we would continue to have the problems we are having”.
Lukman further accused Adamu disobeying the party’s decision on the choice of the leadership of the National Assembly by staying aloof from the position of the party.
According to him, instead of developing guidelines as directed by the provisions of Article 13 (4.6) of the constitution that would guide the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly, the Adamu-led NWC approached it with a blank cheque.
“What did we see? Our National Chairman, even after the party took a decision, was now mobilizing resentment against the decision of our party. He never campaigned for the party’s adopted candidates. He was busy saying the party advised that more consultations should be made.
“Look at the disaster when the Governors of the party met with him. Even yesterday he confirmed on Arise that the leadership of the party met with him. Now assuming even if it is true they did not consult you, as a leader what stopped him from calling Senator Akpabio and Hon Abass to raise some of these issues and even query them if he was not satisfied with their explanations he could go and meet Asiwaju?” He queried.
On Omisore, the vice chairman said the national scribe is a phenomenal failure who ought to be humble in accepting the defeat of the party in his home state, Osun.
He continued: “Osun was a disaster and that is where the National Secretary comes from. I saw him yesterday shamelessly talking about a winning team. If we are a winning team, why prevent us from replicating the feat in your base? We did not only lose the governorship seat, but we also lost all the Senate seats, House of Representatives seats, and House of Assembly seats.
“Osun is the only state we have that case. It is only the National Secretary that is in denial of that reality. The first mark of a progressive is to have the humility to accept your shortcomings. I saw a National Secretary talking brazenly as if he was a champion”.
