National Convention: APC ready with ‘Unity List’ Says Consensus remains its best option

 

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Clifford Ndujihe (Group Politics Editor) & Omeiza Ajayi, Abuja

After at least four times of postponing its national convention since 2020, the ruling All Progressives Congress APC is now set to conduct the all-important exercise today.

The party which has had to contend with a series of bickering in the lead-up to the convention said on Friday that it would go into the Convention with a “Unity List”, outlining its consensus options for every elective office.

At a news briefing in Abuja, Chairman, Convention Sub-committee on Media and Publicity and Nasarawa state Governor, Engr. Abdullahi Sule also added that in line with the Electoral Act 2022, political appointees will not be allowed to vote as delegates except where such appointees are “statutory delegates” by virtue of the elective positions they might have held in the past.

He said; “Before you go into the convention, our first choice is always consensus and we are still on that first choice. However, democracy demands, even our party constitution demands and the constitution of Nigeria demands that if that doesn’t work, we will go ahead and look at the other options. But right now, that remains our option number one. 

“On the issue of political appointees, our delegates are actually statutory delegates. So if you have a former president as a political appointee, if you have a former senator as a political appointee, these are already automatic delegates, you know, so let us not confuse the two just because being an appointee doesn’t necessarily take you out of being a delegate, because our delegates are classified, clearly. The former president on our party platform, former elected this, elected that, party officials and the rest of that. I don’t think anybody who holds any political party office is actually right now a political appointee of the President, or the governors and the rest of that. 

“So, most of the list that we submitted, you know, if you are talking of the ones we have submitted now, we don’t have commissioners, we don’t have advisers, we don’t have all those unless if somebody particularly was a former this or former that, in that case, you know, just being an appointee doesn’t completely exclude such a person, you know, from being a delegate.