Our Leaders are united to move APC forward – PGF DG, Lukman

Former Osun State governor and pioneer interim chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, had last week dismissed the exercise as a waste of lean resources.

“The APC leadership might be wasteful and unappreciative of the proper use of money in a kind of scanty economy in which Nigeria now finds itself.”

He also warned the Caretaker Committee against the plot to push for tenure elongation.

Speaking at the weekend in Lagos while participating in the process, former Lagos State governor and national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, spoke in a similar vein as he maintained that the party could always fall back on the membership register generated in 2014.

The DG of the Forum of APC Governors in a statement at the weekend said the remarks expressed by the top leaders of the party was not a vote of lack of confidence in the leadership and the exercise.

He argued that in a democracy, chieftains of political parties should enjoy the liberty to express their opinion freely as he noted that it would promote healthy discourse.

He said: “As members of APC, we should be proud of our leaders and their ability to make open their positions about all the issues around the challenges facing the party.

We should be inspired by their disciplined commitment to support the decisions of the party irrespective of their personal positions.

We should be proud of the illustrious leadership of Chief Akande, Asiwaju Tinubu and all our leaders in APC for demonstrating in very strong unequivocal terms that to remain united is not about denying what your personal preferences are with regard to choices open to the party in addressing challenges.

“Being united should be about accepting decisions that are not necessarily supportive of our personal preferences.

Since the time of the APC merger negotiations between 2012 and 2013, there has never been any time when all our leaders are in agreement.

“This is partly why there have always been internal contests within the party. Part of the challenge facing the party today is to ensure that internal contests in the party reflect the freedom of party leaders and members to express themselves within the limits of both the rules of the party and the country.”

Lukman noted that both Chief Akande and Bola Tinubu participated in the process despite their disaffection said the exercise was meant to retrieve the party register from certain leaders and take it to the party’s national secretariat.