A new crisis is looming in the ruling All Progressives Congress, as the APC announces new plans to prohibit members of the National Assembly who are not principal officers from voting in the Presidential primary.
Currently, all serving and former APC members are permitted to attend the party’s convention, but this could change if the amendment scale passes.
Members of the national convention shall include: members of the Board of Trustees, national chairman, and all members of the national executive committee, serving and past presidents, vice presidents, serving and past governors, and deputy governors who are party members, according to Section 12.1 of the current APC constitution.
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Serving and former members of the National Assembly who are party members, serving and former Speakers, Deputy Speakers, and other principal officers of the Houses of Assembly, and all serving members of the Houses of Assembly who are party members, party chairmen in the states, and members of the States’ Working Committee are also included.
However, a copy of the proposed amendment to the APC constitution revealed that in the proposed amended constitution, only principal officers such as the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Majority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Chief Whip, Minority Leader and Deputy Minority Leader would attend the conventions.
The amended Section 12 identifies the national convention members as “the President and Deputy President of the Senate, who are members of the party, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who are members of the party, the Majority or Minority Leader, party whip, and their deputies in the Senate and House of Representatives, who are members of the party, two serving senators from each geo-political zone of the country, who are party members, to be nominated by senators from such zone, one member of the House of Representatives from each geopolitical zone of the country, who is a party member, to be nominated by House of Representatives members from such zone.”
This means that the maximum number of APC federal lawmakers who could attend a party convention and vote in a Presidential primary would be no more than 30.
According to a member of the National Assembly, the move would be challenged by the over 373 APC members in the legislative branch of government.
The lawmaker claimed that the APC Caretaker Committee, led by Mai Mala Buni, was clearly out to punish lawmakers for defying the party’s wishes by amending the Electoral Act.
He also claimed that the Buni committee was attempting to weaken the House of Representatives, many of whom had already endorsed APC leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s presidential ambitions.
“You will recall that many members of the Northern and South-West caucuses have declared their support for Tinubu.”
The National Assembly, which represents at least 40% of the total representation in the Presidential primaries, will now be sidelined due to Buni and his clique?
“This will never be acceptable to us,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the APC is attempting to change its slogan from “change” to “progress.”
When reached by phone, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, Secretary of the APC Caretaker Committee, stated that the proposal was just a document and that everyone was free to make changes.
When asked to explain the reasoning behind the decision to exclude National Assembly members from future conventions, Akpanudoedehe said he would not answer any further questions.
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