APC took for granted powers of NASS, Oshiomhole laments

NATIONAL chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole has accused the immediate past leadership of the party and the Presidency of complacency in the power game that threw up the principal officers of the National Assembly.

He made the declaration on Monday while addressing members of the screening committee of the party.

Recall that the Presidency, the national working committee of the party on one hand and leadership of the national assembly have been embroiled in cold war since the inception of the present administration.

Both the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara have since defected to the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party.

In a veiled reference to the duo of Senator Saraki and Honourable Dogara, Comrade Oshiomhole said the APC has learnt
from the mistake of the past where people he described as bread and butter politicians were given tickets of the party.

He said: “If before now we have taken for granted the powers of the National Assembly, how those powers can be used for national goals and how it can also be misused to undermine national progress, the current situation we are facing here, where two principal officers have chosen to put their personal interest over and above the national interest.

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Refusing to consider budget meant for physical infrastructure. Budget meant to re-order the way our budget is executed, to move money away from consumption which recurrent expenditure represents to capital projects which will benefit our people.

“And even refusing to approve money meant for the body charged with the responsibility of conducting elections in 2019. For us, as a party we have chosen to learn from the positive lessons from this development so that we do not repeat those mistakes by selecting people who as far as human capacity is we can assess and predict that if elected they will remain faithful not only to our party but more importantly to the Nigerian nation.

“If we have disagreement it will not be about juicy appointment, it will be about appropriate policies, it will be about how governance is impacting positively on the lives of Nigerians. It will not be about who is getting what, politics of sharing”

“In many of the states we had challenges arising from the way congresses were conducted, many of them were quite fraudulent, that has been the challenge we have been trying to resolve since we came. Screening of aspirants is not a formality, that is why we tried to search for men and women of integrity who cannot be compromised. We do not want to field opportunists who are simply seeking a political vehicle for some selfish purposes. What has happened in recent part is enough for us to begin to look at the character of those who are seeking office in the APC platform.”

The APC chairman further thanked serving APC senators whom he noted have remained faithful to the party, despite alleged inducement.

“As we speak I am proud that we have 57 senators who have refused to be induced or misled or otherwise manipulated into moving to other parties or reward for juicy positions. They have decided to remain in our party even with all the intimidation they have suffered.

It will be ungodly for us as a party not to reward those who believe in the party and the government of the day led by President Muhammadu Buhari. We will try as much as we can to have stability in the National Assembly.”