THE emergence of a splinter group named Reformed All Progressive Congress (R-APC) from the ruling party is a source of concern for its governors, Zamfara state Governor, Abdulaziz Yari has conceded.
However, he said that such party crisis was not unexpected in a party the size of APC as politicians must jostle to advance their own interests.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) spoke to State House correspondents after joining his Jigawa and Kebbi counterparts, Abubakar Badaru and Atiku Bagudu, respectively, as well as Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun for a meeting with Chief of Staff to the President on the deadlock in Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
He, however, expressed confidence the new National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC will be able to resolve the crisis.
The governor, who insisted that the villa meeting was initially meant to be a “private business,” said when asked to comment on the crisis in the ruling party: “Of course, I am worried, but it is something the party will handle. You know with the approach of election, you will expect this kind of thing, you will expect crisis left, right and centre, especially in a party with an overwhelming majority because of political interests.
“The most important thing is that with the emergence of new leadership everything will be resolved. So, therefore, no panic.”
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Yari revealed that there was some progress on the FAAC which was deadlocked in its last meeting.
He added: “Initially it (the meeting) was supposed to be a private visit but it has turned to official visit because you know we were supposed to hold the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee meeting since last week which deadlocked.
“So, the Chief of Staff decided to invite the minister so that we can discuss further and see how best we are going to deal with the matter.
“There is headway because Mr. President and the Minister of Finance will meet with the NNPC officials so that we can resolve the problem with the Federal Allocation Accounts Committee.”
Also speaking on the FAAC issue, Minister of Finance, Adeosun said the meeting with the Chief of Staff was a fruitful one.
She explained: “Well, as you know last FAAC meeting ended in deadlock and since then, we have been having series of engagements between ourselves, the governors, the commissioners and of course the various stakeholders.
“Today’s meeting was for me to brief the governors and the Chief of Staff and by extension Mr. President on the progress we have made so far on our position. Mr. President has promised to take the next step and to that extent, we are very satisfied.”
Asked whether the source of the FAAC disagreement, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was exempted from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the minister remarked: “They are, every agency of government is in the TSA. You know FAAC is unique, FAAC is a meeting where all the revenue generating agencies make returns on net of their expenses. It is in the area where we have disputes.
“The dispute is not on the gross revenue but on what has been deducted from those gross revenues giving us the net which is being brought into the FAAC.
“But I think this is a healthy process. We must be satisfied with figures before we sign of on them. We must as stakeholders make sure all our agencies are aligned with all the programmes of government in terms of getting this economy really moving.
“We are still very much dependent on oil, on NNPC for our revenue. So, we do need to have sometimes some of these. I see them more as reconciliations than standoffs. I’m very sure we will have the FAAC in the next day or so.”
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