After much pressure, the All Progressives Congress (APC) recently held its 13th Nationale Executive Committee (NEC) of the party. However, at the meeting, it was a vote of confidence galore.
Following immense pressure from party stakeholders and chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party was forced to hold its 13th National Executive Committee (NEC) in Abuja recently.
However, the meeting which was supposed to reach a compromise on some of the teething problems in the party became an avenue to endorse President Bola Tinubu for a second term.
The indication that he would receive the confidence vote started on his arrival for the meeting, when the participants overwhelmingly gave him a reverberating endorsement with a welcome shout of “no vacancy at Aso Rock”.
This endorsement followed after the standard “on your mandate we shall stand” song, which rented the air immediately Tinubu arrived at the meeting venue.
The vote of confidence in Tinubu marked the highlight of the meeting by party members for his administration’s good performance, in spite of the notable absentees at the meeting.
For instance , former President Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai and former Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi.
Also missing were: former Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and former APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, who resigned under controversial circumstances in 2023
Without a doubt, the development must have been a major disappointment to party Chieftains who had been clamouring for the party to hold NEC with the aim of dissecting and reaching a conclusion on some of the issues confronting the party.
Nevertheless, the Chairman of the APC Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) and Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, seized the opportunity to formally moved the motion for the confidence vote.
He commended Tinubu for increasing the FAAC allocations to the state governors, crushing insecurity in the country to a tolerable extent, and putting measures in place to reduce the cost of living in the country.
Uzodinma said:announcing: “I, Governor Hope Uzodinma, formally move a motion for a vote of confidence in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
Expectedly, the former chairman of the ruling party, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who seconded the motion, said a two-million-man march will soon be organised where Nigerians will assemble to beg President Tinubu to re-contest his position.
He said: “I am now able to go to my constituency and say that the worst is over. It is no longer an endless price increase because what you pay for rice in December is much better now. If things continue to go down, I can assure you, Mr. President, that Nigerians will beg you to re-contest, and there will be a two-million-man march to plead that Asiwaju should re-contest for our own national interest.
“We are also the ambassadors and spokesmen of the party, and we must tell Nigerians of what we do. The opposition’s business is to demarket the ruling party, but their legitimacy lies before us.
“We have to promote what we are doing right and remind them what they did wrong. We have to remind them that the people are not comfortable and that, because you are working on it, you were working on the taxation system.
“The basic thing in leadership is that you should not say this is how I met it and how you left it. That is why your reform proposal on taxation has gained weight in the entire country, even among those who are not within that bracket,” he said.
Weighing in on the endorsement, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the confidence vote in the President was as a result of the improvements in all the sectors, saying party members acknowledged that the country was witnessing a very quiet revolution.
He added: “As a result, members of our NEC doubled down on the vote of confidence passed on Mr President during the National Caucus meeting.
“An absolute vote of confidence was passed on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu today in recognition of the administration’s bold and unprecedented programme of economic reform, which clearly now, indisputably, is beginning to bear fruit and requires all of us to support so that our country can continue to develop and assure our future,” he said while speaking to newsmen after the meeting.
The president, while speaking, said the vote of confidence in him from the party’s highest decision-making organ was a call for more work, and promised not to fail the party and Nigerians.
While passing a vote of confidence in the Ganduje-led National Working Committee (NWC), President Tinubu during the meeting said the National Working Committee was doing a good job.
Tinubu noted: “The National Working Committee is doing a very good job. I am pleased with them. However, there are a few conflicts in the various states. Let’s set up committees to look into the lingering problems in the states and appeal to these party leaders in various states to, please, be calm and be collaborative.
“In all the various states let us set up reconciliatory committees to liaise with these aggrieved leaders. I am appealing to them, please, be calm.”
Despite the endorsement, one of the major decisions reached at the NEC meeting was ratification of the xoing of National Chairmanship position to the North West of the party.
Checks revealed that the position was initially zoned to the North Central which gave Senator Abdulahi Adamu the chance to emerge as the chairman of the party.
However, intractable crisis within the party led to the ouster of Adamu and the former National Secretary of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
The resignation of the duo paved the way for the former Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje emerged as the chairman and Senator Ajibola Basiru as the Secretary.
The move sparked legal battles and protests from North Central stakeholders, who argued that Adamu’s replacement should have come from their region.
Furthermore, protests also erupted at the APC secretariat, with demonstrators demanding Ganduje’s resignation.
However, with NEC’s approval of the chairmanship slot for the North West, Ganduje’s leadership has now been further legitimised.
Morka, while briefing journalists at the end of the meeting said the NEC also passed a vote of confidence in Ganduje for the remarkable successes he has led the party to. He said the vote of confidence was extended to the entire NWC.
“The NEC has ratified the zoning of national chairmanship position to the North West,’’ he said.
Morka further revealed that NEC constituted a-seven member committee to be chaired by the Governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni and was assigned with the task of bringing more members into the NEC of the party.
When asked about the absentees at the meeting, Morka said, “I have never known the attendance of our NEC or national caucus meetings to be 100 per cent. But be rest assured that all members were invited. We had more members at this NEC meeting than the last one.”
Be that as it may, a former Minister of State for Science and Technology, Henry Ikoh, has described the recent vote of confidence passed in Tinubu and Ganduje as a step in the right direction.
Ikoh, who is also the Governing Council Chairman of the Federal Polytechnic Nekede Imo State, commended the members of NEC for their well-thought-out decision.
According to him, Both President Bola Tinubu and Dr. Ganduje, the APC National Chairman have made the ruling party proud as leaders. By the action of APC NEC whichshown an unprecedented unity, the party is now placed on a greater footing and better positioned to coast to victory in the forthcoming 2027 presidential and general elections
He, therefore, advised the aggrieved party stakeholders to embrace the reconciliation committee about to be set up by the party’s NWC as a way to resolve lingering disputes and grievances.