The All Progressives Congress, APC, has postponed the governorship primaries for Lagos and Imo States.
APC’s National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole said it was being shifted to Monday for logistic reasons.
His statement reads; “We have decided to postpone the election in Lagos to Monday even though it is public holiday, there is nothing in the law that says we cannot conduct our party affairs on the day of public holidays. So, Lagos and Imo States for now, the exercise will take place on Monday.
“We are sure that we will be able to rectify logistic challenges between now and end of tomorrow. For those going to those States, please take note, otherwise… The secretariat will get to the committees through the chairmen, the documents and all the materials you need – be it ballot papers, result sheets that you will use for the election”.
“If we must sustain this tradition, obviously we must begin to look beyond paper qualifications in terms of who is eligible to be fielded on the platform of our party. It is in view of this and several other reasons that we found ourselves unable to clear otherwise two very eminent Nigerians who are members of our party, one a lady, one a man, which shows that we are balanced and sensitive because there are issues that might even be right in the eyes of the law but they are immoral and they are indecent in the eyes and in the minds of very ordinary, decent human beings.
“Society is governed and sustained by rule of law. But the rule of law alone is not enough to guarantee peace and progress. If there are no values, no ethics, no commitment, no passion, which is why some criminals are walking freely because Senior Advocates are able to persuade their Lordships that there are no convincing reasons to jail them.
“So, based on this commitment, we disqualified two eminent Nigerians and I am glad that we found the courage to do so. We cannot continue to preach discipline and harbour people who in our view conduct themselves in a way that suggest that they do not have those core values that should bind us together as a political party.”
“The primary purpose of power is to use it to deliver on public welfare and public good. So, I plead with you to do your very best to try to strike a balance because we have all promised to do justice to all members of the party. So, do your very best so that at the end of the day, you will help us to deepen internal democracy.
“So, stepping out on Sunday to conduct elections, you have duty to sustain the core values of the APC which is to ensure that we conduct transparent primaries. Our constitution which is the basis of the contract between members of the APC to vie for couple of offices and our National Executive Committee is adhered to.
“We have decided to activate two of the options in our constitutions (direct and indirect). We have worked hard to provide some of the preconditions without which we can’t service internal democracy. As we speak, we have our membership register which has been distributed to the 36 states.
“I believe that we have compelling reasons to conduct credible primaries across the country. The guidelines have been well articulated and we expect the Chairmen to provide leadership in all states where they have been deployed to.”
“This does not suggest any unusual level of political or executive unemployment. It just points to the level of interest, commitment, passion and above all the confidence that people have in the APC.
“We have tried as much as we can to carry out a thorough screening exercise in way that will enable us to benefit from the recent things that have happened in our party and some of us believe that we can learn some positive lessons from there and reflect on the implications of such actions and reviewed the way in which we select people who contest elections on our platforms.
“We have to work consciously to move our party from a mere public taxi that people who are politically stranded can board and when they get to their destinations, they pay fees if they are kind enough to pay or they just jump out of the car and then we wait for the next passenger.
“We have to build a mass movement that is grounded in the hearts of the Nigerian people, membership-driven and to do that we must service our internal democracy.
“We must move away from top-down approach to decision making and consciously working to encourage a bottom-top approach so that the ordinary Nigerian who is a member of our party will have a sense of ownership, involvement, participation and equation.”
“This committee reflects the ray of the future with gender balance. We want to organize a convention that is different. We want a convention that goes beyond electioneering our where traders and praise singers have a field day and try to do what needs to be done and discuss the Nigeria agenda, issues of governance and development, issues of economic and social choices and let us disagree and agree within that convention in addition to confirming the presidential candidate and maybe amend any section of the constitution that we might want to. We have barely one week to the convention and we appreciate the fact that you accepted to serve.