While the gale of defection in the ruling All Progressives Congress is sufficiently worrisome to the Presidency, another dimension was last week added to the tribulation, as the party’s national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, was embroiled in a war of words with the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige.
Oshiomhole as the new chairman of the party believed that stalwarts of the party must learn to recognise party’s supremacy to their office.
If the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. And when we expel the minister (Ngige), we will prevail on the President that he can’t keep in his cabinet people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party
It was in the process of amplifying this party supremacy mantra that Oshiomhole, who is immediate past governor of Edo State, refrred to the failure of the minister to constitute a board for the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund.
Oshiomhole particularly threatened to expel Ngige and the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, from the party, for their alleged failure to inaugurate boards of parastatals under their ministries.
It was however believed that both Oshiomhole and Ngige had in the past had chummy relationships, especially at the labour union circles, which threw up their tiff as a surprise; however dramatic.
Oshiomhole, while reading riot act on what he described as anti-party act by Ngige, said if President Muhammadu Buhari could condone indiscipline by the ministers, he would not allow them to do the same to the party.
“If the minister refuses, we will suspend him from the party. You know we must return to internal discipline. For me, it is the height of mischief for any minister. You cannot purport to be an honourable minister and you act dishonourably and nobody is greater than the party.
“And if the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. And when we expel the minister, we will prevail on the President that he can’t keep in his cabinet people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party, without which they would not have been ministers. There are no independent candidates in our system.
“Nobody, I emphasise, no minister is above the party, and they have taken undue advantage of the President’s fatherly disposition.
“Now, it is the same green pen that made them ministers that appointed these boards that they are refusing to swear in. And it is absolutely illegal for a minister in a democracy to prey on the powers of the board, because the laws establishing those institutions are clear: that the boards have procedures to follow.
He added, “When a minister sits in his office to appropriate the powers of the board in a democracy, not in a dictatorship, award contracts that didn’t go through boards, those are clearly an abuse of office for which they are liable.
“I am convinced that what they are doing is not with the endorsement of Mr. President. Over the period, they have tried to drop the President’s name but I tell them it is the same authority that appoints these people.
“So, we are informing them that it is either they comply with the President’s instructions or they comply with the party’s position or they go and administer outside the government.”
Oshiomhole said his decision on the matter was not to underrate the minister’s office, but to ensure that party’s stalwart respect and recognise the party as mother
of all.
Meanwhile, Ngige, not lying low, has fired back, saying he is not afraid of being suspended by the APC.
He, however, contended that the APC chairman was talking out of ignorance. He explained that the board of the NSITF was yet to be inaugurated because of reports of alleged diversion of funds to the tune of N48 billion.
When asked if he would comply and if he was not afraid of suspension from the party, Ngige said, “How? In a party that we formed and brought them in? The man is talking out of ignorance. I’m not afraid of suspension.”
Meanwhile, Ngige had earlier written to Oshiomhole over the issue.
How? In a party that we formed and brought them in? The man (Oshiomhole) is talking out of ignorance. I’m not afraid of suspension
He said: “Our national chairman, I am in receipt of a letter referenced APC/NHDQ/ GEN-S/28/018/003 dated July 11, 2018, which was sent from your office and received by me on July 12, 2018. Ordinarily, I would not believe the letter was from you except for the barrage of media statements that came before I saw the letter. I read the contents of this letter with both amazement and utter disbelief.”
The minister said he had reconstituted three boards out of the four agencies and parastatals under his ministry, but had not been able to constitute the board of NSITF because of cases of financial malfeasance, which have put the agency under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission.
