APC stormy NEC meeting holds today

Firstclass newsline gathered that the efforts to resolve the
leadership tussle in the National Assembly, particularly the House of
Representatives, failed on Wednesday as a late-hour meeting with
President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa did not come out with
a clear position on the issue.
Firstclass newsline learnt that though the President had an audience
with a group led by a former House Minority Leader, Mr. Femi
Gbajabiamila, the meeting only resolved to push the issue to the
National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress for
resolution.
The APC NEC is scheduled to meet on Friday (today). Analysts said on
Thursday that the outcome of the meeting of today would either launch
the ruling party on the path of recovery or mar it.
The party's NEC is made up of President Muhammadu Buhari,
Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo; the Senate President, Bukola Saraki;
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; the party's
national leader, Ahmed Tinubu; the party's 22 state governors and
other leaders of the party.
Apparently sensing a turbulent NEC session, some leaders of the party
on Thursday enjoined members to embrace peace and join hands in
searching for solutions to the crisis eating up the APC.
The leaders, including the party's National Chairman, John
Odigie-Oyegun; and a former Vice-President of the country, Atiku
Abubakar, pleaded with party members to give peace a chance.
The leaders' plea came just as a combined team of security operatives,
drawn from the Department of State Services and the police, were
deployed in APC national headquarters, located at Blantyre Street,
Wuse II, Abuja.
The security agents were said to have been sent from the Presidential
Villa to carry out surveillance at the party secretariat.
The team, led by a Deputy Superintendent of Police, arrived at the APC
headquarters at about 1.45pm and left about one hour later after
visiting the party chairman's office and inspecting the conference
hall where the NEC meeting is expected to hold.
A National Assembly official told a source on Thursday that Buhari met
with the lawmakers loyal to Gbajabiamila but that the President at the
end referred further action to the party's NEC.
The official said, "Mr. President met with Gbajabiamila and his
supporters, who said they are the core APC members in the House. They
raised several issues on why the party's position on the dispute must
prevail.
"At the end, the decision was that the NEC should resolve it tomorrow
(today) by coming out with a clear position."
However, a separate source in the Gbajabiamila's camp claimed that the
President aligned with the position already taken by the APC that
Gbajabiamila should be the Majority Leader of the 8th Assembly.
"The principal offices will stand as earlier directed by the party.
The President said he wanted to be properly briefed, and he was
briefed.
"He responded that he aligned with the party and that the briefing at
the meeting would also guide the NEC in making its final decision on
Friday", the source said.
Contrary to speculations, Dogara was not invited to the Wednesday's
meeting and he was not expected to be there.
The meeting was said to have been called strictly to meet with the
Gbajabiamila group. Buhari had met with the Dogara camp four days
earlier.
An official from the Gbajabiamila camp, who did not want to be named,
confirmed that the meeting did not include Dogara.
"There is a misconception that the speaker was supposed to be there.
The meeting was not meant for him. The speaker already held his own
meeting with Mr. President four days ago", the official added.
The speaker's office also clarified on Thursday that Dogara was not
invited to attend any meeting with Buhari on Wednesday.
His Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Hassan Turaki, in
a statement, said, "We wish to make it abundantly clear that there was
never a time the Speaker was invited for a meeting with the President
on Wednesday, July 1, 2015."
Meanwhile, the Gbajabiamila group, on Thursday, released a summarised
version of the discussions it held with Buhari.
The group said it had told the President that the Federal Character
principle on which Dogara hinged his argument for defying the APC was
not applicable to elective positions.
The group also informed Buhari that 174 APC members were loyal to the
party, while 39 others sided with the Peoples Democratic Party to work
against the interest of the ruling party.
It alleged in its submissions to Buhari that the 39 'disloyal' members
were likely to defect to the PDP as part of plans to further undermine
the APC.
"The Party has chosen not to punish the 39 APC members, including the
elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker, but chose to direct, as it is
customary and conventional, on how the other four principal officers
should be distributed.
"Alas! The opposition and the 39 members continue to hold the ruling
party in contempt by disobeying the party," the document read in part.
On federal character, the group told Buhari that the only way it would
be applicable was to advise either the President of the Senate, Bukola
Saraki, or Dogara to step down since both of them are from the North.
The Gbajabiamila's group said, "Whereas, the beneficiaries of the
disobedience are citing federal character principle as the main reason
for their disobedience, His Excellency should note that during the 6th
Assembly (2007-2011), the following officers were elected from the
North-West – The President and Commander in Chief; Ismaila Kawu and
Hon Mutawalle. The two occupied two out of the four principal
officers' positions of the minority party.
"Hon. Aminu Tambuwal was elected Deputy Chief Whip.
"Also, during the 7th Assembly, the following officers in government
were elected from the North-West – The Vice President; the Speaker,
Hon. Aminu Tambuwal; Hon. Ismaila Kawu, deputy minority leader; and
Hon. Garba Datti, deputy minority whip.
"There was never an issue of federal character in these instances.
"It should be noted that the federal character principle as embedded
in chapter two of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is not
justifiable and of no legal consequence.
"Its provision in Section 14 of the Constitution is only applicable to
appointments in federal ministries and agencies. The House of
Representatives is not an agency of the Federal Government and the
principal officers positions are elective and not by appointment.
"If the federal character is applicable to the National Assembly, then
both the Senate President and the Speaker cannot come from the North;
one of them should be advised to step down."
The group had also called on Buhari to take a categorical stance on
the dispute as the only way to stop the ruling party from further
ridicule.
Firstclass newsline learnt that at the earlier meeting between the
President and Dogara, the former was said to have been diplomatic by
refraining from telling the Speaker in clear terms that his group
committed any offence by insisting that federal character must apply
in the distribution of the offices.
Dogara was said to have explained to the President that it would not
be fair to leave out some zones in the sharing of the principal
offices.
One senior National Assembly official, who was privy to the
discussions, said, "The Speaker already met with the President earlier
in the week to explain the situation to him.
"The issue really is not that he has anything personal against
Gbajabiamila. The problem is how to correct the imbalance in the
allocation of the positions.
"The aggrieved zones are insisting that the South-West cannot produce
the Deputy Speaker and the Majority Leader at the same time.
"It is also not fair to give the North-East any position again, having
produced the Speaker. The imbalance has been the issue. As of
Wednesday, it remained the issue.
"So long as some persons are not prepared to address this problem of
zonal imbalance, there may not be an early resolution of the dispute."
Odigie-Oyegun, while speaking with reporters at the party's national
headquarters, on Thursday, explained that today's meeting would afford
the party the opportunity to address some of its challenges.
He noted that the party was duty bound to overcome its challenges and
forge ahead in the overall interest of the nation.
The APC chairman said, "As painful as the crisis engineered by what
transpired in the National Assembly is, party members may have to lose
face a little in order to restore peace.
"For me, I think that there is no other way to resolve the conflict
other than for all of us to accept compromise. Each one of us will
lose face and that is the only way forward."
Atiku, in a statement by his media office in Abuja, called for the
concentration of positive energies on building unity, cohesion and
harmony among party leaders and other stakeholders.
"We can resolve our differences when our leaders individually and
collectively shift ground from extreme positions and move to the
centre in the interest of our party and our country," the
ex-Vice-President said.
Atiku said he was deeply concerned that soon after capturing power,
"the APC is torn apart at a time more energies are needed to attend to
the objectives of the change agenda for which it was voted into
power."
The statement further explained that the current blame game targeted
at individuals was an unnecessary diversion of energies at the expense
of the urgency of the mission of the party to make life better for
Nigerians.
He was also quoted as saying, the vilification of individual party
leaders and members in the face of challenges facing the country was
painful to him, adding that the party should learn the lessons and
move ahead.
The statement partly read, "While restating his commitment to the
party and its change agenda, the former Vice-President advise the
party leaders not to allow people of bad faith to fuel division and
acrimony among the party, adding that all positive energies should be
directed towards sustaining the morale of the voters who look forward
to the APC to make their lives better.
"He reminded party leaders that any division could be exploited at the
expense of the party. He extended his goodwill to the party for
successful deliberations and assured the party of continued support
and loyalty at all times."
The APC has been enmeshed in a crisis of confidence since the
emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Yakubu
Dogara as Speaker, House of Representatives.
Today's NEC meeting will be the first one since the party won the
presidential election of March 28, 2015.
Firstclassnewsline.net