APC Goes Tough on Discipline, Warns Party Demigods

The emerging signal from the governing President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) tends to indicate its National Working Committee being piloted by Abdullahi Adamu, its National Chairman, has zero tolerance for indiscipline and political rascality.

An APC insider who did not want his name in print says the new party chair has sent out a clear message that no public functionary is bigger than the party.

This, according to our APC source, implies that chieftains of the party including ministers who have been parading as demigods have to either conform to the emerging reality in APC or be cut to size.

To this end, political appointees who thought they can hide behind the official curtain to pursue their 2023 political ambition, have been directed to comply fully with the intendment and letters of the Electoral Act and vacate their positions in government.

The current electoral legislation forbids political appointees to vie for elective positions while still in office though it however also states that such appointees can only be eligible if he/she resigns such position at least a month to the party primaries.

Some of the insiders of the Buhari administration who are eyeing juicy elective public offices include Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi. Amaechi is an Ikwerre from Rivers State.

Since the end of the Nigerian Civil War, his kinsmen have been very vociferous that they are not Igbo. They even corrupted all names of places that had ‘’Umu’’ to ‘’Rumu’’ in a seeming desperate attempt to distant Ikwerre from the Igbo ethnic group.

Surprisingly, Amaechi is now loudly declaring his Igboness because of his 2023 presidential ambition. Apart from Amaechi, the Attorney General and Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami, is said to have a governorship ambition in Kebbi State.

Malami has acquired the financial muscle to oil his political ambition. Before becoming a key figure in the Buhari cabinet in 2015, those who know him claimed that he did not boast of N5 million in his bank account.

In addition to his governorship dream, local sources say he is promoting a multi-billion naira five-star hotel project in the state.

The other insiders of the Buhari administration with eyes on 2023 include, Minister of State for Education, Nnaemeka Nwajuba, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, among others.

APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, a lawyer, says “the ministers are members of the party. And the party is the party. Now, both the ministers and other appointees and the party leadership have excellent counsel and guidance. I am sure everyone involved intends to comply fully with the intendment and letters of the Electoral Act.

‘’We have discussed the programme for our party’s primaries looking at the schedule of activities that is to come. I am unable to give you a rundown of the details of that schedule because that is still in discussion and we are yet to conclude on a definite plan or timetable or schedule for our primaries.

‘’But, I can confirm that we did have that conversation today.  We begin it today.  But we have not concluded or made any decision.”

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