10th NASS leadership: APC working on consensus arrangement, says Adamu

Ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June, the ruling All Progressives Congress has said it would work with the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to come up with an acceptable consensus arrangement for the leadership of the legislature.
National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said this after a troubleshooting meeting of the National Working Committee on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said: “The outcome of our four-hour meeting is that we came out more formidable and united than anything.

“On the issue of zoning, that is not what today’s meeting was all about. When we do the zoning meeting, we don’t just go alone as a party, zoning is to take along the person who has the mandate of this country, the president-elect, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinibu, we want to take him along.

“He travelled after the elections and he came back only last week and we have to carry him along. We cannot stop those who are ambitious or zoning interest, or individual interest, we cannot deny them and as long as that is there, we have to find a way, persuasively of reaching some level of consensus. That is what we are working on. It is not a one-day affair”.

Also speaking, National Vice Chairman, North East of the party, Comrade Salihu Mustapha, said the aggrieved National Vice Chairman, Northwest, of the party Salihu Lukman, has agreed to withdraw the suit he instituted against Adamu and National Secretary of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore.

He said: “We are here to intimate you of the proceedings we had after the national working committee meeting and we had intimate consultations with our brother, the National Vice Chairman North West, Comrade Salihu Lukman, on issues you are aware of, like the legal action and some other publications credited to him.

“We can reach the resolution that this suit is going to be withdrawn and unconditionally he has rendered his apology for any seeming embarrassment his suit and publications may have caused.

“We want to affirm the fact that we are one indivisible committee that would continue to work together and also try to see that we achieve all the aspirations of an ideal working committee or the ideal party.

“We will resolve issues through the instrumentality of the party because parties are not run on the pages of newspapers, nor are they run on the screens of television but they are run administratively and we will continue to do that as one house.

“Also, we want to reiterate the fact that this party will not condone indiscipline where one or two people of one organ that is not qualified will just sit and said they have suspended or expelled one of our members. A case study of what happened in the south-south.

“This party will not tolerate it and we are looking into investigating the matter; we will ensure that we bring to book individuals or organs that brought this kind of irregularities without following our constitution”.

On his part, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Felix Morka, said the meetings was all about ‘house keeping”, adding that the party stood united behind Adamu and Omisore.

He said, “Among all of the issues discussed at the meeting, we looked at some internal and domestic house keeping matters with a colleague that you know, who has expressed his concerns about something he believes the party should be doing.

“We deliberated completely about it and as we speak, a committee that was set up to complete that conversation is in progress right now. So, there is a meeting that is going on that I am supposed to be part of to fully rectify that discussion and offer final recommendations on that subject.

“But I am happy to report, as the chairman just indicated, that the party stands completely united behind the leadership of the national chairman of our party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and we are all standing together.

“Our colleague who has concerns is being looked into and I think in due course, we will have very specific conclusions of those discussions. We are good on this question.”

On why the party was wasting time on issue of zoning of National Assembly leadership positions, Morka said the party had enough time to do the needful.

“We are not wasting time. There is no timeline to do so. The zoning is something that the party does. It is a mechanism by which the party is able to make decisions and afford those who are interested in competing for power in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly to do so with minimum rift and rancour, to do so peacefully and seamlessly. So, there is no timeline to that. We are not in a hurry. We want to do it right.

“The chairman just said this requires very exhaustive consultations, not just of the leadership of the party but also of those who are aspiring so that whatever the party comes up with, by way of formula, will be acceptable with minimum friction.

“It is important that the consultation is done and properly too. That is what is going on right now.”