Tinubu Attends APC NEC Meeting
*May Confirm Ganduje As National Chairman
The meeting of the National Executive Council of the ruling All Progressive Congress is in progress at the Transcorps Hilton in Abuja with President Bola Tinubu in attendance.
Although the agenda is not known, the meeting is expected to discuss the leadership vacuum created by the resignation of Abdullahi Adamu and Iyiola Omisore as national chairman and secretary, respectively.
Both Messrs Adamu and Omisore resigned from their positions last month.
Abubakar Kyari, the APC deputy national chairman (North), who has been nominated as a minister, is acting as the party’s chairman. At the same time, Festus Fuanter is the acting national secretary.
Today’s NEC meeting is the first since April 2022, and also, the first President Bola Tinubu will be attending as president. Mr Tinubu assumed office on 29 May.
There are indications that former Kano State Governor, Umar Ganduje, has been penned the president as National Chairman and Ajibola Bashir, a former senator, as Secretary.
Mr Ganduje’s nomination has become controversial because of Section 31.5 of the APC constitution, which gives State Executive Councils the power to fill vacuums in NWC.
Salihu Lukman, who recently resigned as the APC national vice chairman (North-west), raised the issue and described the nomination of Mr Ganduje as an illegality. He stated that only the executive Council of the party in Nasarawa State, where Mr Adamu hails from, has the power to nominate his replacement.
“No section of the APC constitution gives anyone, including Tinubu, the power to act in any contrary way. Therefore, if this provision of the APC constitution is to be respected, Nasarawa State Executive Committee of the APC, which is where Sen. Adamu comes from, should have the right to propose a replacement, which should be endorsed by the State Congress and the Zonal Executive Committee,” Mr Salihu said.
