2015: APC raises 27-manpanel for presidentialprimaries

2015: APC raises 27-manpanel for presidentialprimaries

Source:The Nation

The National Chairman of the All Progressives
Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun,
yesterday inaugurated a 27-man National
Convention Committee (NCC).

It will conduct primaries for all its presidential
aspirants within 22 days.
He asked the committee to organise primaries
which will make APC the pivot of internal
democracy and transparency.

Odigie-Oyegun, who inaugurated the committee
at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, asked
the team to prove critics who say the party is a
gathering of strange bedfellows.

He said: “ I have had the benefit of organizing
and running a convention before. I am aware that
I had more time to accomplish the assignment.
You have about 21 or 22 days to do this and that
means the challenge before you is enormous. It
means that you are leaving this inaugural
ceremony to start work.

“I want to say that you have been elected after a
long deliberation because the state of our party
with its propagation and the need for change, we
need to have people who believe in change and
who will practise change by the way they
organise and conduct the primaries. More so, as
the entire nation is holding its breath on behalf or
in sympathy for the APC.

Odigie-Oyegun added: “You will recall that at
every stage of our existence, there have been
prophets of doom, particularly coming from our
opponents on the other side.

“ At every stage, they have been saying that we
are a collection of strange bedfellows and will not
get through. When you go out, the question they
ask you is: Who is your candidate? How will you
produce your candidate? Let us have it at the
back of our mind that this is another challenge
and I am sure that we will come out of the
challenge in flying colours.”

He gave insights into how the party was
meticulous in selecting members of the NCC and
why aspirants were asked to nominate
representatives on the committee.

He said: “We have given a deep thought to every
member of this committee. We find the choice of
the chairman particularly difficult. We were even
looking for a retired judge at a stage, but with a
flash of inspiration, it came to us that we have in
our midst a leader who can be described virtually
as white.

“The membership is not complete and we are
going to have additional names to this list. What
we are trying to do is to assist this committee by
adding an innovation, which is to ask every
aspirant to nominate a representative on this
committee. That is to bring out the level of
transparency with which this exercise must be
executed.

“We want them to be part of the process such
that because they are committed, their principals
will also be committed to the process. So, the
challenge we are passing on to you today is to
organise a process that will make us a pivot in
this nation for internal democracy and for
transparency.

“It has been agreed that Alhaji Kawu Baraje
should act as Deputy Chairman of the Committee.
So, the ball is in your court. The party has put in
your hands, the most critical assignment in the
process of producing the next President for this
nation.
“It is the way you conduct this process and the
way you conduct the exercise itself that will
finally catapult us from being an opposition party
into the incoming government of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.

“We are there to be consulted at every stage and
at any point you deem it fit. You are to do the job
to match into your own personal integrity as a
fearless man of probity and integrity.

“ I thank you for the sacrifice you will be making
in the next 21 days. I am sure that at the end of
the day. We will all have course to celebrate.”
The nominees of the aspirants are non-voting
members. “Their names have been announced
and they are there to ensure the transparency of
the process,” Odigie-Oyegun said.

Fayemi promised that the APC presidential
primaries will be a model.
He said: “It is an exercise that will set us apart
from those who are democrats and those who are
monarchists. Those who prefer to coronate and
those who want to elect. This assignment is not
just about the how, but also about who.

“But the how is far more important than the who
for us. That is, the process is more important
than the end-product because, for us, what
Nigerians require most is that we demonstrate to
the best of our ability, our commitment to internal
democracy.”

Fayemi, who spotted a light blue Babanriga , said
Nigerians are waiting for the alternative which will
begin with APC presidential primaries.
He pleaded with presidential aspirants and party
members to cooperate with the NCC.

He added: “There is no doubt in the mind of
Nigerians now that we have been on a journey
without map in the last four years and this
rudderlessness, the cluelessness must be brought
to an end. Actually, the process is important.

“Everywhere I turn to even before before being
saddled with this assignment, I am asked, ‘when
are you going to give us your candidate and how
are you going to give us the candidate?’ because
Nigerians are waiting with patience for the
alternative we are presenting to the country.

“I want to assure you sir, that seeing the calibre
of persons you have put in this committee that
we shall deliver on this assignment on time, on
course, on integrity, on commitment and on
transparency to our party and to Nigerians.

“But we need the cooperation of all our members
and not just the presidential aspirants , but also
their supporters. For me, it is a very unique
addition that you have made as a party by asking
all the aspirants to have observers on the
committee. At the end of the day, we will turn this
into a big celebration and a genuine desire for
change.”

Members of the National Convention Committee
are ex-Governor Kayode Fayemi (Chairman); Alh.
Kawu Baraje( Deputy Chairman); Barr. Boss
Mustapha; Dr. Garba Abari; Brig-Gen. Mansur
Dan Ali(Rtd); Prof. Umar Faruk; Hajiya Aisha
Ibrahim; Mr. Olawale Edun; Prof. Mojeed Alabi;
and Mr. Edwin Ogunbor.

Others are: Mr. Preye Aganaba; Dr. Kachin Nwoja;
Hon. Tony Oneweek Muonagor; Sen. Babafemi
Ojudu; Hon. Yakubu Dogara; Dr. Alex Ideh
(Alternate Secretary); Alh. Mai Bala Buni( National
Secretary /Secretary); Sen. Osita Izunaso(National
Organising Secretary); and Alh. Lai Mohammed
( National Publicity Secretary).

The representatives of presidential aspirants on
the committee are Hon. Greg Eguh; Hon. Faruk
Adamu Aliyu; Murtala S. Garo; Yusuf Mai-
Anguwa; and Hon. Ifeoluwa Arowosoge.
The list of three more members of the committee
was being awaited last night.