The Leadership of the National Assembly says it has resolved to work towards the emergence of consensus candidates to ensure a rancor-free convention.
The resolution is coming ahead of Saturday’s National convention of Nigeria’s governing party, the All Progressives Congress (APC)
Briefing State House Correspondents after a meeting of President Muhammadu Buhari and the leaders of the two chambers of the National Assembly on Thursday, the Senate leader, Ahmed Lawan said the meeting held at the instance of the President, was to ensure a rancor-free convention as well as remain focused in delivering development projects to Nigerians.
He explained that President Buhari emphasised the need for party members to be united ahead of the convention, a very important exercise for the party.
Lawan said; “This is not what we’re used to in the legislature. The President, our leader of the party, the All Progressives, Congress in the country, and beyond, invited the principal officers of the APC in the National Assembly, to hold today’s meeting with us.
“The President emphasized the need for us, in the APC to always act as a family and remain focused. We have the leadership of Nigeria today at the national level and of course, we have many states, about 22 states, under the leadership of the APC. It requires that APC as a political party remains very focused, energetic, and purposeful, as it has always been, and ensures that we maintain the trajectory of development for our country. Because that is the trust Nigerians gave us in 2015 and renewed that, in 2019.
“Mr. President also emphasised the need for us to ensure that we have a successful convention on the 26th of this month, March. This convention, by way of emphasis, is a very important and by the grace of God, through our processes and procedures, at different levels of the party, the convention would be a very successful one and very peaceful one.
He stressed that the APC hoped to achieve consensus for all the positions of the party at the national level before Saturday.
The senate leader said; “We hope that we will have achieved so much consensus in selecting and electing the officers for this party so that when we go into the convention, most of the officers would be for affirmation or confirmation.”
According to him, their meeting with President Buhari has galvanised them to do more for the nation.
He said; “I want to say that this meeting with the President has given us more energy. We believe that there is a father, at least in our party, there is a president who will ensure that once there are disagreements, he is able to call everybody to order and ensure that the family continues to remain united and that is what we have been able to achieve over the years.
“Well, I don’t want to be very partisan but of course, when you have a father in the family and a mother, then you’re likely to have a stable family. And when you have only one or none in the family, you are not likely to be successful, the family is likely to be disunited, and that is what other political parties probably are facing.
“And I want to add here, finally, to say that we are committed to ensuring that this political party does not only have a successful convention, but a very successful, peaceful and safe electioneering campaigns during 2022/2023 general campaigns and the general elections. By the grace of God, we’ll see Nigerians voting once again, for APC, because we have so far done so much in the areas that matter for the people of this country. But that is not to say that we are not facing some challenges, but we are squaring up to ensure that we deal with those challenges.”
The Chairman of the National assembly also spoke about the achievements of the 9th National Assembly that is also dominated by the APC.
He said unity and cooperation despite the party differences of the legislators led to a lot of successes.
Lawan said; “It is very important to also emphasize here, that the 9th National Assembly has been a very stable National Assembly, it has been a very productive National Assembly. And we have remained very united in the two chambers, as APC senators and members of the House of Representatives. And we have remained in very good partnership with our other political friends who are in different political parties.
“We have the PDP, and of course, APGA in the Senate, and I believe that they might have even more minority parties in the House of Representatives.
“But our colleagues, in the PDP, for example, have worked with us to ensure that the national interest is always supreme in our consideration. And we thank God that today, by the grace of God, the 9th National Assembly, has done so much in the area of legislation.
“We have achieved a lot in the area of legislation and broken so many jinxes, passed legislations that defied passage. And by the grace of God, Mr. President, has assented to almost all those bills, all those legislations that matter for the development of this country.”
The Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, described the meeting as a productive one, saying the whole idea was to encourage all stakeholders to unite and have a peaceful and very successful convention.
He said: “This meeting was a productive one. As many of you are aware, the President in the last couple of days, has been having meetings with stakeholders towards the convention that is coming up on Saturday. And the whole idea is to encourage all stakeholders to unite, have a common front, and have a peaceful rancour free and successful convention.
“That’s what that meeting was about the long and short of it, and to make sure everybody’s on the same page, in terms of being united in terms of candidates.
“And we all know that in conventions such as this, where you have almost 5000, delegates, and many more. You have to be well organized. You have to be freed up to be fair to everybody. And that’s what he charged obviously, like any leader would.”
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Secretary to Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha were also part of the meeting.
Some of the principal officers in the delegation from the Senate were, Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, Senate Leader, Ajayi Boroffice Deputy Senate Leader, Abdullahi Yahaya, Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu and Deputy Chief Whip, Sabi Abdullahi
While those from the House of Representatives were Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado Dogowa, Chief Whip, Mohammed Tahir Monguno and Deputy Chief Whip, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.
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