The National Convention of Nigeria’s governing party, the All Progressives Congress, APC may hold after the Muslim Sallah in June, this year, as against the earlier announced date of May 14. The party said the national convention earlier fixed for May 14 would now hold at a later date to be determined by the National Working Committee (NWC).
The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje stated this while briefing journalists on the outcome of a meeting held between the party’s National Working Committee, NWC and Governors at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja.
The APC had earlier released a timetable for its local and state congresses and National Convention, which is to start on May 2 and end with the convention on May 14.
The party is to elect new executives at the local, state and national levels at these congresses and conventions.
The Governor Ganduje explained that among other reasons, the one day interval between the ward, local government and state congresses was too short to deal with appeals that may arise from the congresses.
“The congresses are being designed to hold on working days and normally, we use premises like schools and secretariat to conduct the congresses and if it is held during the working days then such premises will not be available. So we agreed that the congresses should hold over the weekend and also it may fall within the Ramadan time. They will make consultations to see if only one congress can be held during Ramadan and then after Sallah we have the national convention,” Ganduje said.
The National Working committee is to come up with a new convention timetable on Friday, April 27.
Governor Ganduje also spoke on the zoning system of the APC National Convention.
“We all agreed that zoning will be maintained for the party officers. The only thing is that those governors within that zone should go and discuss and agree but the cost will remain where it is. The chairman of the party will have to come from the south-south, the secretary of the party will have to come from the north-east,” Ganduje said.
The Governor added that the meeting also agreed, according to the APC Constitution, that the National working committee would constitute various committees to organize the state congresses while the Convention Committee, which was inaugurated two days ago would focus on organizing the National Convention.
Meanwhile, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi who also briefed journalists after the meeting, said the party emphasized the need for credible congresses.
“One key issue was to have the opportunity to emphasize to the state governors, the need to ensure that the congresses were held in a very transparent manner because we are aware that some governors have been making statements that we believe have given the impression that we don’t intend to have congresses in some particular states.
“If you recall one of the major concerns of the party at the beginning was that we should try as much as possible to avoid rancor that could be generated as a result of the congresses.
So it was acknowledged that the one major way to prevent those rancor is to ensure that the congresses are transparent and they are acceptable to at least the majority of the people concerned,” Abdullahi said.
