President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, warned leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to avoid narrow focus and inordinate personal ambitions that override the collective interest of the party towards the Saturday national convention and the 2023 general elections. The president urged APC to eschew from frivolous and diversionary lawsuits in negligence of the internal reconciliation structure of the party.
President Buhari emphasized that APC leaders must restore sanity so as to lead the party to victory and safety.
According to Buhari: “We must avoid narrow focus and inordinate personal ambitions at the expense of our party’s common good. We must stop frivolous and diversionary litigation when the Party’s reconciliation processes are available for settling disputes.
“We must restore sanity and purpose in the affairs of our party and lead ourselves to victory and safety.
“As I remarked when I met Your Excellencies in February 22nd, our aim must be to hand over to an APC Government at the Center and the great majority of states. We must not, by default allow the PDP to get its dirty hands on Government again and return us to the Stone Age.”
The president, thereafter, encouraged the APC governors to endorse the adoption of consensus in the emergence of the national chairman and other members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) at the convention
The President’s full statement read:
REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, MUHAMMADU BUHARI, PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE MEETING WITH APC GOVERNORS AT THE STATE HOUSE
Let me warmly welcome all Your Excellencies and thank you for honouring this meeting called at short notice. We have a few days to the National Convention and we must collectively ensure the success of the event.
2. Your Excellencies, I would like to express my gratitude to you all for the work you have done and are doing and your continued partnership and fortified alliances with the Federal Government over the years.
3. When we came together to form the All Progressives Congress, nearly 8 years ago our goal was National Salvation, our resolve was unshakable, our motivation was patriotic and noble.
4. Consequently, by the Grace of God we were rewarded with victory in the 2015 General Elections in a free and fair election.
5. Over the last seven years we have done our best to deliver good governance to the country. We have guaranteed national food security, we have provided modern infrastructure to kick-start economic growth and we have implemented the most comprehensive social welfare programmes in our history.
6. Along the way, our party has survived shocks and attempts to derail it. Our government has also had to endure the worst economic crisis with the free fall of oil prices from an average of $100 per barrel over 15 years of PDP government to an average of $30 – $50 until the recent energy crisis.
7. We need to remind ourselves of these achievements and not be diverted by petty quarrels and unseemly jockeying for positions. It will be very sad and regrettable development if these manifest gains are frittered away as a result of internal dissent and rivalry. We must avoid narrow focus and inordinate personal ambitions at the expense of our party’s common good. We must stop frivolous and diversionary litigation when the Party’s reconciliation processes are available for settling disputes.
8. We must restore sanity and purpose in the affairs of our party and lead ourselves to victory and safety.
9. As I remarked when I met Your Excellencies in February 22nd, our aim must be to hand over to an APC Government at the Center and the great majority of states. We must not, by default allow the PDP to get its dirty hands on Government again and return us to the Stone Age.
10. As I said at that meeting, our Party chose its leadership by consensus. I again plead that we choose our next leadership by consensus. This is consistent with the spirit of democracy, the Party’s Constitution and the Nigerian Constitution.
Your Excellencies,
11. I have already given my own input and other recommendations on the way forward in both my 25th February, 2022 meeting with the Chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Committee and my 13th March, 2022 letter to the Chairman of the APC Governors Forum.
Your Excellencies,
12. With the convention only two days away I implore you to come together and sort out all the remaining party positions so that within the next 24 hours we can arrive at a Unity List which we can take to the convention.
13. Finally all those who have bought forms indicating interest and have been dropped should have their money refunded without delay.
14. I count on the support and understanding of all of Your Excellencies present here today.
15. May God bless our Great Party. May God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.