The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomole has referred to the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara as Opportunists and Bread and Butter Politicians.
Speaking to members of the APC ahead of the rescheduled party primaries set to take place on September 28, Oshiomole who was obviously still pained over the defection of the duo to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stated that the party will never allow such opportunists to use the platform of the party to achieve selfish interests.
He said further that the APC had learnt from its mistakes in the past when the party gifted tickets to “Bread and Butter” politicians,
The statement of the APC chairman read by his chief press secretary, Simon Ebegbulem, also lamented that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party had spent all it time solving issues arising from the last congresses of the party since its inception.
The statement read;
“In many of the states, we had challenges arising from the way congresses were conducted. Many of them were quite fraudulent, that has been the challenge we have been trying to resolve since we came. Screening of aspirants is not a formality that is why we tried to search for men and women of integrity who cannot be compromised.
We do not want to field opportunists who are simply seeking a political vehicle for some selfish purposes. What has happened in recent past is enough for us to begin to look at the character of those who are seeking office on the APC platform.”
Continuing further, Oshiomole reiterated that APC needed members with the intellectual capability of understanding the basis for which laws and bills are considered and those who have capacity to carry out oversight functions to ensure that Nigerians get value for money.
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This is the major reason why screening of candidates for political office by the party is important he said.
Read the rest of the statement below;
“If before now we have taken for granted the powers of the National Assembly, how those powers can be used for national goals and how it can also be misused to undermine national progress, the current situation we are facing here, where two principal officers have chosen to put their personal interest over and above the national interest, refusing to consider budget meant for physical infrastructure, budget meant to re-order the way our budget is executed, to move money away from consumption which recurrent expenditure represents to capital projects which will benefit our people and even refusing to approve money meant for the body charged with the responsibility of conducting elections in 2019.
For us as a party, we have chosen to learn from the positive lessons from this development so that we do not repeat those mistakes by selecting people who as far as human capacity is we can assess and predict that, if elected, they will remain faithful not only to our party but more importantly to the Nigerian nation.
If we have disagreement, it will not be about juicy appointments, it will be about appropriate policies, it will be about how governance is impacting positively on the lives of Nigerians. It will not be about who is getting what, politics of sharing.
As we speak, I am proud that we have 57 senators who have refused to be induced or misled or otherwise manipulated into moving to other parties or reward for juicy positions. They have decided to remain in our party even with all the intimidation they have suffered.”