APC chieftains bicker over board appointments

• By Adamu Abuh, Abuja on February 29, 2016

Odigie-Oyegun

CHIEFTIANS of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) across the country are at loggerheads over the sharing of positions on the boards of government parastatals and agencies.
The problem, which has the prospect of tearing the party apart, had been on ground even before President Muhammadu Buhari sacked the heads of no fewer than 26 heads of parastatals and agencies of government.
Trouble started after Chief John Odigie-Oyegun leadership of the party mandated chairmen and vice chairmen of the 36 States chapters of the APC to come up with a list of fifty nominees from their respective States that would form the pool of those to be considered for board appointments.
Rather than call a meeting of stakeholders of the party, The Guardian was reliably informed that most of the states chairmen and vice chairmen opted to pick their cronies and relatives as their preferred nominees for board appointments into agencies and parastatals of government.
The situation was further compounded by claims that members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who recently defected to the APC and were keen on getting board appointments, induced some party chieftains with monies in a desperate bid to get on the list of the nominees for boards appointments.
Expectedly, the development led to series of complaints and petitions from aggrieved members of the party from across the country, forcing the presidency, which was piqued over the issue to come to the rescue of the ugly situation.
The source who asked not to be named said: “The truth is that most our party chairmen in the states in conjunction with some states governors settled for their relatives, wives, friends and cronies. The worst side of it was that the mode of selection actually negated the goal of Mr. President who wanted men and women that he could work with to move the country forward.”
However, it was learnt that a committee led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Babachir Lawal has been constituted to correct noticeable anomalies and hold due consultations with aggrieved members of the party in a bid to arrived at an amicable resolution on the issue.
The committee which comprised Oyegun, the National Secretary of the party, Mr. Mai Mala Buni, and the six zonal vice chairmen of the party have been mandated to meet with the states chairmen, secretaries, factional heads of the party in the states so as to ensure that those deserving of appointments into boards of agencies and parastatals were given due considerations.
States believed to be hit most by the crisis were Kaduna, Kano, Enugu, Imo, Anambra, Lagos, and Oyo States.