2023 polls: Disquiet in APC over N30bn campaign funds
A member of National Working Committee (NWC) of All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, yesterday, accused National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, and National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore, of deliberately refusing to give any form of financial support to party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu and other candidates of the party in the 2023 election.
The party’s national vice chairman (North West) argued that despite generating over N30 billion, the party’s headship, spearheaded by the duo of Adamu and Omisore, could not support the party’s candidates, contrary to what past leadership of Adams Oshiomhole did in 2019.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja while reacting to claims made against him by the duo, Lukman said: “I want to say this for the records, since we came, we have never been presented, even at the last National Executive Committee (NEC) of April 2022, we have not been presented financial reports till today. I challenge both the national chairman and the national secretary, they have never presented to the NWC any financial statement.
“We are expected to present a proposed national budget to the (NEC) for approval by the provision of Article 13, 3A.14 of the APC constitution. I felt embarrassed when I heard the national secretary saying the budget of the party has been sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). INEC is not the approving authority of the budget of the APC. The approving authority is the NEC.
“Till today, we don’t have a national budget. Yet we made over N30 billion from sales of forms. Till today, as a member of the NWC and majority members of the NWC, maybe with the exception of the financial secretary, treasurer or the auditor who may have inside knowledge of how much was expended on the renovation of the national secretariat of the party, we have no knowledge of what is being expended.
“Talking of national budget we are just coming out of elections whereby we are not able to sustain past precedence. What was the past precedence? Under Oshiomhole in 2019, every candidate of the party received something from the national secretariat. This last election, no candidate of the candidate received a dime from the party.
“Talking of finances in our constitution, the NEC is supposed to approve some form of sharing formula. I am aware that each state chapter have received about N20 million out of the N30 billion. Put together, that is about N700 million, less than a billion which is less than three per cent of the total income that has been earned. Yet we want to sweep this under the carpet,” he said.
Asked if President Tinubu is among the candidates Adamu refused to support and whether he had idea of how much the party gave to Buhari in 2015 and 2019, Lukman said: “The party did not support the candidates, including Tinubu. He didn’t get a dime from the party. I am making this public. Let them challenge me and contradict me.
“In 2015, the party was truly a model party. President Muhammadu Buhari doesn’t have money. People were assigned responsibility to raise money. It is just like Tinubu and you say he has money. So, there were people assigned with the responsibility of mobilising money for the party. If anything was done in 2023 based on that, it would be the initiative of Tinubu. I am not aware of it as a party.
“If you remember in-between we were busy causing distractions about what should be our roles in the presidential campaign council. Unless we are humble and honest to admit these are things that ordinarily shouldn’t have happened and admit we need to correct them and reshape the relationship between us and the government that emerged, we would continue to have the problem we are having,” he said
On the possibility of NEC meeting holding as rescheduled, Lukman said: “It is not what the national chairman and secretary want to be on the agenda that should go to NEC and national caucus. It should be what the NWC has approved. And I am saying till this moment the NWC has not approved any agenda. I am also saying till this moment there is no proper notice to any person who is supposed to be at that meeting.”
“For goodness sake, we are dealing with a category of people like the president, the Senate president, the speaker of the House of Representatives and his deputy. These are very high level people and you want them to come to the meeting without telling them what is the agenda? That is not right.”
Lukman doubted the possibility of holding NEC meeting as planned.
While accusing them of behaving like emperors who are no longer committed to lead party, the former director general APC Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) said whatever they interpret as his antecedents, it cannot be compared with an alleged murderer or somebody associated with witches.
“Our vision was that we would produce a leadership under Adamu that would take us back to our founding vision that would encourage internal debate. What I see now is a party that doesn’t want any debate.
“Adamu and Omisore want to behave like emperors and sincerely speaking that departs from the vision of APC being a progressive party. They made unpalatable comments about my antecedents and I challenge them to present clips of where I tendered apologies. Whatever is my antecedents? There is nothing in my antecedents that made me an alleged murderer or somebody associated with witches,” he said.
TheSun
