Your Excellency sir,
Congratulation on your victory at the national (elective) convention of the party over which you have assumed national leadership. It is pathetic that you inherited some moral and severe existential service liabilities from your predecessor. Your job is an onerous one, and especially at this time when within the very month of your assumption of office, certain high profile defections are taking place.
For many who follow the progressive advance of your party, Mr Chairman, these defections help the APC “house cleaning” that was thrown up by the moral and service litters of the administration you inherited. So to many who have followed the progress of the ruling party and the government, the defections are signs of a good omen: it is the dusting of cobwebs from the house your head, Mr Chairman.
So rejoice that the clogs in the wheels of the vehicle you drive have removed themselves. At this time of your nascent administration, its a double congratulation. It is the victory of the “legacy parties”, it is the taking back of the vineyard from tenants. It is a worthy self eviction. Mr Chairman, wish them well in their future endeavors.
Nevertheless Mr Chairman, your job is very enormous and the time you have remaining to do what you must do is disturbingly limited and it is already feared that the 2019 general elections may not hold, and that even if it holds it may mark the end of this country, Nigeria. God forbid that this should happen during your watch and that of Mr President. This is the reason for this open letter to you. Some points would be highlighted under certain headings in order to deliciously align this pot pourri of our political realities as a people.
1. Defections/APC House Sweeping:
Mr Chairman, it should be clear to you that those who defected and those who have shown intent to defect from your party are all of the legislative arm of the government your party leads. It should also be clear to you that there remain mercenaries in the executive arm of government and in the party over which you are national chairman.
Therefore, Mr Chairman, as much as you deal with the continuing defections, you must, as a matter of urgent national importance, simultaneously commence the house sweeping needed to remove the same caliber of party members, working within the executive arm of government and in the party you lead, who wear the garbs of those members of the party in the legislative arm of government who have caused you much concern recently.
Make it an ongoing exercise to allow those who would defect, defect, and those who wait to be forced out of the party must be forced out NOW. They must not be allowed to remain within as fifth columnists. It is however clear, for example, Mr Chairman, how the Minister of Transportation, who, though, has the PDP gene in his political blood and has capacity for their evil tendencies, is an orphan in this present drama.
Nyesom Wike, his arch rival in politics currently leads the PDP, He will be clearly left in the cold should he forced out of the party, but Mr Chairman, for people like him who may wish to remain your party members, never trust them with sensitive appointments, please! They seek opportunities, not to be humble and loyal, but to fester their political ego. Humble these ones and sweep out the remaining.
You cannot trust the caliber of the Transportation Minister in the executive arm of government, as much as you cannot trust the National Publicity Secretary of the party you lead, Mr Chairman. It is this same way that it trickles down to State Chapters of the party, and in some case like in Akwa Ibom State. It is observed that the members of the State Working Committee are at war with themselves Mr Chairman.
So Mr Chairman, this letter awakens you to attention in the matters concerning the Akwa Ibom State chapter of your party, as highlighted herein. You must note, Mr Chairman, that the basis for the seeming crisis silently engulfing the chances of the APC in Akwa Ibom State, as the party enters into the phase of the 2019 general elections is primarily caused by the PDP men who invaded the party, and men who work for the interest of the agents of PDP men in the APC, using PDP mechanisms: the kind that made Bukola Saraki senate president in 2015.
2. Appointment Of Caretaker Committees Over Wards And Local Government Area Chapters Of The APC In Akwa Ibom State
Mr Chairman, the APC congresses conducted across board in Akwa Ibom State was of the same coloration as the national (elective) convention of your party that produced you as national chairman.
However, what was agreed by the APC Akwa Ibom State caucus was the “harmonization” of the listings of executive members for wards and LGA chapters of the party in the State according to the 2014 executive committee listings at those two levels of the party administration in the State.
Mr Chairman, it would appear strange if you deny that you do not have the lists of executive committee members of your party for all LGA chapters and wards in Akwa Ibom State, and if you have, be challenged hereby, before all Nigerians to publish the lists.
Nevertheless, members of your party in the State are aware of your instructions to the state chairman of the party, but the question remains, why has the lists of the APC wards and LGA executive members not been published and members made known, when the lists of the APC national and state executives members is already in public space?
It is upon this truth, that it is essentially effectual to note, Mr Chairman, that as the APC in Akwa Ibom State enters into the final phase of preparations for the 2019 general elections, the party is yet to publish the lists of members of wards and LGA chapter executives in the State.
It is hereby admonished that you should, as a matter of urgent concern, instruct the Akwa Ibom State working committee to inaugurate caretaker committees for the APC wards and LGAs in the State, using the senatorial officers of the party in the State.
3. Dissolution Of The Akwa Ibom State Working Committee Of The APC
Mr Chairman, as you were earlier advised in this letter, fifth columnists within the government and party structures must be eliminated and crushed immediately. It may not have come to your notice the infighting that is amid members of the State Working Committee in Akwa Ibom State. Recently the State Deputy Chairman purportedly wrote to the State Chairman making spurious claims relating to Uyo senatorial district chapter of the party in the state, clearly doing this under his partisan interest in supporting an aspirant for pecuniary reasons.
His unfortunate letter, which he claimed to have issued on behalf of Uyo senatorial district chapter of the party leaked to member’s f the party in the district when the chairman of the Uyo senatorial district of the party, who also doubles as the Vice Chairman, Akwa Ibom North East of the party wrote a rejoinder refuting the spurious claims, because he should have been responsible for convening such acclaimed meeting, saying a meeting which excluded members of the APC national Board of Trustees from the district, cannot be taken seriously.
This kind of infighting, division, clannishness and competition between clear umpires of the processes of the party nominations of candidates for the upcoming 2019 general elections is not healthy for your party Mr Chairman. This is a clarion call to you Mr Chairman to address this clear matter that the leaders of the party may want to sweep under from your noticing, but you oversee more than leaders.
You oversee helpless vulnerable and exploited members in the various localities in the state. It is for these ones that you must investigate these infighting in State “exco” and tame the hydra heads among them. A big one is the State Welfare Officer, who has clearly polarized the party and caged the State Chairman. Comrade Ini Okopido has shown to be a figure head and needs redemption from the hawks that have taken over the party in Akwa Ibom State.
4. Following Some Precedence Of The PDP Years Of Impunity
Mr Chairman sir, two things should be clear to you about the Obasanjo administration of the PDP and they are precedence your party must encourage Mr President to adopt, especially at this time when anarchy must be checked in our approach to the 2019 general elections: these are the impeachment of the senate president and that of the governor of Benue State. Obasanjo clearly did not forgive those who refused to give back for what they took from the party over which he was the leader. President Buhari needs to be guided accordingly:
Starting with the senate president, it would be in the interest of your party, Mr Chairman, for the incumbent senate president to be impeached from his senate presidency, whether he leaves your party or remains. If your party caucus in the senate is majority, it makes this idea achievable. It is possible because against the two third majority, said to be needed, involving every senator’s vote, to vacate this impeachment, as claimed by the supporters of the senate president, is a deliberate attempt to forget history, Mr Chairman.
Bukola Saraki became senate president in the absence of more than 52% of senators elected into the 8th senate because his election was purely based on attendance of senators in the red chamber at the time of the election of principal officers of the 8th Assembly. So, Mr Chairman, the senate president can be removed from his exalted seat, whether he defects or not, if the caucus of your party in the senate can use a plenary attendance list to do so. Obasanjo of the PDP rode roughshod over many senate presidents: this is one precedence President Buhari must follow to combat anarchy in Nigeria.
On reconvening the national assembly to approve the budget for the 2019 general elections is in gross national interest and especially to shut the prophets who said the 2019 elections will not hold. The ruling party and the government must immediately write to the Chairman of the national assembly asking for the termination of the recess for an urgent national assignment and to seek the supreme court order for the 8th national assembly to reconvene and approve the funds needed to procure the success of the 2019 general elections if the chairman’s self interest prevails.
And finally, Mr Chairman, the fate of the governor of Benue State should be treated like the fate of the late Bayelsa State governor, DSP Alamiesiegha, may his soul find peace. Mr Chairman, please be reminded that the PDP administration of Obasanjo used Nuhu Ribadu’s EFCC to mobilize only five (5l members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly to Lagos and under dare deviled security watch impeached their governor in a hotel room. Samuel Ortom should be grateful, Mr Chairman, his honored to have his done in his state and in the state assembly complex. Interestingly, the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta was set up to stabilized the political scam that became the Jonathan administration in that state in 2005. This is the second precedence your party and government must follow at this time.
We wish you well Mr Chairman.
Ini Akpan Morgan is the Convener of the APC Patriots Grouping in Akwa Ibom State
