The All Progressives Congress (APC) Professionals` Forum has charged the party`s leadership to continue to ensure fairness and equity in managing its various interest groups ahead of 2023 general election.
Mr Akeem Akintayo, National Coordinator of the forum gave the charge on Monday in Abuja while speaking with newsmen at the APC national secretariat.
“No interest or ambition should be more or less important than the other.
“The resolve to continue to deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians should be our utmost interest as a political party as we align and re-align our ambitions within the party,’’ he said.
He said the APC Caretaker and Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee should see the extension of its tenure for another six months as a vote of confidence by the party`s National Executive Committee (NEC).
This, he said, was especially because of its ability to transit the party to a united and stable one as it work towards organising a national convention that would usher in a new National Working Committee (NWC).
The forum`s coordinator called on members of the party to accept the NEC`s decisions including the dissolution of the party`s organs at all levels.
He said the decision to allow members of the dissolved organs to function as caretaker committees should also be embraced by all party members.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of the caretaker committee are to pilot the party`s affairs until the planned new registration exercise and elections of new officials into various party organs are concluded.
“We appeal to the leadership once again to ensure fairness and transparency in the process of registration of new members.
“This, is critical to discourage innuendos and suspicion in the exercise, we are APC and we must continue to dwell on our core values of engagements and consultations as we manage our affairs,’’ Akintayo said.
He commended President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC leadership for their wisdom and unity of purpose in piloting the party`s affairs through internal wrangling that engulfed it in the past.
According to Akintayo, the party is now more purpose driven by ensuring more dialogue, consultation, engagement and reconciliation of aggrieved founding members.
He said the party was also attracting new members including those defecting from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“We have proved that as members of one big family, we can manage our differences for the larger interest of our party and that of Nigerians who voted and depend on our unity, integrity and doggedness,’’ he said.
He called on the party’s leadership to ensure fairness and transparency in its forthcoming registration scheduled for January 2021.
He also urged the party`s leadership to harmonise the interest of both new and old members to ensure its electoral victory in 2023.
“To this end, we trust that the interim party leaders would be transparent, inclusive, reconciliatory, selfless and diplomatic in the discharge of their new mandate for the next six months.
“Members of APC Professionals Forum and other relevant support groups should be engaged to supervise and monitor the registration exercise nationwide and the forthcoming convention,’’ he said.
Akintayo expressed optimism that the APC would continue to provide leadership and solutions to national issues and economic challenges.
He noted that the outcome of the recent by-elections in some states attested to the fact that Nigerians still preferred a united and purpose driven APC as the best option.
He congratulated the APC Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee for the feat and its efforts at reconciling aggrieved party members.
The forum is a registered support group of the APC comprising technocrats, intellectuals and professionals from different fields of endeavors with specific objective of contributing to the growth and development of the party. (NAN)
