Oshiomhole: APC caucus to revive BoT to tackle crises
Ameeting of the National Caucus of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has agreed to resuscitate its Board of Trustees (BoT) in view of the crises rocking various chapters of the party.
Daily Trust reports that no BoT meeting has been held since the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. The president was re-elected last February.
Multiple party sources told Daily Trust yesterday, that the leaders have resolved to revive the BoT to end the lingering crises in the party. In recent times, there have been calls for the resignation of the national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, over the lingering crises rocking the party.
One of the sources said what needed to be done was to get the chairman and secretary of the organ, seen as the conscience of the party, since it is a creation of the APC Constitution.
“On the issue of Board of Trustees, when the party started in 2013, we were attending Board of Trustees meetings. We didn’t have chairman and secretary of BoT. Since then, we had two BoT meetings. But since the election of President Buhari, we haven’t had a BoT meeting.
“Then, there was talk of changing the name to elders’ council. But it was not done. Even the crises we had in the past should have been resolved by the BoT. That is why the crises festered.
“In our constitution, the BoT is the father and conscience of the party. All issues of peace making are under the BoT. If you get our constitution, you will see it there. So, it’s unconstitutional not to be holding BoT meeting because the constitution has not been changed.
“You will recall that people have already started campaigning for the election of chairman and secretary at some point. So, the issue was mentioned and it was resolved that the issue of BoT will come back,” the source said, pleading not to be named.
Our correspondent recalled that a meeting of the board of trustees scheduled to hold in 2016 was summarily postponed. A decision to constitute a committee to amend the law establishing the board was taken at the March 24, 2016 NEC meeting.
Before the 2016 decision to change the status of BoT to Elders Council, members of the board had already started forming queues behind former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a move to elect a chairman.
A leader of the APC in Abia State and former national chairman of Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA), Chief Sam Nkire, had already declared his interest to become the secretary of the party’s BoT.
Sources said the need to fill vacant positions in the National Working Committee (NWC) was not discussed at the caucus meeting.
Oshiomhole, however, said after the meeting that the national caucus discussed the performance in the last elections, current issues, budget, court cases and disciplinary matters.