National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has said that the defection of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should be a lesson for the ruling party.
Oshiomhole, who spoke in Abuja yesterday while addressing members of the screening committee, said the party would not field politicians of “bread and butter” like Saraki and Dogara as candidates.
The APC national chairman, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Simeon Ebegbulem, lamented that since he assumed office, the National Working Committee (NWC) had been tackling issues arising from the last congresses of the party, which he described as fraudulent.
He asserted that the party would correct the mistakes of the past and confront the opposition come 2019.
His words: “In many of the states, we had challenges arising from the way congresses were conducted; many of them were quite fraudulent. That has been the challenge we have been trying to resolve since we came. Screening of aspirants is not a formality, that is why we tried to search for men and women of integrity who cannot be compromised.
“We do not want to field opportunists who are simply seeking a political vehicle for some selfish purposes. What has happened in recent past is enough for us to begin to look at the character of those who are seeking office on the APC platform.
“People who have the intellectual capacity to articulate issues on the basis at which laws and bills are considered and those who have capacity to carry out oversight functions to ensure that Nigerians get value for money. And to constructively engage the executive without in the process forgetting that there is only one government.
“If before now we have taken for granted on the powers of the National Assembly, how those powers can be used for national goals and how it can also be misused to undermine national progress, the current situation we are facing here, where two principal officers have chosen to put their personal interest over and above the national interest; refusing to consider budget meant for physical infrastructure, budget meant to re-order the way our budget is executed; to move money away from consumption which recurrent expenditure represents to capital projects which will benefit our people.
“And even refusing to approve money meant for the body charged with the responsibility of conducting elections in 2019. For us as a party, we have chosen to learn from the positive lessons from this development so that we do not repeat those mistakes by selecting people who as far as human capacity is, we can assess and predict that if elected they will remain faithful, not only to our party, but more importantly to the Nigerian nation.
“If we have disagreement, it will not be about juicy appointments, it will be about appropriate policies, it will be about how governance is impacting positively on the lives of Nigerians. It will not be about who is getting what, politics of sharing.”
On the composition of the Senate, Oshiomhole said: “As we speak, I am proud that we have 57 senators who have refused to be induced or misled or otherwise manipulated into moving to other parties or reward for juicy positions. They have decided to remain in our party even with all the intimidation they have suffered.
“It will be ungodly for us as a party not to reward those who believe in the party and the government of the day led by President Muhammadu Buhari. We will try as much as we can to have stability in the National Assembly.”