National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has said that it will be ungodly for the party to deny lawmakers who stood by the party during its trying period return ticket.
Oshiomhole also said the party will not give its ticket to those he described as political opportunists who are seeking political power for selfish reasons, adding that the party has learnt its lesson the hard way by giving ticket to “bread and butter politicians”
A statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Simon Ebegbulem quote Oshiomhole as telling members of the party’s screening committee that some of the lawmakers have kept faith with the party despite intimidation’s they have gone through.
Oshiomhole said the present National Working Committee has been struggling to tackle issues arising from the last congresses of the party which he described as fraudulent, pointing out that the party will correct the mistakes of the past and confront the opposition come 2019.
He said: “In many of the states we had challenges arising from the way congresses were conducted. Many of them were quite fraudulent and 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 of 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 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 appointment, 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”.
Oshiomhole noted that “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”.
