As a result of the conflict wrought within the new leading party by the National Assembly elections, President Buhari convened a meeting with the leading members of the party in which he reminded them of their responsibilities to their constituencies: the people of Nigeria. Sani Tukur of Sahara Reporters transcribed his comments. Find them below;
The elections have come and gone, the APC has won the battle, but lost the war. This is the paradox of democracy, and we shall see how we can manage it going forward.
I have already addressed you through the chairman, through the leadership of the party, through your excellencies, the governors and through our Senators and House of Representatives members.
The APC must not disappoint its constituency, thats the nation state. We have to convince our various constituencies that we are individually worthy of the sacrifices that they have made.
They stayed awake day and night, travelling all over the country and made sure as a party,we emerged victorious. What subsequently happened is human, and as human beings we are not perfect, but let our collective actions in this party prove that we have won the elections, the battle and we will win the war.
As for me as a president, I have to clearly understand the constitution of the federal republic of nigeria, the constitution of APC, and having tried three times and successfully lost three times and successfully ending up at the Supreme Court.
I think I have tasted the bitter disappointments and the sweetness of success.
What happened to APC must be given to God almighty. The opposition party, has ruled the country for sixteen years, with all the treasuries, literally in their pockets and all the coercing forces and their command, under their command they still meekly conceded defeat. We congratulate them for that.
I clearly understand the constitution from which INEC was developed with clear terms of reference and one of its important responsibilities is to register political associations as political parties, and whoever wants to participate in elective office as a Nigerian must seek a platform.that platform is the political party, hence, the superior state of the parties. APC has been damn lucky., if I can use that. The way the opposition parties realized, agreed and accepted that the only way through which we can be in the system is for us to come together. The ACN,the ANPP, the CPC, APGA and DPP wanted to come to participate fully in the negotiation,but they have court cases at various levels, and we suspected that if we allow them to participate actively in the negotiation for merger, there being in court cam cause either delay or deny us registration.
So we persuaded our colleagues in APGA and DPP that please stay out of the negotiation, but when we eventually get the registration,they can join in block or individually.
Along the line, I assure you that nothing is done by impulse in our process to merger. There have been various committees, quite a number of you sitting here have been members of committees either leading them or being a member and we agreed. At some stage or the earlier stages,we agreed that nine people should form the interim committee, thats the national chairmen of the parties, the secretaries and the treasurers . We thought we have done a wonderful work, so we sent our application. For the first time in this sixteen or twelve years of my participating actively , I thanked INEC for what they did to us; they sent back our application and said we must have 25 to 35 people to manage your interim if you get registration, and they must come from all the geo political zones. Why I thanked INEC in particular was because if it has been bloody minded, again ladies close your ears, if they have been bloody minded, they would have kept on raging until it was almost too late for us to get the merger. So they advised us and we sat down, we got I think 35 people to manage us and they I here personally, and on behalf of you now congratulate Chief Bisi Akande, it’s a pity he is not here, he led the interim party with dexterity and integrity. I respect his patriotism. When we got the APC name through the agreement of various committees of the respective parties, we started working from polling unit upwards, eventually we ended up in the convention which gave us the leadership of the party.
After that the election started, and again it started from the bottom top. I have gone to this extent because not all of us here participated in it and for you to reflect and thank the leadership of the party at various stages for going through all this, which is not easy. But God in his infinite mercy has helped by giving us acceptance. Let us not throw this success to the wind.
Let us as members of the APC no matter our personal differences get together and use the mandate given to us by this country. This is my personal appeal to you in the name of God. Whatever your personal interest or ambition, please keep it close to your heart and in your pocket. Let APC work, let the system work and let us have a government that will earn the respect of our constituencies.
My problem is the constituencies. I thank you very much for listening to me, and I thank the leadership across the board, and I appeal to you to please continue to work together.
Please accept the superiority of the party. I cannot confine myself to the cage or Sambisa forest and refuse to participate in NEC or BoT so I respect, the superiority of the party.
