IT will be ungodly for All Progressives Congress (APC) to deny return ticket to National Assembly members, who stood by it during its trying period, the party’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, has said.
Oshiomhole, however, said the party would not give its ticket to those he described as political opportunists, who were seeking power for selfish reasons.
He added that the party has learnt its lesson the hard way by giving its ticket to “bread and butter politicians”.
A statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Simon Ebegbulem, quoted the party’s National Chairman as telling members of its screening committee that despite efforts to woe some of the lawmakers away, they kept faith with the APC despite intimidation’s they went through.
Oshiomhole said the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) has been struggling to tackle issues arising from the last congresses, which he described as fraudulent.
He noted that the party would correct the mistakes of the past and confront the opposition come 2019.
Oshiomhole 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 offices 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.”
He said if the party had taken cognisance of how National Assembly’s powers could be used for national goals and how it could also be misused to undermine national progress, it would not be facing a situation, “where two principal officers have chosen to put their personal interest over and above the national interest”.
He said: “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 and 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“.
