Desist From Name-Calling, Backstabbing Ahead Of March 26 Convention, Buhari Tells APC Leaders, Members

By Daniel Dafe

President Muhamadu has called on the entire membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) “to desist from name-calling and backstabbing, ahead of the March 26 Convention.”

The president gave this call in a statement he personally signed on Saturday.

He added: “We must look at the once-powerful, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is now enfeebled and adrift, and learn lessons from their disunity, mismanagement and corruption. They failed in 16 years in power and remain a failure as opposition.”

Continuing, he said it is okay for APC to experience “dissent and intra-party discord,” which he said “are common in all parties, left and right all over the world.”

Adding that “parties splintered by competing egos destine themselves to the worst possible fate.”

According to the statement, what he expects to see is a “robust debate on the issues that matter and what is going in the APC should be a reflection of this, not the infighting we are seeing,” saying that “there must be no more distractions ahead of the convention to choose new leaders.”

“The APC started out with a confidence of victory and today enjoys that confidence in nearly two-thirds of our 36 states.

“Yet this is a party that has been in existence barely for eight years, becoming the dominant party because we have thrown open our doors to defectors from other parties, big and small.

“What has also made our success possible is that we didn’t start on the note of arrogance of power, nor do we see government as a vehicle for self-aggrandizement, to be held at all costs.

“Instead we see it as a vehicle to bring development to all without discrimination —political, ethnic or regional — to our dear country,” he said.

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Furthermore, he said that they “are proud of the fact that in its short period of existence, the APC has won two general elections decisively,” noting that despite losing a few states in 2019, they have “steadfastly expanded its pan-Nigerian outlook with significant defections of the opposition Governors and parliamentarians into our fold.”

He reminded his party leaders and members that they “exist to serve the people of Nigeria, and to continue to deliver the dividends of democracy to them,” just as he said that “that is all that ultimately matters.”

“And we must all remain steadfast and maintain unity if our great Party is to continue in the path of victory and its dominance at all levels throughout the country,” he opined.