APC youths caution NEC over tenure elongation

The youths in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday cautioned the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) over the elongation of the tenure of the incumbent leaders at all levels by one year.  

The APC NEC had extended the tenure of party officials at various levels by one year. The decision that gave Chief John Odigie-Oyegun led National Working Committee (NWC) one year tenure extension had divided the party.

Already, some party members had approached the court to contest the decision which they said usurped the function of the APC national convention.

The spokesperson for the group, Martyrs Obekpa, who addressed journalists after a closed door meeting held in Abuja, said a congress of the APC youths would be convened to state their position in order to ensure that the party they brought to power through their votes survived beyond 2019.  

Obekpa said the youths under the aegis of Forum of Young Stakeholders urged the party leaders to respect the constitution of the party over the tenure elongation issue.

He said the power to extend the tenure of party executives is vest with the convention and not the NEC according to the APC constitution.

He said, “On the issue of tenure elongation, there are divergent views. There are those for and against. We are still meeting and the general thing that can be taken from this tenure elongation is that the youths stand with what our constitution says. We do not want illegality in this party. We want to stand by all what we have worked and voted for in this constitution. Sneaking in any illegality will not be acceptable to the youths.

“Our consultation is continuing because it is not just a small fragment of the youths of this party that have met. Out consultation is wide and is across the nation and we have agreed to call a congress of the youths to state our position because this party must survive since we brought it into power by our votes.”

He said the forum, which also discussed the issue of constitution amendment in the APC, was not happy with the removal of youths in the party’s advisory committees at all levels.

According to him, the forum’s consultation across the country shows that young people in the party are not being carried along.

Obekpa, however, voiced the youths’ readiness to support President Muhammadu Buhari beyond 2019.

Earlier in his opening remarks, one of the conveners and a Board of Trustees (BoT) member, Barr. Ismail Ahmed, said the youths had not been fully integrated in the ruling party despite the role played in its formation and the success achieved in the 2015 general elections.

Ahmed said members were not happy because of the failure to convene stakeholders’ meetings where critical issues would have been addressed.

While noting that the issue of tenure elongation remained a dividing matter in the ruling party, the young BoT member appealed to the APC leadership to distribute the copies of the areas due for amendment at the forthcoming non-elective convention to enable members study what they would ratify.