National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu has declared that despite the fact that the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, a free, fair, and credible elections was concocted.
Senator Adamu made the declaration at the meeting of the party’s National Working Committee with the President-Elect, Vice-President Elect and National Assembly Members Elect Held at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja, March 13, 2023.
The PAC National Chairman who posited that nowhere in the world perfect elections are conducted added that “it is fair and honourable to admit that the February 25 elections were not perfect. We did not set out to conduct perfect elections. World history has no instances of perfect elections. Like all other democratic nations, we set out to conduct free, fair, and credible elections. This we did.
“I am proud to say we achieved this feat and delivered on the promise made by President Muhammadu Buhari to the people. For the first time in living memory in respect of our elections, there were no allegations of vote-buying and outcry over all the other ills associated with the conduct of our elections. Rigging may not be dead, but it has been decapitated. Our democracy is maturing, and we are maturing with it.”
He recalled that this would be the third in succession that the APC would be voted into power since the advent of this round democracy, saying “we asked the people to give us the thumbs up, and three times they did not hesitate to do so. They did so in 2015. They did so in 2019. They have now done it again in 2023.’
Still on the three times that the APC has won elections in this country, Senator Abdullahi Adamu told the audience that much more has been given to them in terms of governance and mandate.
He said “It reminds us that to whom much is given, much is expected. It is an understatement to say that much has been given to us and we must reciprocate by giving much more to the people and our dear country.”
While congratulating the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Vice-President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima, and both the returning and newly elected members of the National Assembly, the APC Chairman said they are what he termed the “new Team Nigeria”.
He said “from May 29 this year, the burden of our national unity, peace, and development will rest on your shoulders as a team. The National Assembly elections produced infusions of the old and the new.
He advised all of them present in the hall that they should jettison bigmanism and be ready to work for the people who elected them into power, adding that “on the day you received the people’s vote you signed a binding sacred social contract with them.
On the ongoing struggle by the elected National Assembly members justly for different offices in both the Green and Red Chambers, Abdullahi Adamu warned the incoming members of the 10th Assembly not to repeat the mistake of their processors.
Senator Adamu lamented that the 9th Assembly got embroiled in crises on one hand with the Executive Arm and on the other hand within the main bowl of the federal legislature which he said undermined governance.
“We would like to offer a word of caution to all of you in this regard. It may be good to start early but sometimes when you start too early you jump the gun and court unintended consequences that may cause nasty divisions in the party and thus affect its health. Leadership positions at the national level is a delicate matter and must not be approached with levity or lack of seriousness.
“It may be good to start early but it is wiser to be patient. Some of you may recall what happened to the party and the National Assembly in 2015 when some members of the national legislature chose not to wait for the decision of the president and the party in sharing those offices. It created bad blood within the party and between the executive and the legislature. I urge us not to regress.
“The president-elect and the party leadership will make appropriate consultations in working out a formula for sharing those offices. I assure you that whatever sharing formula the Party and the President-elect arrive at will be fair, just, equitable and satisfy the majority of our members.
“This blend of the young and the old should be a recipe for a harmonious working relationship. The exuberance of the new members must be moderated by the age and the experience of the returning members, some of whom are now almost permanent fixtures in the legislature,” he said.
