Barely four weeks after the inauguration of a new crop of executives within the All Progressives Congress (APC), discernible fissures have begun to surface, raising concerns about internal cohesion and adherence to the party’s constitutional framework.
At the heart of the unfolding disquiet is a deviation from a directive by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which proposed the inclusion of all deputy national officers as members of the National Working Committee (NWC), reports Daily Independent.
Stakeholders argue that this directive, intended to broaden participation and strengthen internal inclusivity, has been selectively implemented, thereby igniting discontent across multiple strata of the party.
Insiders suggest that the issue is neither recent nor incidental, but rather a lingering structural grievance.
A former deputy officer who served under both Abdullahi Adamu and Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, speaking under anonymity, described the situation as a persistent injustice.
According to the source, entrenched interests within the party hierarchy allegedly orchestrated resistance against dissenting voices, culminating in the systematic exclusion of certain individuals, particularly those who had been vocal in challenging the prevailing arrangement from returning to office.
The source further maintained that since the Constitution was amended and some deputies have already been incorporated into the NWC, equity demands that the same treatment be extended to the remaining deputies.
As earlier indicated, under the provisions of the 2022 Amended Constitution, several deputy national officers, including the Deputy National Financial Secretary, Deputy National Organising Secretary, Deputy National Women Leader, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Deputy National Welfare Secretary, Deputy National Auditor, Deputy National Treasurer, Deputy National Legal Adviser, and Deputy National Youth Leader, are widely interpreted by some stakeholders as integral to the operational breadth of the NWC.
Although the 2022 Amended Constitution of the party provides for a broad spectrum of national officers, the practical application of these provisions has come under scrutiny.
In what critics describe as calculated and opaque maneuvers, only a select group of deputy national officers have been effectively integrated into the party’s operational framework, while others remain conspicuously excluded.
Notably, representatives from Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Ekiti, Cross River, and Zamfara States are said to have been sidelined, effectively diminishing their institutional relevance within the party’s apex administrative organ.
This selective inclusion, which appears to have provoked discontent among governors of the affected states as well as the high-ranking members of the National Assembly, raises a fundamental question: what rationale underpins the partial application of constitutional provisions? Why were certain deputies, such as the Deputy National Financial Secretary, Deputy National Organising Secretary, Deputy National Women Leader, and Deputy National Publicity Secretary, integrated into the NWC framework, while others were excluded without transparent justification?
Beyond the immediate governance implications, party observers warn of more profound consequences. The sidelining of these representatives now carries a far more critical dimension: the effective exclusion of five states, their governors, and five potential NWC deputy officers from participating in the forthcoming party primaries and presidential convention. Such a development risks disenfranchising entire state blocs at a decisive moment in the party’s electoral cycle.
The implications are strategic and far-reaching. Participation in primaries and national conventions is central to candidate emergence, alliance-building, and political legitimacy.
The absence of these five states from the process could weaken grassroots mobilisation, disrupt political coordination, and create gaps in the party’s national electoral architecture ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
More critically, analysts argue that the internal discord, fueled by factional struggles within the APC Secretariat and broader party structure, poses a latent threat to the re-election prospects of President Tinubu. In a political environment where cohesion and coordinated mobilisation are indispensable, sustained infighting may erode the party’s competitive advantage.
As controversy festers, the APC faces a pivotal institutional test: whether it can reconcile internal contradictions, uphold constitutional integrity, and ensure equitable participation across all states, or allow procedural ambiguities and factional interests to further destabilise its ranks at a crucial political juncture.
