By: Akinloye Oyeniyi.
Political parties are the assemblies of people with the same aspiration and interest to capture power. They function specifically as platforms for government and political recruitment, vehicles for interest articulation and aggregation, political communication and education, goal formation, links between government and the people, arenas for the structuring of electoral choice and political representation of the electorates.
For those above to come to bear, party politics and management which are two important aspects of a life of a political party must be running unhindered. When these two or any of them becomes crises-ridden and the situation is not timely arrested, the ability of such political party to properly function is not only threatened but risks implosion that might lead to disorientation of its members and eventuality its own disintegration.
Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), of recent, has been engulfed in intra-party friction at its national level and that is not only threatening its proper functioning as a political party as described above but also its chances in the coming Edo and Ondo states governorship elections; a situation which calls for immediate action from all party members but principally President Mohammadu Buhari, who is the national leader of the ruling party.
The operations of the All Progressives Congress, like every other political party in Nigeria are based on the party constitution and every one of its organs have clearly provided functions for smooth running of the party.
The National Working Committee of the party which is responsible for its administration by carrying out the day-to-day running of its affairs is neck-deep in a seemingly unresolvable multi-directional crisis of leadership and this management organ of the party has shown clearly it cannot resolve these issues except higher organ steps in and that too should be immediate as election timetables for Edo and Ondo guber polls are winding up day by day.
Since the nexus of these problems is the jostling for the vacant National Working Committee positions by different interest groups, it is proper that the National Executive Committee of the party take charge, assume some functions of the National Convention which according to Article 13(ii) and (vii) of the APC Constitution have the powers to elect or remove National Officers of the party and take any action as may be conducive to the promotion of the aims and objectives of the party and therefore return the party to normalcy.
Article 13.3 (ii) of the APC Constitution having explicitly empowers the National Executive Committee of the party to discharge all functions of the National Convention as constituted in between National Conventions and since according to (iii) of the said Article 13.3, its decision shall be binding on all organs and all members of the party, except the National Convention and according to Article 18 (iv) of the party constitution, once it has assumed jurisdiction on any issue, no organ of the party shall deliberate upon and or set up a similar committee, President Mohammadu Buhari as the political head of the party should immediately wade in and have this principal executive body be convoked now to amongst other things dissolve the embattled National Working Committee (NWC) and set up a National Caretaker Committee as empowered in Article 13.3 (vi) which it now deemed expedient and assign to them such powers and functions as it may deem fit and proper before a proper convention is called.
Akinloye Oyeniyi
Legislative Expert and Public Affairs Analyst.
