Founder of Southeast Mobilisation Movement for the APC, Uche Agbaeze, in this interview with select journalists speaks on the reward system in the party and other issues.JONATHAN NDA-ISAIAH brings the excerpts.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial list has been attracting some praises and many knocks from various sections of the country, what do you as an active member of the APC make of this?
President Buhari has made made some very apposite nominations, although we don’t know the portfolios they were be assigned to. From what we have seen so far, we are hopeful that this second tenure of Buhari will give Nigerians what they are looking for. However, although it is our internal party issue, I must note that there are people who have worked tirelessly and committedly for the APC that we are looking forward to see in the list but whose news are missing; this is a surprise to some of us.
Can you give an example of party faithful whose name is missing in the nominations that makes you say it is surprising to you?
APC is an amalgamation of different political groups. A very good example is Alhaji (Dr) Bello Al-Adam, who is a founding member of the APC. He was a fundamental member of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), then President Buhari’s party; which is equally a fundamental part of the APC. He is among those who led the CPC onto APC.
Why do you stress that some party faithful like Al-Adam deserve special recognition?
If you consider Buhari’s success narrative in politics, you cannot separate Al-Adam from it. It is Bello Al-Adam that marketed Buhari right from the days of CPC. If you consult other founding members of CPC, they will confirm this. So he is a part of President Buhari’s success story, politically.
The President has many other qualified persons he could appoint, and he has done so, why is Dr. Al-Adam’s particular?
He is renowned and remarkable investment banker who distinguished himself in the industry. You know people with that background are usually prudent with resources and very careful about their character. He was part and parcel of Buhari’s CPC days. In 2015, he was in the find raising committee for the APC presidential campaign. Some of the people we are seeing on the ministerial list, I doubt that they have this type of pedigree and contributions towards Buhari and APC success.
What then is the advice you can give to President Buhari and his close aides who make the important decisions like in this case?
My advice to President Buhari who is of impeachable integrity that we love and respect because he is a man of his words, is to recall that he told us himself that is going to reward loyalty and hardworking this time around. People like us want to see that he has lived up to his words by appointing Dr. Al-Adam who know as a loyal and hardworking member of the APC. By doing so, he has indirectly appointed all of us who are equally loyal and hardworking members of the party.
So, my advice to Mr. President, with all due respect to him, is to look towards Dr Al-Adam. I don’t know if the President has exhausted his discretion on ministerial list, but I know Al-Adam is a fit and proper to handle any other portfolio or appointment, no matter how sensitive or highly placed. We are therefore calling on President Buhari to assuage this defect and mitigate the collateral damage this will cause in the party by appointing Dr. Bello Al-Adam. This appeal also goes to other people around Mr. President who are part of the decsion-making process in this regard.
If this is not done, is it likely that people like Dr. Al-Adam will quit the party?
Dr. Al-Adam is a man of consistency in his conduct. I know he will not quit APC. We too may not quit APC. But there will be a difference between passivist APC members and activist APC members. So, if Dr. Al-Adam is not appointed, some of us can become passivist APC members and things may go wrong, especially given the critical roles played by some of us for the party as a result of the inspiration and motivation we got from Dr. Al-Adam. We took over the media space, the public campaigns, the streets and we took risks at the polling units to ensure that victory was secured.
You cannot impose obligation and deny conferment of benefits. It amounts to approbating and reprobating, which is not the best here.