Biyi Adegoroye 
A lot of issues were thrown up by the National Executive Committee (NEC) and caucus meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) held last week. Senator Surajudeen Bashir, the National Secretary of the party, in this interview monitored on ARISE Television by BIYI ADEGOROYE, expatiates on this and the absence of some major stakeholders from the meeting
What do you make of the failure of some top members of your party, like Dr. Kayode Fayemi, former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Nasir El-Rufai, to attend your National Executive Committee meeting?
A day before the NEC meeting there was a caucus meeting at the (presidential) Villa, and some of the people you mentioned that did not attend the NEC meeting are not members of NEC by virtue of our constitution. It is good to get the facts right. Ahmed Lawan was at the caucus meeting. Former Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo sent an apology, and I have that in my record, because even after the meeting, he still sent his message to know whether his message was delivered and noted. Dr. Kayode Fayemi was at the caucus meeting and he also gave a thumbs up for the meeting on his social media page.
Sometimes, some people take issues out of context, which I consider indolence. What the Chairman, Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje, said in the context of legal liability was at the inception of our own administration in August last year. The legal liabilities to law firms for pre-election and post elections litigations was N8.7 billion. Part of this has been settled and I can mention the N3.5 billion for a consortium of lawyers led by Niyi Akintola. Our party was very solvent and that was why the meeting was for the ratification of 2024 budget and that of 2025 and there are no dissension, and when you add the attendance at the caucus and the NEC meeting, it was more than 85 per cent and when you recall that the notice was called penultimate Friday, you would agree that was a huge attendance.
In the case of former President Muhammadu Buhari, he could not attend and his aide, Ambassador Kasali sent in a message the notice was too short for him. The letter was delivered to him on Monday, three days after it was dispatched to him. So, the issue is not because some other people have some disappointment or are mixing up the issue of party politics with participation in politics, because there are quite a number of our leaders, both those serving and out of government who attended the caucus and the NEC meeting. The pictures are there. Democracy is about the majority, not the minority.
There is no doubt that some could not attend, but there were some people who did not attend because of the issues they raised…
The issue is that if you don’t attend the meeting of your party, which other forum do you have to ventilate whatever grievances you have? Is it by going to social media or going to newspapers? My father was a politician and politics is about meeting and meeting is about politics. So, whatever grievances you have, you must be able to come to present such grievances and they will be addressed, but if you fail to attend the meeting, and you are making claims that the party is a one-man show, there is nothing like that.
Our party is a party of organisation and we have not less than nine structures as we speak- we have the street level, ward level, local government level, we have state level, zonal level and national level. At the national level is the National Working Committee, comprising not less than 25 people and we have been meeting weekly to be able to give direction to the party. And go and check the records, that is why the off-cycle election that we had, we won all, except for Bayelsa.
Are you saying that you have kept to the rules of your party, the constitutional requirement, in terms of the frequency of holding your NEC and caucus meetings?
As regards NEC meeting, we are in arrears by about three quarters.
So, you did not meet your constitutional requirement as regards the frequency of your NEC meeting…
There are many reasons. You cannot say because NEC did not hold, which is one organ of the party, and mind you, on August 3, the NEC that was held, NEC, knowing that there may be challenges in holding its meeting regularly, made a directive in a resolution, that the National Working Committee (NWC) should act in the place of NEC pending the time a NEC will be done.
I want to tell you that during the period the auditors were appointed, we saw through to the completion of the audit process 2022/2023. And also saw to the filling of the vacancies that arose in the case of death or re-arrangement of the zoning of our offices. So, the fact that NEC did not meet, does not mean that the work of NEC was left undone, because there is an extant resolution that allows the NEC to work. And we must be able to make a difference between those people who are genuinely concerned about how the party works, as against those who feel bitter because they are left out of political patronage and see getting political appointments as their birthright.
The point here is that some old members, even members of the NEC, are complaining about the lack of meeting…
How many of them?
Even if one member complains, that should be of concern to you…
This is democracy please. I told you we have not held NEC for three quarters and that nothing has been lost, because there is an extant resolution. Look, democracy, whether within or outside the political party, is heterogenous. In fact, there are conflicting ideas and interests, and that is why there are political parties to possibly aggregate the whole interests, and when people feel overboard on those issues, even in your organisation, you cannot have absolute unanimity in all cases. For me, I won’t come and lie to you that we held NEC, but whatever NEC would have done, we had a constitutional way by which that space had been filled.
So, you don’t think that it was not significant that those who were absent from NEC or caucus meetings? Because the President himself called for a reconciliation, that you may all work together…
We should not take what happened out of context. I was at the top table with the President. The President said we should look at expanding the membership of our caucus, and at the caucus, it was also discovered that some people, like the former governors, who were members of the caucus are not members of the Executive Committee, and President said let us look at ways, by which we can harmonise such that former governors, past leaders of the party, who are members of the caucus, and by constitutional provisions are not members of the NEC should be carried along. That was the first context, and in resolving that issue, a committee, headed by the governor of Yobe State, with representatives from all zones, was set up to look at those constitutional provisions. That is how political parties resolved their issues.
Then when you talk of reconciliation, there are some states where we know that we have some concerns. And that is the context in which the president is saying we should be able to go into that. But for those who are possibly on the way out of the party, and thinking that by going to the media to de-market the party, is the way by which they want to work, I don’t think the president is making reference in that regard. So, you must be able to make a distinction between people who are really genuinely committed to our organizational arrangement for inclusivity and those who felt that only our party which is headed by a PhD holder as the chairman, and a PhD holder as a secretary is a party of semi-literate people. I don’t know his parameter of reaching that conclusion.
You talked about the issue of debt, and your chairman put it at N8.7 billion…
At inception.
You said most of that debt is now paid…
Let me tell you the context in which those issues arose. The purpose for the NEC that was held on Wednesday was actually to present the books of the party to stakeholders. And daresay, check if there is any other political party that has been that transparent by calling all their stakeholders to present their audited financial statements and budget for approval. So, you cannot hide whether you are owing or not- assets and liabilities, credit financing is a recognized method of running businesses. The fact that you are indebted does not mean that you are not solvent. If you are able to meet your obligations based on the cash flow that you have, of course you should be able to move on.
The N8.7 billion debt?
That was what we inherited but it has been liquidated largely.
And what is the balance now?
I am not the Financial Secretary, but I can tell you that about N3.5 billion has been settled. You can also work the Arithmetic and deduct N3.5 billion from N8.7 billion. But I cannot tell you that this is the figure. If you had asked me earlier, I would have called the Treasurer to tell me the figure. If I mention a figure now, I could be unspecific, but I can tell you that some of those payments have been made.
We had a meeting about these debts that were owed to lawyers for litigations and it will interest you to know that since we came on board, we have reduced liabilities in terms of legal exposures. What happened is that we have been able to improve on internal conflict resolution mechanisms, such that we are able to manage post-primary conflicts so that it does not result in litigations. So, we are talking of inherited legal liabilities. We have held meetings with them and some of them compromised and then compromised and took a lesser sum so that we can continue to move forward. We are still talking to some of them.
Why was the chairman calling for a bailout then?
He did not call for a bailout. Maybe you need to read the text again. He was highlighting and telling them this was the obligation we had, and that we have been able to sort out some of them. That is the context in which that statement was made. We have a budget of 2024 and that of 2025. He was not calling for a bailout. He just highlighted the concerns so that our stakeholders will be able to know.
To be clear, is APC managing its resources very well?
Definitely.
And there is no question that the APC is not impoverished by this massive debt?
There is nothing massive about it. We pay our obligations as at when due. Of course, there is no organisation that does not have either direct on contingent liabilities. And that is when you present your balance sheet you will be able to reflect that. Even Nigeria as a country has such liabilities.
