From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has resolved to adopt an indirect mode of primary to elect the party’s candidate for the November 8 Anambra State off-cycle governorship election.
National Secretary, Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru, who made the disclosure while addressing newsmen yesterday after its weekly meeting, announced that there would be public sensitisation regarding the mode of primary and the new timetable adjusted in line with the decision.
The party’s chief scribe also revealed that the NWC has fixed a meeting on Tuesday next week to carry along all stakeholders, like the State Working Committee, State Caucus and all the aspirants at the national headquarters of the party.
He said: “Our meeting also considered the processes in the ongoing Anambra governorship election, which is scheduled for November 8, 2025. The NWC took cognisance of the fact that advertisement had been made and it seems the advertisement was seemingly projecting that the NWC had adopted direct mode of primary. But, in actual fact, no positive resolution of the NWC had been taken before today as to the mode of primary.
“At the NWC today, it was put into consideration and now formally decided that the mode of emergence of the candidate for that election will be through indirect primary.
“In order to carry along all stakeholders, a stakeholders’ meeting with the state working committee, state caucus and the aspirants will be held at the national headquarters of the party by 1pm on Tuesday next week to carry them along.
“And correspondence to this effect will be made to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Of course, there will be supplementary advertisement and public sensitisation as to the mode of primary and the new timetable adjusted in line with that decision,” he said.
According to the chief scribe, the NWC also considered other issues like extending invitations to ministers to appraise their performances, the outcome of the National Caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings and review the ongoing membership e-registration of the party.
He said: “The NWC considered the recently held Caucus and NEC meetings of the party and of the opinion that it was largely successful, notwithstanding certain misrepresentation as to who to attend and who not to attend. We discovered that certain people, who were not members of the NEC, were reported by many media as being absent, whereas they are not members of the NEC but for some political expediency were reported to be absent.
“Former governors are not members of NEC. The NEC has set up a committee to review our constitution for the purposes of inclusivity of such elements. For the avoidance of doubt, there were some who were members of the caucus that attended but did not attend because they are not members of NEC.
“The former Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, was at the Caucus but certain media reported that he was absent from NEC.
“The NWC equally commended Mr President, and by extension, every member of the party’s leadership for coming to the meetings and giving proper directions for the party ahead of our journey in 2025.”
On invitations to ministers, Ajibola said: “The NWC also considered its proposition to begin to engage with government appointees on their achievements of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu. And we agreed that the processes will begin in earnest immediately after the Ramadan fasting, so that there will be engagement between the party and the government officials to x-ray the progress and challenges faced by different ministries, departments and agencies of our government.
“The NWC also reviewed the ongoing membership e-registration of the party and the consultants doing the work have been mobilised. Necessary equipment and software are being put in place to ensure that the exercise which is slated to be made public by May is made seamless because our commitment is that before the next election, we would have a register that has integrity and also useful for the purposes of accessing the demographics within the party,” he said.
