The Forum of Former Deputy Governors of Nigeria has requested that the All Progressives Congress National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, change the party’s charter to let former deputy governors to attend APC National Executive Committee meetings.
When they visited Ganduje at the APC national headquarters in Abuja on Monday, a 60-member delegation from the group made the appeal.
The forum’s chairman, Chris Akomas, criticised the ex-deputy governors’ absence from the list of guests who attended the NEC meeting at the Transcorp Hilton two weeks ago and said they have a sizable following in Nigerian politics.
The former deputy governor of Imo State added, “Our own interests should be protected,” speaking to reporters. If there is a political party where you have donated and you are not included when the group makes important decisions…Once more, we consider the exclusion to be an omission. You got the Speakers and Deputy Speakers, but you missed the people that carried the state’s structures and serviced the entire state. It is bad for both the political party and effective government, as well as the Forum of Former Deputy Governors of Nigeria. This is due to the fact that fostering intellectual exchange is essential to effective governance. We already mentioned the skills, experience, knowledge, and professionalism present in the forum of deputy governors. All businesses need to implement that.
As a result of his experience working as a deputy governor for his former employer-turned-political rival, Rabiu Kwankwaso, in Kano, Ganduje responded to their concern by promising to look into the matter and expressing sympathy for their plight.
“A problematic post in governance is that of a deputy governor. God lacks a constable because of this. As a political party, the APC is curious about how the government functions. It works both ways. The same way we receive information from the government and disseminate it to the populace, we also relay grievances to the government from the populace.
“Everyone serves others. The region is off limits. Deputy governors are thought of as a backup. And the value of having a spare tyre is well known. If you don’t require it while you are in good health, you will when you are in crisis.
Sycophancy is a problem that deputy governors will also have to deal with. Sycophants will call you garbage and all that when you accompany a governor on a walk and walk side by side to hear him while he speaks. Sycophants will claim that you are adopting a lukewarm attitude if you show your principal respect by following them. Tell me now, which position will you hold. It’s challenging,” he declared.
