- Adamu justified the delay in the unveiling of the President’s ministers and heads of ministries, others
- Adamu had earlier cautioned party chieftains against nursing high expectations of being appointed as ministers
In light of the internal disputes dividing the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the party’s chairman, claimed he harbours no ill feelings towards President Bola Tinubu.
This was said by Adamu during a Tuesday interview on Arise Television
He said, “At least we led this party to success, we can’t wished that away. We as APC produced him (Tinubu) and I have had the privilege of leading that.
“For your information, I’ve enjoyed a good working relationship with President Ahmed Tinubu GCFR since he was inaugurated to date.
“In fact, since his election, there’s nothing I’ve gone to him to talk about that I didn’t get his attention or didn’t share my thoughts effectively with him.
“So, these are people, who are just trading gossips and trying to create bad blood between me and my president. He is more than that. He’s the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I am privileged to be the Chairman of the ruling party today.
“And if I don’t accept for any reason, I will not hesitate to walk up to him and say “Mr Prsident sorry, this is my position on certain issues, if he disagrees with me and I disagree with him, we’ll find a way to resolve our differences.”
Recall that the APC chairman had earlier cautioned party chieftains against nursing high expectations of being appointed as ministers by Tinubu, saying everybody can’t be a cabinet member.
Adamu also justified the delay in the unveiling of the President’s ministers and heads of ministries, departments and agencies, saying Tinubu was carrying out an extensive consultation before making an official announcement.
The former Nasarawa State governor stated this at the meeting of the National Working Committee and APC state chairmen at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja on Monday.
The meeting was attended by a delegation of 32 members of the Forum of APC Chairmen, including their leader, Ali Dalori, and acting Secretary, Alphonsus Ogah.
Addressing the party chieftains, Adamu said, “Every APC member has an inherent right to hope to get some patronage. We cannot all be ministers of the government. We cannot all end up as board members, directors of parastatals and MDAs across the country.
“The President has just started. He is doing his extensive consultations before coming up with his nominees for ministers. The nomination of the ministers will come first. They will go through their screening until they are pronounced after they have been submitted before Mr President.
“He will formally appoint his ministers and swear them in. Only then will he disclose each of them to the country to know which minister is going to which ministry and how many ministries we are going to have.
“After that is done, the ministers will assume office, make a comprehensive report, starting from all the ministries and MDAs under them, before we know what vacancies exist for chief executives, directors and part-time directors.
“These are some of the exercises that will take place in the next two months. It cannot happen by next week. But certainly, that is what we should be expecting.”
The APC chairman expressed optimism that Tinubu would consider party loyalists at both state and national levels for appointments.
He said, “But we do expect some patronage from the government that we are forming. It is our hope and prayers that Mr President will come along with us in that regard and strengthen the relationship of the party in the states and at the national level will enjoy some level of patronage in the new government.
“Those are the key issues that we do hope to share with you in the course of this meeting,” he added.