APC Govs Slam Buhari For Sidelining Party Leadership In Ambassadorial Nomination Process
Some governors elected under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have expressed discontent over the choice of non-career ambassadorial nominees whose names were submitted last week by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Senate for screening and confirmation.
The governors and some leaders of the party complained that they were completely sidelined from the selection process.
According to them, such an action rendered them inconsequential in the power equation in their home zones.
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The APC bigwigs, therefore, vowed to frustrate the proposed ambassadors whose nomination was not endorsed by the party leaders in their states.
An aggrieved leader who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “This disregard for party leadership and supremacy must stop.”
A source said, “This is the same thing the wife of the president, Aisha, was talking about. These same people are the ones who drafted the list as they wanted and pushed it through without consulting anyone,” the source said referring to cabals who had allegedly hijacked the government as revealed by the first lady, Aisha Buhari during an interview with BBC.
“Even in Ogun State where the governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, is assumed to be very close to the president, was said to have had no say in the choice of nominee from the state, as Ade Asekun was said to have been nominated by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo,” even though the Ogun governor may not have a problem with that.
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“The choice of Justice George Oguntade from Lagos was said to have been entirely the decision of the president, because it was seen as compensation for the retired Supreme Court justice’s minority report in 2008 when Buhari challenged the outcome of the presidential election that the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua won in 2007.”
It was learnt that most ambassadorial nominees were decided by the presidency, with sources adding that it is for this reason aggrieved leaders of the party have vowed to turn to the Senate to assert their place in a government they helped to install.
