APC State Chairmen Demand Lifetime NEC Membership, Want Constitutional Rule for Deputy Chairmen

State chairmen of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have demanded automatic and lifetime membership of the party’s National Executive Council (NEC).

Dependable NG reports that the Forum of APC Chairmen, which also wants inclusion in other key decision-making organs of the party, submitted a memorandum during the first public hearing of the APC Constitution Amendment Committee in Calabar, on Tuesday. The chairmen argued that their vast experience and direct grassroots reach are vital to the party’s internal democracy and should not be discarded upon leaving office.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Dr. Dennis Otiotio, the Bayelsa State APC Chairman, stressed the importance of constitutional definition for other roles, stating that the forum equally wants defined constitutional roles for deputy chairmen. “It is our considered opinion that as more people continue to join our great party, state chairmen should be made statutory members of the NEC,” Otiotio stated. “They should also remain part of it even after leaving office because of the experience they would have acquired.”

Furthermore, the forum proposed amendments to tighten membership rules, recommending that new entrants must spend more than three months as ordinary members before becoming eligible to contest for any party office. They also sought to resolve leadership tussles in states with multiple former governors by recommending that the oldest among them be recognized as the party leader, instead of allowing a newly defected sitting governor to automatically take over the position.