Buhari Rejects APC Leaders' Request For Financial Assistance

President Muhammadu Buhari has politely turned down an appeal by leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to get funding assistance from the Presidency.

This was disclosed by a highly reliable source on the condition of anonymity who told THISDAY that Buhari declined any commitment to bear the financial burden of running the party.

It was

gathered that the leadership of the APC had held a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari last Monday, January 11, to brief him on the state of affairs of the party.

Speaking at the meeting, the leadership of the ruling party had revealed to President Buhari the critical state of the party’s finances, urging the president and other elected members to assist in funding the operations of the party.

Those who were at the meeting of the NWC with President Buhari included the National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun; National Secretary, Alhaji Mai-Mala Buni; Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawan Shuaibu, and Deputy National Chairman, Chief Segun Oni.

However, a source on the condition of anonymity told THISDAY: “Buhari declined from making any financial commitment. He rather reminded the APC NWC members of how the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) messed themselves up by dipping their hands into public funds to run the party campaigns. He said he would not want APC to be seen as behaving in the same manner, moreso now that it is running a corrective government. Since its victory at the 2015 presidential polls in which it secured majority support based on its change mantra, the APC have been very careful to avoid the some of the pitfalls of the PDP.”

According to the report, the APC had relied on voluntary donations from generous members until the internal struggles for power and relevance at the National Assembly had triggered hostile relationships among leaders and it was learnt that one of the strong financiers of APC and former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has decided to go underground following his displeasure at the actions of the Oyegun-led NWC.

However, following the meeting at the presidency, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the APC national chairman summoned an enlarged meeting of members of the NWC on Thursday, January 14, at the party’s headquarters in Abuja where they were briefed on the outcome of discussions with President Buhari.

The NWC then resolved that as part of a fund-raising strategy the party should implement provisions of its constitution which allowed for fees to be charged on members holding elective and appointive positions. Also, an initiative was proposed for all card-carrying members of the ruling party to henceforth pay levies in support of the day-to-day operations of the party.

Meanwhile, Femi Adesina, the special adviser to president Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that the president is willing to grant ex-president Goodluck Jonathan audience, should he sought to make clarifications in view of the $2.1billion arms deal scandal which is under investigation.