The Chairman of Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole, has vowed to expel the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, and the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, from the party for failing to inaugurate the boa¬rds of agencies under their ministries.
When he took over the party two weeks ago, Oshiomhole gave Ngige and Sirika seven days to comply or face sanctions from the party. In a letter dated July 11, 2018 and addr¬essed to the ministers, he berated them for failing to re-constitute the boards in violation of government’s directive. He also described the action as a great disrespect to the party.
Oshiomhole had declared to reporters that the party under his leadership would no longer tolerate contempt from any minister. During a closed-door meeting he held with Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday, Oshiomhole said: “If the minister refuses, we will suspend him from the party. You know we must return to internal discipline. For me, it is the height of mischief for any minister. You cannot purport to be a honourable minister and act dishonourably. Nobody is greater than the party”.
He continued, “If the president condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. And when we expel the minister, we will prevail on the President that he can’t keep in his Cabinet people who neither have respect for his own decisions nor for the party, without which they would not have been ministers. There are no independent candidates in our system. Nobody, I emphasise, no minister is above the party. They have taken undue advantage of the president’s fath¬erly disposition”. Observers wondered why the man became so enraged.
Meanwhile, a wave of defection in the National Assembly this week has robbed the ruling party of 14 senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives. The party particularly regrets the loss of Benue State Governor, Sam Ortom, who announced his departure on Wednesday.
