Lawan speaks on ending APC crisis before ‘doomsday’

Nigeria’s Senate President, Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan on Sunday said he was optimistic that the crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would end before it degenerated to unmanageable level.

Speaking to State House correspondents,after he met with President Muhammadu Buhari, he said certain actions would be taken in a matter of days to ensure that the ruling party was not consumed by the crisis.

He also concerned over the worsening security problem in some parts of the country, explaining that he visited the President out his conviction that the APC imbroglio, should not be allowed to “degenerate”.

Lawan called for strict adherence to the party constitution as a way of ending the crisis.

He said: “I had the opportunity to talk to my leader, the President, about the challenges in the APC. I believe that we need to deal with the challenges. This is the ruling party of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with the President, in control of the National Assembly, with more governors than any other political party.

“The situation must not be allowed to degenerate than it has and I believe that we must go into the Constitution of our party and see how we are can address them. We must not allow the situation to continue as it is today because the stability of APC is the stability of Nigeria. This is the party running the affairs of this country.

“I believe that we have to sort the problems out. That will make our work even better and easier when we have a stable party. Our party is supposed to be part of the apparatus of running government.

“We are supposed to run or operate or implement or execute the manifesto of the party. The party is key; it is central and essential to ensuring that government, whether on the Executive or the Legislative side, continues to face those issues in our manifesto.

“I had the opportunity to discuss that with Mr President, who is the leader of the party and by the grace of God, in a few days, we will see certain actions that will be taken.

“I’m praying that all our leaders across the country will make every possible effort to get the party reconciled.”

On the security situation in the country, the Senate President said it was the opinion of the Senate and the National Assembly that more resources were needed by the armed forces and paramilitary organisations to stem the tide.

Lawan said the National Assembly would be positively disposed to receiving a supplementary budget for enhanced funding of security agencies.

He called on the service chiefs and heads of security outfits to sit up and deliver on their mandate.

”Don’t forget that we provided for N500 billion worth of intervention for COVID-19 campaign in the revised budget and various agencies