President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration has done well despite the limited resources at its disposal.
The president said this at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which held in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said when his government came on board, terrorists were in charge of some local government areas and the South South, which currently enjoy relative peace, was restive.
“I will like us to reflect on what the situation was before we came in. How many Local Government Areas were under the control of terrorists in the North-East? In the South-South, we all know what the situation was; now we have relative peace. With the resources at our disposal, we have done very well.
“People are very forgetful. Our main problem now is in the North West and North Central. People are killing one another in these places, what for? We are going to be very tough.’’
The President also warned against imposition in the ruling party, saying such dictatorial tendency has cost APC some seats.
He asked party members to follow due process in all the party processes as well as to develop more mechanisms against corruption.
“I enjoin you all to follow due process in all the party processes and more importantly to develop more mechanisms against corruption.”
“I call on all party members to abide by all extant laws, rules, and regulations and to leaders of our party to avoid imposition of candidates that cannot win popular elections.
“This dictatorial behavior cost us many strategic seats in the past. In the recent past this led to some of our strong members unfortunately opting to go elsewhere because of unfairly oppressive behavior of party leaders at state level.
“I must caution strongly against any tendency towards developing cliques, in-fighting within the party.
“We want to win well not succumb to factions on account of personal acerbities and desire to retain control at all costs. That surely is not the road to win,’’ he said.
The president also told new members of the National Working Committee (NWC), which had been delegated powers of NEC for a period, to work towards keeping the party together by creating more room for discussions.
On forthcoming general elections in 2023, Buhari urged party members to be more mindful of the pitfalls that led to the ouster of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.
