The newly-registered All Progressives Congress, APC, will on Tuesday inaugurate its Interim Management Committee, IMC, at its national headquarters in Abuja.
APC, which is the merger of some defunct opposition parties, namely the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; Congress for Progressive Change, CPC;, All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP; and factions of Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, and All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, was registered as a political party last Wednesday by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Among those to be inaugurated are Bisi Akande (National Chairman); Senator Annie Okonkwo (Deputy National Chairman, South); Aminu Masari (Deputy National Chairman, North); Tijani Tumsah (National Secretary); Nasir el-Rufai (Deputy National Secretary); Sadiya Farouq (National Treasurer); Lai Mohammed (National Publicity Secretary); and Isa Madu Chul (Deputy National Publicity Secretary).
Others are the Senator Osita Izunaso (National Organising Secretary), Niyi Adebayo (National Vice-Chairman, South-West), Tom Ikimi, (National Vice-Chairman, South-South), Abdullahi Aboki (National Vice-Chairman, North-Central), Anyim Nyerere (National Vice-Chairman, South-East), Salisu Fagge (National Vice-Chairman, North-West), and Umaru Duhu (National Vice-Chairman, North-East).
The IMC members drawn from the merger parties are expected to serve for six months after which the substantive officials will be elected at a national convention.
With the inauguration of the interim leadership, the new party would kick off administratively as it is expected to field a candidate in the November 16 governorship election in Anambra State.
Meanwhile, staff of the three major parties in the merger, have reportedly become jittery over the possibility of losing their jobs following the registration of APC.
At the national secretariats of ACN, CPC and ANPP, some of the workers with no clear job descriptions may be asked to go as the new party will not be able to accommodate them.
The worst hit, it was learnt is the ANPP, whose large chunk of workforce is allegedly idle.
A source told PREMIUM TIMES in confidence that most of the workers who hitherto were not qualified for the jobs they were employed for were brought to the national secretariat by past governors of Borno, Yobe and Zamfara who wanted to “help their people get jobs.” The three states have been governed by ANPP since the return of democracy in 1999.
The ANPP workers held a meeting on Monday afternoon at the party’s secretariat in the Central Business District of Abuja where they discussed strategies of dealing with the matter.
Although, it was not clear what decisions were taken, the source said a good number of them had realized that not all of them would be reabsorbed by the new party.