TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari has commended members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for their efforts in ensuring the success of the party’s just-concluded national convention.

Buhari said this on Sunday during the inauguration of the APC national working committee (NWC) at Eagle Square in Abuja.

Speaking on the development, he said “naysayers” who expected the exercise to be unsuccessful were disappointed.

The new NWC members include Abdullahi Adamu, senator representing Nasarawa west, and Iyiola Omisore, former deputy governor of Osun — both of whom are former members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to a statement by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, Buhari also said the concerns raised over former PDP members being members of the new APC NWC are not enough to doubt their commitment to the ideals of the ruling party.

“That some of the APC’s new leadership were once in the opposition was the new line to take to the media, somehow suggesting that those who have left one party should not hold positions in another,” he was quoted as saying.

“Yet, do the Scriptures not teach us of the virtue of sinners who repent and change their ways? What the Scriptures say less is of sinners who repent, change their tune, and then choose to re-sin in full public view by returning to their former ways.

“Given that most important leaders of the opposition PDP first left the party before they returned to it, we might expect the media to ensure criticism of them is damning and absolute.

“It is incredulous that anyone would consider them trustworthy or acceptable candidates for any public office.

“The stage is now set for the APC primary elections later this year when the party’s new flag bearers will emerge. No doubt some will attempt to argue the impossible – that an APC primary election is a source of division while an opposition primary election is a source of consensus.

“But the good voters of Nigeria can see through such acrobatics and know the facts that, when the contests for 2023 come, APC offers a track record of success and leadership, while the opposition has only decades of failure and complicity in response.”