All Progressives Congress leaders in the South West zone said in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Thursday that restructuring was not in the party’s manifesto.
Chief Bisi Akande, a former APC National Interim Chairman, who spoke on behalf of the leaders at the end of their meeting, said the word “restructuring” was not the language of the party.
The meeting, which took place at the Executive Chambers of the Oyo State Governor’s Office, is a follow-up to the January 12 conference also held at same venue.
Akande, a former Osun State Governor, said the party had always advocated devolution of functions and true federalism.
He said: “Restructuring is not our language. Go and ask those who are advocating restructuring to define it. What I told you just now is devolution of functions from the centre to the peripheral government, that is, the state and local governments.
“The restructuring is a language of other bodies and groups of people. You can always direct your questions to them on what they mean by restructuring.
“They will tell you whether they want restructuring in economy or in politics or whatever.
“Go and ask the advocates of restructuring what they mean by restructuring.
“That is not in the APC manifesto or constitution.”
He said the meeting had after assessing the performance of APC governors, ministers and other political office holders from the zone scored them high.
Akande said: “We, the leaders of APC in South West together with our leaders in government at all levels have met to review what we decided in our meeting of January and to see whether the efforts of our leaders in government have been fruitful.
“We are happy that we have had a very happy meeting; our resolution is that we are on course as we decided last January. We are happy that all our representatives are performing satisfactorily.”
On the 2019 polls, Akande said the party’s presidential ticket was “open to all party members” across the country, pointing out that President Muhammadu Buhari has yet to inform the party of his intentions to run for a second term.
On the Osun and Ekiti States polls scheduled for 2018, he said the party would intensify efforts to regain Ekiti.
Akande said: “On the coming elections in Ekiti and Osun, we will review our positions and we are poised to retain Osun and have Ekiti back to APC.”
