The All Progressives Congress (APC) is battle-ready to face all legal issues that will arise from the 2023 general elections across the country.
The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, today, February 13, inaugurated the party’s Legal Compliance Committee, with responsibility for more than 1,400 Federal and State elective positions in polls holding later this month and the next.
The committee will be coordinated by the APC National Legal Adviser, Ahmad El-Marzuq, and is made up of carefully selected lawyers. The committee is tasked with the provision of comprehensive legal services to the party during the electioneering period.
At the inauguration of the party were the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami; the Minister of State, Labour and Productivity, Festus Keyamo amongst others.
Speaking at the inauguration, Vice President Osinbajo said that the Committee is crucial to the achievement of the party’s electoral ambitions in the 2023 Elections both at Federal and State levels across the country.
The responsibilities of the APC Legal Compliance Committee, he said, include ensuring that all internal structures of the party and external engagements of the party are conducted in accord with established operating procedures and the law; insulating the campaign of the party at all levels against breaches of rules, regulations, guidelines, and laws by ensuring strict compliance thereof; and to develop compliance checklists and protocols, conduct trainings for campaign personnel, and prepare compliance reports for the party, among others.
He called on the members of the committee to be proactive and remain committed to this critical assignment.
“I am therefore glad that we have here an assembly of very committed members of the party, who, by their calling as lawyers, will be able to offer tremendous value for the party through protection of its interests at every step of this electoral process.
“Those of you that have worked with us in the build-up to the 2015 and the 2019 general elections know that the proactive approach we adopted, especially through the ear-on-the-ground work of the Presidential Legal Team, has provided us crucial head-start in tackling some of the challenges that we were confronted with.
Professor Osinbajo insisted that APC has remained the only party anchored on social democracy, social protection and social
“Ours is the only party anchored on social democracy, social protection, that is, social mobility for the poor, and justice for the wronged.”
according to the Vice President, the party’s manifesto in 2014, 2015 and 2023 contained the most detailed Social Investment Policy, saying: “in 2015, we became the first government to make budgetary provision of N500 billion for a comprehensive Social Investment Programme; feeding 9.5 million children in our Home-grown School Feeding Programme, providing jobs for 500,000 unemployed graduates through our N-Power programme, many deployed to primary schools in the hinterland as teachers, others trained under the N-TECH, N-BUILD. Our GEEP programme provided 2 million informal traders with small loans via its TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni schemes.
“We also built up the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme. Along with the World Bank and local Communities we complied a register of the poorest Nigerians and began a programme of giving them a total of about N20,000 monthly per household and introduced livelihood support. Our opponents criticized us, for providing money for the poor to do their business, we say to them that is who we are a party committed to lifting the poor out of poverty, but we are also accountable.
“Every person given a loan is properly documented on our electronic perform. They were given money by alerts on their phones so all loans are trackable and the entire process is auditable.”
The Vice President also recalled that the GEEP microcredit programmes, managed by the Bank of Industry (BOI), won several awards including the African Bankers Award twice, as well as getting, other global recognitions.
He said that the party remained committed to progressive left-of-the-centre ideology, adding that despite global economic challenges, the APC administration under President Buhari has achieved much in the pursuit of this vision.
“These are achievements known to even our detractors, though they admit so only behind closed doors. Knowing where we were in 2014, and the challenges we were able to overcome, and knowing the very likely danger of reversal of all that has been achieved by the Buhari administration, our Governors in States, and our legislators at national and State levels, we cannot afford to be nonchalant. Rather, we have to be proactive.”
Earlier, the spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign Council and Minister of State, Labour and Productivity, Keyamo, thanked the Vice President for his commitment to the service of the party and nation, saying that the importance of the Legal Compliance Committee particularly in the forthcoming elections across the country cannot be over emphasized.
He said that the task before the committee is huge but expressed confidence that given the support of the Vice President and other stakeholders, it will succeed in delivering on its mandate before, during and after the general elections.
