In response to claims that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has not paid its employees for more than a year, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC) has urged Nigerian voters to reject the party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in the forthcoming general elections.
The APC-PCC spokesperson, Mr. Dele Alake, called the ADC leadership’s actions “unconscionable, wicked, and reprehensible” in a statement released in Abuja on Monday. He contended that a political organization that is incapable of fulfilling its internal administrative responsibilities is incapable of overseeing national governance.
Alake accused the ADC’s National Working Committee, which is led by former Osun State Governor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary and Senator David Mark as National Chairman, of disregarding the welfare of its employees.
“It has come to our attention that the National Working Committee of the African Democratic Congress, led by Senator David Mark as Chairman and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as Secretary, has refused and neglected to pay party staff for over a year,” Alake stated.
“We find it unconscionable that a political party that has made many grandiose promises to hoodwink Nigerians owes its workers for more than 12 months. Owing staff who come to work every day and who rely on the salaries for their daily sustenance is wicked and reprehensible.”
““A party that cannot pay its cleaners and workforce cannot be entrusted with our country’s affairs.”
“Atiku Abubakar, the ADC’s leader and presidential candidate, has a reputation for owing his employees. While he regularly junkets to the UAE, staff at his Gotel Communication and other businesses also went months without pay and staged protests over unpaid salaries and other benefits.”
Commenting on Aregbesola, the APC PCC spokesperson said: “The record of the ADC National Secretary, Rauf Aregbesola, on paying workers’ salaries and pensioners in Osun State, where he was a governor for 8 years, was abysmal. As governor, he mismanaged the state’s finances to the point that he could not pay workers. His government thus introduced quarter-salary and, at times, half-salary payments. As for pensioners, he abandoned them for more than four years”.
Characterising the ADC leadership as “birds of the same feather,” Alake urged working-class Nigerians and voters to distance themselves from all ADC candidates contesting in the general elections.
“We are sounding a warning to Nigerians and working people now: reject ADC. Reject Atiku Abubakar and reject all ADC candidates in the next general elections. They do not have the interest of our country and our people at heart,” the statement concluded. “A party that aspires to govern Nigeria and which cannot be trusted with something as basic as the management of its own affairs and the welfare of its workforce should be rejected by Nigerians.”
Ultimately, Nigerian politicians are often quick to trade accusations and attack one another, making it difficult for the public to know the full truth behind claims such as the alleged unpaid cleaners. What matters most is that the issue is addressed transparently and that all political actors support a peaceful, credible and fair election.
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