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The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, says he will not be resigning from his position as directed by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Naija News reports that the presidential hopeful was reacting to the new guidelines released by the ruling party on Monday in Abuja.
Recall that the APC had asked all political appointees who have the intention to contest in the party’s primary elections to resign.
In its new guidelines, the party urged the political appointees who aspire to contest to resign at least 30 days before the conduct of the primaries.
With the new guidelines in place, all political appointees who have presidential ambitions have three days to resign or forget their 2023 aspirations.
While appointees who have governorship, National and State Assembly ambitions are expected to resign latest by today as the party has scheduled its primary for May 18 and 23.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Nwajiuba stated that the call for him and other political appointees eyeing elective positions to resign is unconstitutional.
The minister stressed that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) permitted aspirants to resign 30 days before the election and no other law has been formulated regarding the issue.
Nwajiuba asserted that he will be adhering to the constitution and not resign from his position ahead of the APC presidential primaries billed for May 30 to June 1, 2022.
He said: “The resignation of a minister or anybody who is in office is guided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We are required to contest elections if we want.
“We are required to resign 30 days before any election we choose to contest. That is the position of the law. Every other person can have an opinion.
“My position is that the law of the country rests on the grundnorm called Constitution. If you do not like the Constitution, your work is to amend it.
“There is no subrogation of power that is required for you to include into a law what is not in that law.”
Earlier, the minister had picked his APC Presidential Nomination and Expression of Interest Forms at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja.
