- Parlous economy should rather be blamed – VON DG
Two chieftains of the All Progressives Congress have sharply disagreed over the causes of the lingering crises rocking the ruling party at the state and national levels.
While a chieftain of the APC from the North, Dr. Abdulrahman Usman, blamed the leadership of the party for the perennial crises, the Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, who is from the South-Eastern party of the country, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, opposed him, saying the economic hardship in the country was responsible for the restiveness in the ruling party.
Usman and Okechukwu spoke on a radio programme monitored by our correspondent in Osogbo, Osun State.
Usman warned that should impunity, lack of equity, fairness and justice, which he argued were the bedrock of the crises persist among the top echelons of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari would be the one that would greatly suffer the consequences.
He argued that the damage already done to the APC was not reparable, adding that whoever succeeded the incumbent National Chairman of the APC, Chief Odigie Oyegun, would not be able to redeem the party.
The APC chieftain knocked President Buhari, Oyegun and other leaders of the party, for insisting on the tenure elongation of the National Working Committee, saying, “A Tsunami will soon hit APC!”
If these crises are not curtailed in time, President Buhari will be a great loser
Usman described those opposing fresh convention at the national level as “enemies of democracy” who should be prosecuted for flouting internal democratic rules.
He predicted that the APC would soon become desolated should members keep violating the rule of law and internal democracy of the party.
According to him, “That the crisis in APC persists is due to impunity, lack of equity, fairness and justice. I sympathise with Adams Oshiomole, because the damage in APC is irreparable. He (Oshiomole) would not be able to upturn the congresses. If these crises are not curtailed in time, President Buhari will be a great loser.
“I foresee a Tsunami in the APC. I suggest that enemies of democracy should be prosecuted. Those who flout internal democracy should be punished.”
But the VON DG, Okechukwu, differed on the reasons behind the bickering and violence in the party, saying the dire economic downturn confronting the country should be blamed.
He absolved Buhari and Oyegun from the crises and also denied that the recent congresses conducted by the party were marred with violence.
The VON boss said other parties had been clustering around the APC because they had seen its prospects of winning any of the forthcoming elections, saying, “When the market is bigger and more prosperous, there is more noise (crisis) in the market. It’s a natural phenomenon.
“The Congresses we had had been a huge success. We have over 10,000 electoral wards across the country, and you cannot say because there are crises in less than ten or five percent of these wards, then everything is crisis-ridden. The man that died in Rivers was a hoodlum and he was killed before the Congresses.
“What is happening in APC is not unusual. Every other party is clamouring around us because President Buhari will win landslide in 2019. People know that with the APC they can win any election.”
Dismissing claims that Oyegun was partly responsible for the crises bedeviling the party, the VON boss said, “It’s not about Oyegun; it’s not about the APC. It’s about the dire downturn of the economy. The expectations that people had were dashed and this was because President Buhari met a bad economy. Economy determines the super structure of any political space.
“The state of the Nigerian economy is responsible for the crisis in the APC, and that’s one. Secondly, and most importantly, because of the prospects. When I was leading the CPC, how many people were coming close to us? When the market is bigger and more prosperous, there is more noise (crisis) in the market (party). It’s a natural phenomenon.
“By the time we finish the national convention, the party will rebound, and when it rebounds, we will now extend olive branch to those aggrieved.”
