- The part Buhari has played
- Governors threaten to leave party
- Oshiomhole can’t survive current crisis, says Edo APC chair
- His opponents only wasting their time- Party caucus chief
The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress may be far from over with findings that consensus on whether the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, should remain in office or not may not be reached in the near future.
Our correspondents gathered at the weekend that some former and current governors were already threatening to leave the ruling party for the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party or some other top three if Oshiomhole continued as APC chairman.
However, the embattled chairman, who has been accused of digging the grave of the party with his actions, has, reportedly, also been able to get a fraction of the governors on his side.
Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari met, behind closed doors, with APC governors and state chairmen of the party, at different times, with the crisis around the chairmanship of the party being a major item of discussion.
The Forum of State Chairmen of the APC, under the chairmanship of Hon. Ali Bukar, had accused governors of planning to remove Oshiomhole from office, hinting that the governors had started collecting signatures.
This move by the chairmen, according to a top APC member, who asked not to be named, owing to the sensitivity of the issue, was expected, considering “the fact that Oshiomhole’s National Working Committee imposed many of the state executives on the party.”
THE PART THE PRESIDENT HAS PLAYED – INSIDERS
A close aide of one of the APC governors, who spoke to one of our correspondents at the weekend, blamed the President for the protracted crisis, saying he was not decisive.
The APC chieftain, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “The only reason Oshiomhole is still there as chairman, with all the attrocities he has committed, is that the President is not decisive. He is too open-minded. He believes everybody and does not think they have a reason to lie to him about a particular issue.
“If, for instance, you find something truly harmful that someone has done, and you call the attention of the President to it, he would call the person involved and ask him. He would then come back to you to say ‘I told you, I’ve asked him, he said he didn’t do that.’ Under normal circumstances, Oshiomhole should have gone since. He is the worst chairman any party could have, and certainly not the ruling party. The President needs to be firmer on party issues.”
‘OSHIOMHOLE MUST LEAVE FOR PEACE TO REIGN’
While some members and leaders of the party, even from Oshiomhole’s Edo State, have said that he must leave if the party must remain alive, others are saying that he has done well, as evidenced by the overall results of the last elections.
The Chairman of the APC in Edo State, Anselm Ojezua, said he could not see Oshiomhole surviving the ongoing crisis in the ruling party.
Ojezua is an ally of Governor Godwin Obaseki who has been entangled in a fierce political battle with Oshiomhole, his immediate predecessor in the Edo State Government House.
The intractable battle between Obaseki and Oshiomhole has factionalised both the Edo APC and the state assembly.
A Benin High Court recently restrained a faction of the APC loyal to Oshiomhole from removing Ojezua as the state chairman of APC.
Ojezua’s faction recently announced the ‘suspension’ of Oshiomhole from the APC in his Edo home state.
Also, several loyalists of Oshiomhole in the Edo State Government have either been relieved of their positions or suspended from the party to weaken the APC national chairman’s grip on the party machinery in the state.
More than 10 of the yet-to-be inaugurated elected state lawmakers said to be loyal to Oshiomhole are currently on self-exile in Abuja reportedly for fear of their safety in Edo.
Speculations are rife that the APC in the Edo may lose the governorship in next year’s election in the state, if the protracted crisis is not resolved.
Speaking on Oshiomhole’s suspension from the Edo APC, Ojezua, said, “Once you lose the confidence of your people; you lose the confidence of your colleagues, you lose the confidence of key members of the party, what moral justification do you have to lead?
“If your people said they have suspended you from their membership, do you really have the legitimacy to conduct the affairs of the party as an officer? I think these are some of the main questions that people should ask. Can you function as an officer if your membership has been suspended?
“The rule of the party is that you have to be suspended from your ward; that has been done; it has been decided at the local government and state levels.
“What moral, legal or constitutional justification does he have to retain or function in the office, when his own people have expressed their lack of confidence in him? That is the issue. It is that lack of confidence that led to suspension. So, if they are looking at the legitimacy or legality of the suspension, can they also question the lack of confidence?”
But the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, said Oshiomhole’s position as the APC national chairman was not negotiable.
He, therefore, dismissed moves by some party members to remove him from office, saying, “Let me state that the position of the National Chairman is a very key position zoned to the South-South.
“It is our position and I have always maintained that it is we who will decide that we don’t want our chairman and not outsiders.
“Without prejudice to the decision taken at NEC setting up a National Reconciliation Committee to be headed by leaders nominated by the President, I want to make it clear that we have our national chairman and we must stand by him.
“We are pushing for reconciliation but his seat is not negotiable. It will be very, very absurd for us to go to the South West and say we don’t want the Vice President or go to the North West and say we don’t want the President or go to the North East and say we don’t want the Senate President.
“So, we must dwell on those things that unite us rather than those things that divide us.”
The deputy senate president’s position is corroborated by a chieftain of the South-South Caucus of the APC, Major Gen Cecil Esekhaigbe (rtd).
He told The Point that the plan to remove Oshiomhole would amount to a fruitless exercise that would continue to hit the rock as many times as its masterminds tried.
Esekhaigbe, who is a former military attache to the Nigerian High Commission in the United Kingdom, said the recently held National Executive Committee of the Party, where President Buhari openly passed a vote of confidence in Oshiomhole was enough for those planning to remove him as APC national chairman to desist.
He said, “The Party caucus, NEC and non-NEC members have passed vote of confidence in the national chairman, the President also said that the party is supreme, no one person or group, governors or senators will ever hijack our party again as it used to be. Senator Bukola Saraki and others were able to hijack the party structure then. But now, Oshiomhole said no, this cannot happen again; the guilty ones are fighting him.
“That was the problem in Zamfara, Ogun, Imo, Oyo, Rivers states and even to an extent in Edo State. Because Oshiomhole want these guys, this cabal to know that party constitution is supreme, they ganged up and started shouting Oshiomhole must go. Go where?
“If not for Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s radicalism coupled with his dogged experience in politics, PDP with all their tricks would have won the general elections. But thank God that President Buhari acknowledged his efforts in putting APC on a good footing to win.”
Esekhaigbe also said since Oshiomhole was still “soundly and seriously” in the good books of the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, those planning to oust him from the office of the APC national chairman were only laboring in vain.
“With my position, am privileged to have had an interaction with these great leaders; none of the leaders is in support of the few aggressive ones. They have also advised them to tread the path of peace. Sincerely speaking, Oshiomhole has achieved so much more under one year and some months in office, compared to others. So, if they want to be day-dreaming about removing Oshiomhole, let them continue,” he said.
