Lagos / Abuja – Despite leading the All Progressives
Congress (APC) to victory in the just concluded Kogi and Bayelsa
governorship elections, majority of the governors elected on the party’s
platform are resolute in their demands that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole,
the national chairman of the party, must resign and allow a new helmsman
take charge of the affairs of the party.
Daily Independent
gathered that despite claims by loyalists of Oshiomhole that he has been
winning elections for the party, the governors and former governors who
are hell-bent on removing the embattled national chairman are of the
opinion that the party is more divided than ever before under his
leadership and thus the need for a change.
They insisted that
Oshiomhole’s continuous stay has polarised the party, a development they
fear may lead to the party’s collapse, especially when President
Muhammadu Buhari who is perceived as the rallying figure in the party
will not be contesting again.
One of their major arguments is
that it does not speak well for the party when the home base of
Oshiomhole in Edo State is a theatre of war with no peace in sight.
“Contrary
to the impression being created that APC governors are pulling out of
the plot to remove Oshiomhole, those who want him out are increasing on a
daily basis even though his supporters too are doing all they can to
thwart the plot.
“They are claiming rather than seeking his
removal, Oshiomhole should be celebrated for leading the party to
victory in the just concluded elections in Kogi and Bayelsa. However,
the governors and other stakeholders are saying they are not looking at
the present but the future as they doubt that the party can survive
beyond 2023 under Oshiomhole’s leadership.
“They are worried that
post-2023, what will be the fate of the party if President Muhammadu
Buhari is no longer contesting and one person is waging war against
every other person in the party? They are also brought to the table the
fact that the Buhari effect which is a very strong political effect that
makes people vote for APC will no longer be present in 2023.
“A
lot of harmonisation and dialogue is needed to hold the party together
beyond 2023. A large percentage of the governors are of the opinion that
he should honourably turn in his resignation because he has not shown
capacity to lead the party without rancour. The president has always
shown him support but it seems that will not happen this time around.
“A
lot of people who wanted to fund the party are staying away because of
the attitude of the national chairman and these APC stakeholders believe
that this is dangerous to the party’s continued existence.
“A
lot of concerned stakeholders believe Oshiomhole is unfit to lead the
party based on his combative character but only a few bold ones such as
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Prof. Itse Sagay and Charles Idahosa have
publicly come out to demand for his removal”, our source said.
Our
correspondent, however, gathered from another source that Oshiomhole
has insisted that he will not resign, saying he has devoted his time and
energy into instilling discipline in the party and has been leading it
to victories before, during and after the 2019 general elections.
“Oshiomhole
will not resign, I can tell you that for free. Most of the state
chairmen are solidly behind him and they have expressed that to
President Buhari during their meeting with him few days ago. Some state
chairmen who are appreciative of Oshiomhole’s efforts in repositioning
the party have said they will never be part of the plot to remove him
from office.
“Don’t also forget that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the
party’s national leader is solidly behind him. Can a key project such as
the removal of a national chairman be done without Tinubu’s input? He
never wanted Oyegun and he was removed. He supported Oshiomhole and he
became the national chairman. That shows you how influential he is.
“Initially,
they said they will get him out by December. We are already in the
middle of December. Now they are saying January next year, we will all
be alive by January and see if their desires will come to reality”, he
said. Also speaking, the Osun State chairman of the APC, Gboyega
Famoodun, at the weekend said those plotting to remove Oshiomhole are
doing so for selfish reasons.
He said most of his colleagues
believe that Oshiomhole was better than his predecessor (Oyegun) and
since those moving for his removal could not provide tangible reasons,
many state chairmen rallied support for the former labour leader to
retain his job.
“We are all living witnesses to what befell PDP
in this country. The party has retinue of chairmen. Within four years,
they had about six chairmen and they changed Senate President more than
four times. These are all the factors that led to the fall of PDP. And
we decided to run away from it.
“The reason why they wanted to
change him was not because he was not doing well, but because some
believe that if another person is the chairman, they will have their
way.
“Some people came to lobby me when we want to make our
resolution. They said Oshiomhole has not been talking to us but, as far
as I am concerned, he has been an improvement over the former chairman.
“His
system is direct primaries which is sinking into the fabrics of our
party. My own state has benefited from his policy of allowing direct
primaries which is easier for us. Osun was the first state to embark on
direct primaries and this had been practised in some other states too.
“This
has brought some level of sanity into the system. Oshiomhole championed
it and he has succeeded. Another reason they wanted to remove him is
because we lost Zamfara State to carelessness, which is not enough”,
Famoodun said.
How Presidency Stopped Edo Controversial APC Rally
Meanwhile,
the presidency is said to be behind the police order stopping APC
faction from holding last Friday’s mega rally in Benin City, the Edo
State capital.
The directive had followed the not-too-clear
position of President Buhari on the fate of the national chairman of the
APC, Oshiomhole. Daily Independent gathered that close presidential
aides had analysed the president’s body language, especially his
insistence on “due process”, as not enough support for the national
chairman who is facing an internal uprising.
Consequently, the
presidency was said to have ordered the police chief to issue a counter
approval which earlier granted the APC permission to hold the rally.
Following
the clash of interest between Governor Godwin Obaseki and Oshiomhole,
including their supporters in Edo State, the rally scheduled for Friday
by the Oshiomhole faction was suspended till further notice by the
Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, citing overriding
internal security interests.
Daily Independent sources revealed
that the Oshiomhole’s group was said to have moved the idea of
Ize-Iyamu’s rally to test the waters. Sources revealed that all South
South ministers, except Rotimi Amaechi (Minister of Transportation), as
well as the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, were to
attend the Benin rally meant to make a big statement.
Afterwards,
the group – which has its focus on the South West – was to move to Ondo
State where a rally was meant to take place on Saturday, December 21,
2019.
Impeccable sources disclosed that the Ondo rally would have
passed a vote of confidence on Oshiomhole and insist on the dissolution
of the State Executive Council of the APC led by Ade Adetimehin for a
caretaker committee to be headed by a former commissioner, Solagbade
Amodeni, who was recently sacked by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.
The
train would then move to Ado Ekiti, Osogbo, Ibadan, and Abeokuta, all
on a weekly basis for six weeks and then hold the grand finale in Lagos
and would have had Oshiomhole in attendance. In each of these states, pockets of would-be defectors were to be received into the party.
Sources
revealed that the coordinator of the plot for Ondo is Olusola Oke, a
former governorship aspirant, who was already in Benin ahead of Friday’s
aborted rally with the national chairman. The sources added that the Ondo leg was being bankrolled by some governorship aspirants, except Isaac Kekemeke.
They are Ife Oyedele, Olusola Oke, Segun Abraham, and Jimmy Odimayo. Daily
Independent gathered that a larger chunk of the money for the rally was
released by the Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi, who is believed to have
opted out of the pair with Akeredolu for the 2020 race.
Prominent
ex-militant leader and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) major financier,
Bibopiri Ajube (Shoot-at-Sight), who is now Ajayi’s mobiliser in the
riverine area of the state, was to join the APC in Akure.
In the
case of Ondo State, the most effective opposition to Akeredolu’s second
term is the Unity Group led by the former deputy governor, Ali Olanusi.
All
the aspirants, except Kekemeke, belong to this group. However, the
aspirants are said to be unhappy with the latest romance between APC
national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and Akeredolu as well as his
(Tinubu) lukewarm stance on the issue of dissolution of the state
executive of the party.
They had extracted commitment from Tinubu
that he was going to midwife the dissolution of the pro-Akeredolu state
executive when he visited the state to intervene in the crisis but he
had budged and never said anything near the dissolution.
The aspirants were said to have concealed their anger and went back to the drawing board. The
next option for the group, according to sources, was to use the deputy
governor, who is believed to be equally eyeing the PDP ticket, and that
if they succeed, the likely running mate would be someone from Ondo
North Senatorial District.
Sources added that the two persons on
the card are Solagbade Amodeni and Taofeek Olawale Abdulsalam, both
former commissioners sacked by Akeredolu lately.
Amodeni is from Akoko South East while Abdulsalam is from Akoko North East. Daily
Independent learnt that in spite of their exit from the cabinet, Ajayi
still pays the duo from running grants approved for his office.
However, the deputy governor denied all the allegations, saying they were all meant to soil his reputation before Akeredolu.
The deputy governor, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Babatope Okeowo, told Daily
Independent on Sunday, on telephone that his boss was presently on
vacation outside Nigeria, and that he had no governorship ambition.
“The deputy governor is presently on his annual vacation approved by the Ondo State House of Assembly. He is outside Nigeria.
“All
the allegations against him are laughable because he does not know
anything about them. He is in constant touch with Governor Akeredolu as
they are both on same page on the development and growth of Ondo State,”
Okeowo added.
Obaseki, Shaibu Were Unpopular When I Chose Them – Oshiomhole
In
another development, Oshiomhole said he was aware that Governor Godwin
Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, were unpopular candidates yet he
supported them to lead the party in the state.
He said both
chieftains of the APC lost their wards, local government areas and
senatorial districts in the last general elections, noting that the
governor was being represented by a candidate of the PDP in his
senatorial district.
He was responding to reports credited to
Shaibu and Obaseki that their ongoing fight against godfatherism in Edo
State was part of the tutelage they received from Oshiomhole. However, Oshiomhole, who said he had always been a winner, said he did not teach both men how to lose election.
“I
have read them on several occasions saying that I taught them all they
are doing today. This is laughable because I never taught them how to
lose elections.
“As we speak today, the governor (Obaseki) lost
his ward, local government (area) and senatorial district in the last
presidential election. “As we speak, the governor is being represented by the PDP in his federal constituency and senatorial district.
“This,
in my view, were early morning signals about the need to change
tactics, stop threatening people, saying you will crush – who are you
crushing? “But I won my entire senatorial district for Mr. President
and I am being represented by an APC senator and House of
Representatives’ member. “Then his deputy, Philip, in Jattu where he comes from, in his polling booth where he and his family voted, Philip Shaibu lost.
“He
lost his booth during his own governorship election in which he was
standing as deputy governorship candidate. So, if he learnt from me, he
should have learnt well because I never lost election in my village.
“There
is no body in my village who can work against me because when I go home
I relate with them, I am an ordinary man. You see, when you have power
and you don’t use it you are even more powerful.
“And you must
know when to talk tough and when to talk soft. When I am in my village, I
am just like an ordinary man. I argue and play with my people.
“The
only man that was doing PDP in my village, the youths said how can he
be doing PDP but I said no, you have to persuade him to join us. “And
today that young man is one of my PAs. So, he (Philip) is one of my
very poor students, Kakhi is not a lesson and fighters must be tactful
and strategic.
“No sensible man will fight people who vote for
them. Those they are fighting now, some of them delivered 95 percent of
the votes in their units while they lost their own areas.”
In a
statement released by his media aide, Simon Ebegbulem, Oshiomhole said
Governor Obaseki was not being strategic in his politics in Edo. He accused the governor of unleashing mayhem on members of the APC in the state.
He
said: “Even a professional fighter, you choose your fight. The other
day when Shaibu led thugs to my village with ‘okada’ riders and he said
during my court case ‘okada’ people were following us.
“It shows how poorly he can interpret situations. Did we ever use ‘okada’ riders to intimidate ACN elements then? Never! “And
those ‘okada’ riders were not hired by me, they bought into my vision.
They have heard of me as president of the NLC and on that basis they all
voted for me, so when I was rigged out they took the fight to the PDP.
“The
problem is that Philip does not know the difference between family
disagreement that can be settled through conversation and political
opponents that need to be fought and defeated. But even my language is
defeat my opponent and not crush my party members.
“It is only
Philip and his boss that talk about crushing APC members. If you become a
crushing machine and God enables you to crush your people, who will you
govern assuming you win? “When elections start between us, and PDP
unleash that energy, you cannot possibly be making electoral sense by
using your office or position to attack, brutalize and intimidate and
even lie against your party members.
“And all I have tried to do is to tell him (Obaseki) that you will never have a political party that looks like a golf course.
“A
political party is like a forest. In that forest you have many animals.
The politician is the guy who goes into this forest, knowing full well
that all the dangerous animals are there but he is going for the
antelope or the grass cutter which he wants to use to feed his family.
“He goes there, gets his antelope or grass cutter home and feast without being crushed. “So,
the minimum requirement of political leadership is to be able to deal
with all kinds of characters, use them to get what you want. And I said
to him, you have to manage these people because, for me, as long as they
deliver their units on the day of election, you have to manage them.
“In
my first term election when I didn’t know the politicians too well, I
won Oredo, Egor, Ikpoba Okhai – we were only rigged out in Ovia and
Orhiomwon in 2007.
“It is those Benin votes and the small we got from Edo North that we used to defend my mandate in court.
“Look
at the way they humiliated Ogbemudia’s daughter for refusing to abuse
me, the woman only said I cannot abuse Comrade; rather, as a mother, I
will join hands to settle the dispute between you people.
“But
they said they don’t want settlement, they want to crush. Three days
later they crushed the woman by suspending her as chairman of Egor Local
Government.
“So, it is a pity that they don’t know the
difference between internal contestation and internal mechanism for
resolving them and fighting the opposition.
“Killing is out of
the kind of politics we practice, maiming is out of it. Now I told him
Mr. Governor, with all the reservation people were raising, talking
about history, we convinced them to support you and it worked for you
and you got elected, even if the margin of defeat was not as much as my
own, but they worked for you.
“Then why do you now want to
distort the system by creating so-called new political structure? Is
there a structural defect? He said he will retire all the politicians,
but I said to him, will you retire somebody you did not hire.”
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