By ANDREW ESSIEN Abuja and GEORGE OKOJIE Lagos
Abuja (Precise Post) – President Muhammadu Buhari will today meet with governors elected under the All Progressives Congress (APC), with a view to finding lasting solutions to the leadership crisis currently bedeviling the party, ahead of tomorrow’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Party.
It was learnt yesterday that the president is scheduled to meet with the APC governors by 3:00pm at the presidential villa to find a common ground to resolve the impasse in the party.
There had been reports that some APC governors allegedly not satisfied with the leadership style of the party’s national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, had moved to effect a change in the National Working Committee (NWC).
On his part, Oshiomhole, has maintained that the said governors and a minister were behind his ordeal.
It was also gathered that President Buhari may not be attending the well-publicised APC NEC meeting slated for tomorrow.
According to a source who did not want his name in print, there was no indication in the President’s itinerary in Aso Rock that he would be attending a meeting at the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja.
This, the highly-placed source within the seat of power said, has further raised doubt as to whether the president will be in attendance at the NEC meeting.
It was gathered that invitation for the party’s caucus meeting has already gone out; the caucus precedes the NEC meeting which is usually held to ratify issues already tabled at the caucus.
Another source at the party’s national secretariat who did not want to be named in print said, ”We are just going on with directives given to us but how all these will play out on Tuesday, remains to be seen.
”At our own part, the Secretariat is ready to host the August event. The rest are in the hands of the politicians. It is just hoped that reason will prevail in the interest of the party and Nigerians”.
2023 Ambition Behind Party Crisis, Says Tinubu
Meanwhile, national leader of the APC, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, alleged yesterday that those nursing desperate ambition for the 2023 general election were behind the ordeals of the embattled national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Tinubu, in a statement he personally signed, declared support for the party chairman, saying the driving symptoms of those behind the APC crisis is their belief that “the events of 2023 will be decided before we even exit the year 2020.”
According to him, Oshiomhole is a “tireless campaigner and mobilizer” for the APC who deserves to be supported despite his imperfections”.
Tinubu said, “It is against this backdrop that we should view the present ploys and plots to undermine the APC National Chairman. The Chairman is human; thus, he has his merits as well as his flaws. Yet his humanity cannot be grounds for his dismissal. If so, the position will forever go vacant.
“The Chairman has been a tireless campaigner and mobilizer for the party. He has steered the party through difficult elections. His contributions should not be undervalued now that the bulk of elections are behind us.”
The former governor of Lagos State also took a swipe at the acting national secretary of the party, Victor Giadom, for calling for the NEC meeting, saying instigating such crisis was not in the interest of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Likening the obsession for 2023 to Coronavirus, Tinubu said, “Those afflicted with the 2023 virus do a grave disservice to President Buhari and his administration. While Corona has been presently contained in Nigeria, we must be alert to another sickness that seems rampant within a certain segment of society.
“That sickness is old Ambition-virus 2023. This illness afflicts many in the political class along with their allies in the media. Those touched by this malady find that their ability to tell time and discern the difference between the present and the future has been strongly impaired.
“The carriers of this sickness are confused as to the very season our nation now finds itself. They conflate things, which no sensible person would conflate. The primary symptom of their malady is the driving tendency to believe the events of 2023 will be decided before we even exit the year 2020.
“Consequently, everything they say and do is geared toward obsessive jockeying for position to control and manipulate a race still three years away. In doing so, they recklessly undermine the very party which they claim to serve and weaken the administration of President Buhari to which they claim to be loyal. They line up to run a race for which the track has not even yet been constructed. Put another way, they seek to pluck the fruit before the seed is even planted. As such, their actions border on the pathological.
‘’True, ambition is inherent in human endeavour. Without it, nothing great is achieved. However, strong ambition applied in the wrong way has never done anything positive. At best, it results in confusion. Usually, it results in something worse. No matter how great one’s ambition and how able one may be, nobody can rush or speed time. That is beyond the realm of human capacity. To do so is to contest against fate itself. When it ends, such a contest rarely ends well.’’
Tinubu added that in a well-structured society, people come to understand that the time for politics is seasonal and periodic, saying the responsibilities of governance are what is perpetual.
He continued: “Many of our politicians sadly have inverted this reality. Politics and electioneering are secondary to governance for they are but tools of governance, the platforms by which one demonstrates his or her worthiness to lead a great people. The more a person obsesses over and constantly engages in political manoeuvring is a warning sign. Not only is he prone to the 2023 virus.
“He likely has little to offer in the way of good governance. He wants to hold public office that you might serve him not he serve you. For if he had adequately studied and been acquainted with the ways and means of progressive governance, he would be focused on that important task at the present moment. He certainly would not drown himself and all around him in harmful political intrigue.
“It is against this backdrop that we should view the present ploys and plots to undermine the APC National Chairman. The Chairman is human; thus, he has his merits as well as his flaws. Yet his humanity cannot be grounds for his dismissal. If so, the position will forever go vacant.
“The Chairman has been a tireless campaigner and mobilizer for the party. He has steered the party through difficult elections. His contributions should not be undervalued now that the bulk of elections are behind us. To do so would be an act of ingratitude.
“It is no secret that the Chairman and Edo Governor Obaseki are in dispute. This is unfortunate. However, the party has moved through proper procedures within the proper organs of the party to hopefully resolve this spat. All party members know this. Such decisions are part and parcel of internal party governance.
“Yet, motivated by ambitions that have nothing to do with the quality of the Chairman’s performance, people shunned the agreed party reconciliation mechanism and resorted to other means to oust him. These self-help attempts are unwarranted. These attempts reveal more about the mala fides of their perpetrators than they do about the Chairman”.
The APC leader pointed out that the plotters launched their attack solely because they perceive the party chairman as an obstacle to their 2023 ambitions, adding that people went to court knowing full well that the party constitution prohibits such action when people are yet to exhaust all internal disciplinary procedures.
He added, “We even had a national deputy secretary improperly call for a NEC meeting on the basis that he believed himself the acting national chairman. Clearly, this man would not have summoned the temerity to make such a move had he not been instigated by powerful individuals who he thought would reward or, at least, protect him for committing the wrongful act.
“Those engaged in these manoeuvres see themselves as clever or cunning. They do so because they only understand the mean craft of political intrigue. They have yet to understand the value and long-term utility of democratic governance. Thus, they embark on the strangest of quest. They would rather dismantle and weaken the institutional core of their party just to gain control of that weakened edifice in order to pilfer the party nomination, which they crave. This is more than sad.
“Many of us expended sweat, tears, toil and sleepless nights to build this party. Our personal sacrifices were not insignificant. We built this party not simply as a vehicle for personal ambition. We built the party because we saw it as perhaps the only enduring hope to bring progressive governance to this nation. Those who now seek to abuse the party by using it as their personal device do it great harm.
“They should not be allowed to sacrifice this collective enterprise at the altar of their self-aggrandizement. Somehow, some way they should find in themselves the bearing to adhere to the democratic spirit on which the party was founded. To be an APC member means more than merely carrying a membership card. It means to believe in a set of ideals and principles geared to our highest purpose as a party and a nation.
“In a broader context, those afflicted with the 2023 virus do a grave disservice to President Buhari and his administration. They should be trying their best to help the president. Instead of seeing President Buhari as our present leader and commander-in-chief, their sole contemplation is upon his eventual exit. Yet, not even a full year has passed since his second inaugural. How can they be committed to helping him realise his mandate when the fullness of their gaze is affixed to seizing this very mandate for themselves?
“The president is faced with many challenges. He is fighting hard on security to keep the population safe. He is pushing for economic reforms that will augur future sustainable growth. His disdain for corruption remains unwavering.
Add to it now the Corona crisis and its resultant social as well as economic impact. Politicians express loyalty to him but the words of too many of our politicians are like butter under a burning sun; they melt quickly away. Better to be loyal in deed. Instead of trying to manipulate party and other mechanisms solely to their political gain, it is time to shelve political intrigue for the time being. It is time for all party members to truly see what is at stake and work with Mr. President for the collective good of the nation.’’
Tinubu said it was high time the people rallied around President Buhari instead of everyone saying they are working for the party and nation but going their separate ways based on their selfish designs.(Leadership).
