What PDP offers Oyegun; APC, Oshiomhole don’t give a damn 

As the former chairman of the ruling APC John Odigie-Oyegun gets forgotten on the shelf as far as the APC government is concerned, there is a hand of fellowship extending from the opposition.

In a gesture that confirmed there is no permanent enemy in politics, the PDP and its national chairman Uche Secondus just touted a load of superlatives to congratulate Oyegun, a political loner, on his 80th birthday.

Apparently, his loneliness and gradual political extinction are traceable—within the party: the rancor that brewed between him and his successor Adams Oshiomhole when Oyegun lost a re-election; the apparent support Oshiomhole enjoyed from the APC national leader Bola Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari; and the state of irrelevance he is in now in the affairs of his party.

But Secondus has seen a juggernaut in Oyegun—an unsung hero of the 2015 battle that truncated the PDP 60-year rule game plan.

And the opposition doesn’t mind offering him some words.

And, maybe, something more

About Oyegun’s character:

“Also remarkable is the high moral principle you brought into political party management that aided you to lead your party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, from opposition to ruling party, all combined to distinguish you clearly as a committed democrat and a model for younger generation of political leaders,’ said Secondus in a press statement he released to congratulate the Edo politician..

About Oyegun’s heroics:

“Your great and envious accomplishments in various sphere of endeavour in the last 80 years make this celebration imperative and deserving.

“To the glory of God, you have over the years distinguished yourself as a foremost technocrat whose contributions to the socio political and economic development of our country remains clearly noticeable”, he noted.

About his statesmanship, Secondus said:

“The immense contributions of Chief Oyegun to the stability and political growth of our country, particularly his mentorship roles in various areas that stands him out to merit all the accolades that come his way in times like this.”

While the PDP deluged Oyegun on his birthday with these head-turners, even if the party men can dispute them, the ex-chairman’s ruling party has yet to say a word of congratulations.

Oyegun has been chopping his party and the Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee lately, a cardinal sin for  even for a party man at the bottom of the pile. And the APC leadership doesn’t brook nonsense when it comes to hammering down members engaging in such anti-party activities.

No official congratulatory message from the party yet–not even on the APC website.

It may take the Oshiomhole-led APC leadership  deeper contemplation to still consider Oyegun as being of any political benefit to the party—before some belated congratulations will come from it.

But Buhari, for old time’s sake, remembered how Oyegun, at 30, became a permanent secretary, something worth a song and a dance.

“… And winning a gubernatorial election in early 50s, and providing visionary leadership to unseat an incumbent government for the first time in Nigeria’s history,” said Buhari in his personal congratulatory statement Sunday.