The removal of former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, as well as the perceived sideline of the National leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, has been linked to the efforts of five APC governors, led by the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
Recall that a leadership crisis had rocked the party over who to succeed Oshiomhole after an appeal court judgement suspended him.
The Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Victor Giadom, declared himself acting national chairman of the party, while the party’s NWC dominated by loyalists of Oshiomhole insisted that the late former Governor of Oyo State, Isiaka Ajimobi should step in.
President Buhari eventually stepped in into the matter last, and dissolved the NWC, and a caretaker committee chaired by Mai Mala Buni, Yobe governor and former national secretary, was set up in the place of the dissolved NWC.
Reacting to the intrigues and under currents playing out at the ruling party, political analyst and former Commissioner for Information in Edo state, Prince Kassim Afegbua, disclosed that five governors from the party plotted the removal of Oshiomhole.
“There is nothing spectacular about Comrade Oshiomhole’s exit. He was just a victim of 2023 political calculations especially by those people who found him too strong to bend to their whims and caprices.
“The President does not appear fit enough to understand the dynamics of the political interplay of forces. You have Governors Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and Simon Lalong of Plateau states who should sit down and face governance in their states but getting too pre-occupied with 2023 Presidency.”
Afegbua also expressed his discontent at the action of his party, PDP, in fielding the incumbent governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, as its flag bearer ahead of the Edo 2020 governorship elections.
Condemning what he called the governor’s desperation to run for a second term at all cost, the former commissioner came hard against his own party, wondering how Obaseki it once branded a failure, suddenly merited the ticket so much that all three aspirants stepped down for him.
He described Obaseki’s defection as desperation to run for a second term at all cost while wondering how Obaseki PDP once branded a failure, suddenly merited the ticket so much that all three aspirants stepped down for him.
“We will join hands collectively with the APC candidate to ensure that Godwin Obaseki does not return. I am PDP member, but I will vote APC. A man with the humility of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is better than a governor who fights everyone who disagrees with him.