APC crisis: Tinubu indicts Buhari over Oshiomhole’s travail

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, may have in his statement on Sunday covertly indicted President Muhammadu Buhari and other high ranking members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the party government over the skirmishes to remove APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, when he alleged that the principal actors against the national chairman may be protected by powerful individuals. The APC national leader had noted that the plan to remove the APC chairman is because of the ambitions of some party members for 2023, which he has been linked to the 2023 presidential race of the APC.

Though, Tinubu had stated that plot is recklessly undermining the party the antagonists claim to serve, and also, weaken the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

However, in a seeming partisan provocation, the national leader in a statement on Sunday declared: “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.”

Paradoxically, notable APC stakeholders who had the privilege of protection only got such from the APC controlled federal government under the leadership of President Buhari. While, there may be powerful individuals as Tinubu rightly puts it, the ultimate source of protection of the magnitude adduced of the APC Deputy National Secretary and his action could more than any other source be derived from the federal government under the superintendent of the President who controls the law enforcement agencies and judicial administration institutions in the country.

Tinubu had acknowledged that Oshiomhole was a tireless campaigner and mobilizer for the party, sailing the party through difficult elections. He admonished that the chairman’s contributions should not be undervalued after the elections are gone.

He noted that those moving for the removal of Oshiomhole perceive the national chairman will hinder them in the 2023 general elections. He, however, cautioned that this is not the time for 2023 politics, pointing out the need to support President Buhari in governance.

Tinubu in a statement on Sunday, noted that those behind the move to remove Oshiomhole are suffering from a sickness he called “old Ambition-virus 2023”.

He declared: “That sickness is old Ambition-virus 2023. This illness afflicts many in the political class along with their allies in the media. 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.

“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.

“The plotters launched their attack solely because they perceive the chairman as an obstacle to their 2023 ambitions. People went to court knowing full well the party constitution prohibits such action because these people had not yet exhausted all internal disciplinary procedures. 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.”

The APC national leader maintained: “This is the time for governance. It is not the moment to bring the politics of 2023 into 2020. In due course, 2023 shall come. Nothing can prevent it. However, that time is not today.  If we are earnest, the present offers sufficient work and challenges for us without trying to add to it by rushing the future.”

Tinubu, subsequently, appealed to all party members to dedicate energies to help President Buhari surmount the challenges facing the country and leave the “2023 frenzy and commit themselves to the harder yet more rewarding task of improving progressive governance, whether within the party or at the local, state or federal levels.”