Is APC Divided? Tinubu Says Oyegun MUST Go!
Category: Latest Nigeria News
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a leader of All Progressives Congress and former Governor of Lagos State has called on the chairman of the party, John Oyegun, to resign from office.
This is coming after the party's primaries in Ondo State.
According to the statement released by Tinubu's media office, Mr. Oyegun is said, to be amongst those who have managed to remain within the party because of what they could benefit rather than the sacrifice they could make.
Tinubu said Oyegun betrayed the tenets of APC by becoming a tool used to derail the APC agenda.
“Oyegun’s transgressions are a warning. He is but the mercenary of forces that seek to return the nation to the old ways. If they get away with this infraction, no telling what or whom they will undermine tomorrow. Much is at stake,” Mr. Tinubu said.
Read the full text below:
OYEGUN’S ONDO FRAUD: THE VIOLATION OF DEMOCRACY IN THE APC
The APC, a party born of the quest for democratic good governance, is
under critical threat by those who managed to be in the party but never
of it. From the party’s inception, the principles of democratic
fairness and justice were to guide APC internal deliberations. Party
founders realized that only by intramural fair dealing could the party
remain faithful to the progressive ideals that we presented to the
Nigerian electorate as our governing creed. If the party could not
justly govern itself, it would find it difficult to establish and
maintain just government throughout the nation.
In essence, the party was the embodiment of a democratic promise made
between its members as well as a democratic vow made to the public.
Evidently, some errant members believe promises and vows are mere words
to be easily spoken and more easily broken. Chairman John Oyegun has
breached these good pledges in a most overt and brazen display. In doing
so, Oyegun has dealt a heavy blow to the very party he professes to
lead. It is an awful parent who suffocates his own child for the sake of
a few naira. The party was supposed to buttress APC members elected to
government at all levels. Because of Oyegun’s conduct of our affairs,
the party is rapidly becoming an albatross to those it was meant to
help.
Oyegun’s comportment regarding the Ondo state primacy will become
the textbook definition of political treachery and malfeasance of the
basest order. In early September, the state primary was held. A
purported winner was named. Having faith in the ways of the party,
Tinubu publicly accepted what he assumed to be a verdict honestly
derived. As a democrat, one must face the possibility of defeat and
accept such as outcome with as much grace as one would embrace victory.
One of the few bright spots during the conduct of the primaries was
Jigawa Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar
He chaired the primary convention with decorum and impartiality. He
was unaware that a tampered list has been slipped into the process.
Indeed within hours of the announcement, news began to filter in that
gravely disturbed me. Credible allegations of fraud troubled the
waters. The delegate list had been materially altered by someone in a
strategic position to so do. The names of over 150 valid delegates were
excised to make room for an equal number of impostors. This was not a
clerical error. The alteration was wilfully executed that the primary
would be directed toward a chosen end that bore nothing in common with
the will of most state party members. A cunning few had tried to deceive
the many into believing they were outnumbered.
A conspiracy to steal the Ondo primary had been uncovered.
Fortunately, the grand deception afoot had been unable to cover its
tracks fast enough. Truth began to cry for justice.
Several candidates filed petitions contesting the result. The party
established an investigative board to review the evidence. In a two to
one decision, the panel found the delegate roster had suffered
tampering. The panel recommended that a new primary should be held using
the valid delegate list. This recommendation was tabled before the
National Working Committee (NWC).
After many hours of deliberations spanning several days, a final vote
was held by the NWC. Before hand, NWC members agreed that the decision
of the majority would become the stance of the party. Such is the way of
democracy. The NWC voted six against five to cancel the fraudulent
results and hold an honest primary. For a moment, it seemed the party
would restore its integrity by giving democracy a chance.
However, those
who sought to scam an entire state would not let the vote of 11 people
spoil their enterprise.
After the NWC vote, a noticeably agitated Chairman Oyegun proposed
the NWC engage in prayer before concluding the meeting. Adhering to this
chairman’s request, NWC members began to pray. Seeing that the others
had taken his bait, Oyegun used the prayerful interlude to secretly
excuse himself from the meeting. Contravening the NWC decision and in
violation of all rules of fundamental decency, Oyegun decided to
safeguard the fraud done in Ondo by perpetrating a greater fraud. Oyegun
arrogated to himself the right to submit the name of Rotimi Akeredolu
to INEC as the candidate of the party.
Truth has finally come to light. There exists a regressive element in
the party that cares nothing for the progressive ideas upon which this
party was founded. They joined the APC because it was the best ride
available at the time. Now they want to guide the party into the ditch.
They want to turn the party into a soulless entity incapable of doing
good, just like they are. When such a person tastes power, they shed all
good restraint. They come to abuse the trust given them as if they are
the owners of that trust and not its mere custodians. These people did
little to build the party but now will do much to wreck it.
Such a man is Oyegun and those who conspired with him to sabotage
justice and democracy in Ondo. Our party was to stand for change. Oyegun
and his fellows seem to be on a different wave length. They are the
cohort of Unchange.
The APC wants to guide Nigeria into a better tomorrow. Oyegun and the
cohort of unchange want to pull Nigeria back into the past where
rigging and vote stealing were the old and new testaments of politics.
They want the people to think that there is no alternative to their
reactionary system of skewed politics and imperious government. Thus,
they seek to turn the APC into a factory of the very political
malpractices the people soundly rejected in the past election. To choke
the APC in this manner is to kill the chance for progressive reform for
the foreseeable future. Much more than the Ondo primary is at stake.
Oyegun has revealed his team’s game plan: It is the destruction of
progressive politics and governance on behalf of the people.
As party chairman, Oyegun was supposed to protect our internal
processes and be an impartial arbiter, a person in whom all had
confidence. Instead, he donned the garment of a confident man, duping
the NWC, the party, and INEC in one fell blow. He has robbed APC members
in Ondo State of the chance to pick in a fair manner who they believe
is the best candidate.
As such, he has broken faith with the party and probably has broken a
few laws. The consequences of what he has done are more expansive than a
man of his scope can fathom. There must is a powerful and sinister arm
at work to compel a man of Oyegun’s age to steal the decision of the
party in a manner so crude that it would embarrass even the commonest
thief.
With strong expectation, we await a response to Oyegun’s wrongdoing
from those who clamoured so long and loudly about Tinubu’s alleged role
in the Ondo primary.
Leading into the primary, a prominent lawyer from Ondo published
lengthy missives alleging that Tinubu was a malicious hand intent on
rigging the primary. His letters spoke of his great love for democracy
and justice. Though Oyegun has assaulted democracy in a most public and
vulgar way, this lawyer’s prolific pen will remain stilled. He dare not
publish a word about this travesty. His silence will be sign for all who
care to decipher its meaning.
The plan was to point the accusing finger at Tinubu. With everyone
focused on Tinubu, they would have distracted all attention from the
heist they had set in motion. As fate would have it, the trickery they
hoped to conduct in the shadows has come to light.
Thus, Oyegun was forced to undertake his desperate fraud in broad
daylight in order to salvage the wrong initiated under the lamp of
darkness. Those who so actively attributed imaginary wrong to Tinubu now
stand dumb and mute in the face of confirmed impropriety. They remain
silent for reasons they cannot divulge. Oyegun and his ilk turn out to
be gangsters adorned in the tunic of party authority.
Oyegun has engaged in the strange math where five is greater than
six. This smacks of how the PDP conducted its affairs and orchestrated
its own downfall. Tinubu disparaged such malpractice when it was not in
his party. Tinubu surely disowns it now that it has invaded the party
he helped bring to fruition.
Tinubu has consciously refused to hold any official position with the
party to avoid the perception that he was trying to control all and
sundry. Tinubu has even kept his peace for some time despite many things
that happened within the party that were not quite right. He exercised
this forbearance because the party is young. A collective endeavour
cannot avoid the mistakes and errors of organizational newness and
evolution.
Yet, the wrongs Oyegun committed had nothing to do with newness or
the mistakes occasioned by the path of reform. His actions are in the
nature of the old wrongs that have afflicted our national politics much
too long. If Oyegun wants to walk backward into the past, he has every
right to it. However, he has no right to drag the party or any of us
with him. Against our choosing.
The informal title of national leader of the party was given to
Tinubu at the onset which he accepted it as a sign from those who
wished to recognize my contributions to the party’s formation. It is an
honorific title which he has been proud to wear until today. I would
rather not have any title yet reside in a party that honours democracy
than hold a title in a party that says it honours me but that treats
justice with indecency. I find greater honour and comfort where
democracy and fairness are found and respected.
Oyegun has done the irredeemable. His coup is an insult to party and
to patriot, to reason and to the reform agenda of this government. To
remain silent would be to admit the defeat of the reform and progressive
change many have laboured to bring forth. While the forces resistant to
change and reform are strong, Tinubu dare not submit to them. Tinubu
encourages all party members not to submit to them. If we acquiesce in
this wrong, the one greater than this shall cascade upon us.
Oyegun’s transgressions are a warning. He is but the mercenary of
forces that seek to return the nation to the old ways. If they get away
with this infraction, no telling what or whom they will undermine
tomorrow. Much is at stake. On the chopping block, lies the future of
the political party in which the majority of voters had placed their
confidence. To rescue the party, Oyegun must go. He has shown that he
and democratic fair play cannot exist in the same party at the same
time. If Tinubu is to choose between John Oyegun and progress toward a
better Nigeria, the choice has already been made. For those who care
about the party, who care about Nigeria and its chance for a better
tomorrow, now is the time to stand against this brewing evil before it
grows to encompass all we have built and all we hold dear.
Related Posts via Categories:
- Obiano's Special Broadcast on the Economic Stimulus Package by Anambra State Government
- All You Need To Know About Kaduna Tremor and What to do When it Happens
- Buhari's “Anti-corruption war” Biased?
- Patience Jonathan's $15m: Companies Plead Guilty To Laundering
- APC to Wike, "Tell The World How INEC Wants to Rig The Rerun Elections
- MASSOB to Mark 17 Years of Biafra Agitation
- First Think of How you Can Contribute to Nigeria's Development Before You Ask For Change I Promised- Buhari
- Photographers Ignore Buhari, Focus on GEJ During Council of State Meeting, OBJ, IBB Absent
- Troops Arrest Niger Delta Militant Leader
- Semenitari to Light Calabar 2016 Carnival Light
Published Under: Nigeria National News
Send stories for publishing to admin@ackcity.net
BB: 7ABCA2A7
Channel Pin: C00352CD2
WhatsApp: (234) 08105649346
Phone: (234) 08121807240
No comments