Crisis In APC As Oshiomhole’s Deputy Asks Him To Resign (UPDATED)

The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC was on Tuesday thrown into crisis on the eve of the presidential inauguration when the party’s number two man asked its national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to step aside.

Senator Lawali Shuaibu, the deputy national chairman (north) in a six page letter to Oshiomhole asked him to step aside on the claim that he led the party to electoral ruin.

Shuaibu from Zamfara State was particularly peeved by the loss of his home state to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, a decision he believes was caused by what he claimed as the poor leadership trait of the national chairman.

Though an ally of national party leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu,  Shuaibu is also a close associate of Governor Abdulazziz Yari, the outgoing governor of Zamfara State.

At the peak of the crisis over the APC primaries in the state last year, Shuabu had written a letter dissociating himself from the actions of the national chairman.

Yesterday’s six-page letter commenced with Shuaibu detailing his role in the evolvement of the party and notably in the merger committee.

The revelation of the letter on the eve of the inauguration is coming against the background of angst by some critical stakeholders in the party that Oshiomhole has lessened the worth of the party.

Shuaibu reflected as such saying that the party is in a worse position than where he met it.

Shuaibu, in a six page letter addressed to Oshiomhole dated May 27, 2019 said Oshiomhole’s lack of tact, dictatorial tendencies and lack of insight in party management led to the party losing six states it won in 2015.

While absolving himself from a power grab, Shuaibu, particularly lamented the loss of Zamfara State saying that the loss of the state was crafted and executed by Oshiomhole’s poor party management.

While stating his status to question Oshiomhole on the basis of his role in the formation of the party, Shuaibu in the letter said:

Noting the faulty processes of the chairman as the lack of coordination and use of his private office for party affairs, Shuaibu wrote:

“We had 23 States in 2015, but after the 2019 elections we lost 7 States! We also had 60 Senators in 2015 at the end of the election count, we now end up with 57 Senators in 2019! You were not brought in to lose election, It is absolutely unacceptable! 

“What this entails is that for any Senator to become a presiding Officer he needs to go and kneel down before the PDP Senators and beg for support! And to make things worse, you announced that APC will not allow any PDP Senator to be , appointed as Committee Chairman except the committees statutorily meant for the opposition members of the Senate.

“That is never the tradition of the legislature anywhere! The Legislature is the house of collaboration and lobby and you can never succeed with hostile approach, you must lobby seek for cooperation of members across Party divides. If you don’t know, you have made the situation worse than it seems. Try and use your calculator and you will find that as at now, if anybody, backed by the PDP members, wants to become Senate President, all he needs is the support of only 6 APC Senators to win the election on the floor of the Senate! Chairman, strategies are not announced on television, they are discussed at caucuses. 

“It is my honest opinion that your ability to ensure this party flourishes is deficient as you lack the necessary composure and you also don’t possess the capabilities and the requisite experience to run a political Party. 

“The respect APC was commanding among its members and sympathizers have been completely eroded, while the goodwill has equally evaporated with the type of attitude of threats to members you deploy, including senior members like Governors, Senators, Ministers and other Government officials whose functions do not fall within your jurisdiction.

“As I know, the relationship between Party and Government are cooperation and collaboration to ensure Government programs are implemented in line with the party manifesto, but not shouting and giving marching instructions to Government officials on television screens or on the pages of newspapers, and more often than not, they call your bluff and make look helplessly unimportant in the scheme of things” 

“Please don’t get me wrong, do not think I am saying these about your conduct as Chairman because I want to be Chairman. I don’t want to be National Chairman, because I can not be, even if I want to, for as long as President Muhammadu Buhari is in office, having come from the same North West geo-political zone. 

“In advanced democracies, people who fail to add value or build over and above what they met on assumption of duty show some civilized examples, they honourably bow out. 

“In that connection therefore, I want to advise you to take the path of honour, to step aside and allow the Party to embark on the onerous task of reconstruction and rehabilitation in those States it was weakened by the effect of manner the last primary election exercises were conducted or even the task of recreating the party where it is on the path of extinction, arising from the loss of a sitting APC Government, for example in Zamfara State, where you directly personally created the problem leading to the painful complete loss of APC’s electoral fortunes, FROM UP TO DOWN.

“All these are uncontestable facts. You cannot exonerate yourself from blame on what happened to APC Zamfara State, thereby destroying the hopes and aspirations of 534,541 APC members and supporters, including my goodself! 

“l have nothing personal, except that I love this Party and can not keep quiet seeing it being brutally murdered!”

SEE FULL LETTER IN OPINION

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