Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has accused the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun of erecting barriers to peace in the ruling party. Tinubu in a letter dated February 21, 2018, specifically accused the national chairman of festering the crises through unilateral decisions regarding the crises in the Kogi, Kaduna and Adamawa chapters of the party.
Meanwhile, the APC National Working Committee, NWC has constituted a team of national officers to investigate the fresh rumpus in the Kaduna State chapter of the party which led to the demolition of the factional secretariat of the APC last Tuesday.
Nonetheless, Chief Odigie-Oyegun got a ringing approval of his performance as national chairman by the Adamawa State chapter of the party who visited him in his office yesterday.
Tinubu in his missive titled, ‘Actions and Conduct Weakening the Party from Within,’ Tinubu said, “those who were entrusted with positions of high responsibility within the party seemed unable to handle the success given to them. Little attention has tendered the principles upon which this party was formed and pursuant to which it was presented to the public as an alternative to the cynical politics of the PDP”. He said since the election, there have been reports of lack of fairness and openness, leading to crises in the states, while “there have been allegations of self-induced crisis resulting from merchandising of internal processes.”
Tinubu recalled how he recently visited the Chief Odigie-Oyegun led National Working Committee NWC and extracted commitments from them to support the processes of reconciliation. “Unfortunately, the spirit of understanding and cooperative undertaking to revive the party seems not to have lived beyond the temporal confines of that meeting. I assure anyone who cares to know that this positive spirit of cooperation did not meet its demise at my hands…Disappointment greeted me when I discovered out that you had swiftly acted in contravention of the spirit of our discussions. Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of the APC. As a party, we have strived to be the best, present hope for the nation. Yet, your goal appears to be something of a lesser pedigree”. Tinubu said that even after mentioning the Kogi, Kaduna, Adamawa and Kano chapters as deserving critical attention due to the peculiar nature of their crises, he said the national chairman did not have any restraint rushing to Kogi last weekend to unilaterally “inaugurate a new slate of state officials, parallel to the officials already heading the state chapter of the party”. “It is my understanding that your dissolution of the duly-constituted state executive and the hurried naming of the above-mentioned caretaker group was not approved by the NWC. You had let this situation fester for months on end. Only when I was appointed to help resolve internal disputes and when you realized I might focus early on Kogi, did you stir from your indifference and inaction.”
He said Oyegun’s inaction led to the festering crisis in other states, saying the chairman also failed to avail him of the status reports on the affected state chapters as earlier promised.