Oshiomhole says APC conservatives ganging up against him
News & Trends •
indeed the message therein is very clear that the party and not pseudo political empires in the states has the power to superintend the primary elections for the nomination of the partys candidates in the general election1 the national chairman of the all progressives congress apc comrade adams oshiomhole on sunday alleged that conservatives within the party are ganging up to pass a vote of no-confidence in him1 he said he was not surprised by the gang up as he never had the illusion that the process of reforming the party was going to be an easy on one1 the full statement1 the all progressives congress apc under the national chairmanship of comrade adams oshiomhole is in safe hands as the party marches sure-footedly to victory in the 2019 general election. this is the overarching mission of the national working committee nwc of the party under his leadership1 to be clear comrade oshiomhole did not become national chairman of the governing party to bring it down a notch from the pedestal of its 2015 electoral victory let alone to preside over its liquidation1 rather his single-minded goal from the outset of his declaration of interest in the position was to deploy his capacity in helping to strengthen and reposition the party as a truly supreme and disciplined political entity1 although it might appear fortuitous to some persons that he became national chairman at the threshold of the 2019 general election the truth is that there is no accident in predestination. we must appreciate the fact that it has pleased the almighty god to place him in the saddle of apc leadership at this time for a purpose1 the purpose has begun to manifest in its vast flourish and ramifications instilling discipline ensuring party supremacy promoting due process dealing with impunity and executive arrogance wherever they manifest to undermine intra-party electoral processes in the states1 from the outset we never expected that those who cherished and supported the status quo which comrade oshiomhole supplanted would cave in easily under the magnitude of the current political revival that he spearheads. indeed while the progressives are enamoured of change the conservatives find it difficult to embrace it. that is the current reality in the deliberate effort to rebrand the apc1 again we were not in the least deluded that the process of rebranding or rewriting the narrative of the four-year old party would be easy. what we are witnessing in the apc today is comrade oshiomholes adroit management of the strains and pains that accompany the birth of a resuscitated governing party1 the leadership provided in the recently-held primary elections and the large-scale integrity of the processes are developments that should hence serve as exemplars in the administration of governing parties1 in a long statement by his press secretary simon ebegbulem oshiomhole said his sin was his refusal to allow continued impunity and circumvention of due process being perpetuated in some states1 while the party will not surrender its functions which are constitutionally circumscribed to any other entities it will always be ready to moderate the divergent tendencies and mediate the disparate political camps in the interest of party cohesion1 this is one of the hard-nosed truths that the comrade oshiomhole-led nwc preaches and practises with an apostolic zeal to the chagrin of some influential stakeholders in the states1 comrade oshiomhole envisions an apc that is capacitated to pragmatically build a corpus of leadership and membership that do not only submit to the high ideal of party supremacy but also the credo of party discipline1 these-party supremacy and discipline- are two fundamentals that had been eroded even before the emergence of the oshiomhole leadership. it is sad that while the national chairman is working round the clock some stakeholders have thrown selfish political agendas into the mix to threaten the building of institutional capacity for the apc1 the suggestion in some quarters especially by one of the presidential aspirants on the platform of the party alhaji mumakai unagha that the apc cannot win with oshiomhole is therefore unfair denigrating and baleful of comrade oshiomholes personal commitment to a rejuvenated winning machine that the apc typifies1 the totality of unaghas claims without necessarily addressing them one after the other tallies with cooked-up narratives being sponsored by some influential stakeholders in their respective states that comrade oshiomhole is responsible for all the problems in the apc at the moment1 these influential stakeholders according to grapevine have begun to mobilise to pass a no-confidence vote in the leadership of oshiomhole having failed to impose their preferred candidates on the party in the nomination process1 rather than resort to needless perfidy at the threshold of a general election we call on them to imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship bolstered by the fact that the oshiomhole leadership is propelled more by its interest in propriety in which victory for the party could be grounded1 the crime committed by comrade oshhiomholes leadership is its disdain for impunity and circumvention of due process perpetrated in some of the states at the pleasure of some influential stakeholders1 overall comrade oshiomhole has not since stepping in the saddle taken any unilateral decision in the running of the party affairs. all decisions so far taken passed through the mills of nwc deliberative sessions and enjoyed unanimous resolutions. the records are there. history will justify comrade oshiomhole and posterity will vindicate him1 therefore with eyes firmly fixed on the general election especially the re-election of president muhammadu buhari in the scheduled february 16 poll comrade oshiomhole assures all stakeholders in the apc of his respect for them. he assures them of his readiness to work with them for the good of the party1 the comrade chairman also proposes a common front in the general election and believes that the apc as a governing party will do a commemorative post mortem next year to appraise and reappraise the political developments and decisions that presaged the election which it would win emphatically1