The National Chairman of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, has described the party’s
estranged governors, who had been up in arms against him, since the party’s
recent primaries, as good party men, who would support the party and its
candidates in their respective states despite their grievances.
Oshiomhole stated this yesterday
when he spoke as a guest on the ‘Morning Show’ broadcast on Arise TV, a sister
broadcast station of Thisday Newspapers.
Recall that four governors,
Senator Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun State), Chief Rochas Okorocha (Imo State), Chief
Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo State) and Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara State), had
been engaged in a public spat with Oshiomhole, accusing him of scuttling the
chances of their preferred candidates in the recently concluded primaries.
However, Oshiomhole in holding
out an olive branch, said: “They are angry now, but I believe in a short while
they will turn around and support the party.”
Specifically, he ruled out the
possibility of any of them working against the party in spite of their rage;
saying, “I believe Governor Amosun is my friend and I believe people are
entitled to feel disappointed if things don’t work out the way they want. I
think usually like any leader, he will recognise the greater interest of the
party, I know he is a loyal party man; I can’t see him voting with his feet.
“As a statesman, who has
contributed to the growth and development of Ogun State, he will want to ensure
that his party continues to govern the state and play the role of a statesman;
I have no fear at all because this thing called choice is a relative question.
“Whatever we have as internal
issues in APC they do not in fact undermine that Amosun, has more things to
show as governor of that state and for which I am very proud of as chairman of
the party. I hope he can overcome his anger so that we can work to reconcile
our various interests in Ogun State.
“As for my friend Rochas
Okorocha, who talked about nepotism, well as the head of the family, I do not
want to continue to bring family matters to the market. At the end of the day
it makes sense to keep it in the family, that is what maturity and
responsibility imposes on me.
“So I won’t join issues with him,
but the truth is that while I was in government, there was no other Oshiomhole
in government. This is not something to hide, as a journalist you can go to Edo
State and ask how many Oshiomholes were in government while I was at Osadebe
House.
“Well, Okorocha is a great guy.
He is one of those who left APGA to join APC. It is on record as having
contributed his quota to the formation of the APC.
“We also have to accept that a
tree cannot make a forest and we have to encourage those who think otherwise to
recognise that this is a fact.
“In Imo State we have big names
but it is not about big names, it is about big numbers. And the big numbers in
Imo State are with us and I think governor Okorocha appreciates this fact.
“Now as for whether people will
decamp or not I am not so sure. Even if they do, they will not make history,
after all, in recent past, sitting governors decamped for one reason or the
other because they want to be president. Having decamped they found that there
are so many aspirants, they have since reconciled themselves with the reality
that though they decamped from the APC believing that they are going to be
presidential candidate of the PDP, they got there and found an over-crowded
house.
“I think some of them have
quietly taken the governorship ticket and some have even taken the senatorial
ticket and they are living with the new reality. I think that is the way it is.
“In a democracy it is a game of
numbers and in Imo State we have the numbers and I am sure that Okorocha, when
he overcomes his disappointment with regard to whom he would have preferred to
succeed him, he will recognise that as a democrat that is the way these things
work sometimes. Outcomes can be predicted sometimes but it could be shocking
some other time. I think Nigeria’s democracy is evolving but we are not running
traditional rulership.”
He expressed the confidence that
in spite of the current misgivings in the party in the affected states, the
party’s candidates would still win since the main opposition Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) had its fair share of crisis.
He said, “The truth is that in
Ogun State we will win because PDP has its own pocket of crisis as well. As we
speak we don’t know who is the actual governorship candidate in Ogun State
because the national secretariat of PDP parades a certain candidate and a
running mate and a certain group run by Buruji Kashamu with due respect to him
also parade a governorship candidate and a running mate.
“So while they are sorting out
their own issues we will be sorting out our own issues.”
He said the negative public
perception of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, was due to poor
communication of its policies and programmes by its information management
machinery.
He, however, said despite this
shortcoming, the president’s integrity would give him the edge in the
forthcoming general elections slated for the first quarter of 2019.
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