Bola Ahmed Tinubu says he has not taken a decision to run in
2023 contrary to speculations, maintaining that he was more worried about the
health and economic challenges facing the country at the moment.
In a statement he released on Saturday afternoon, he
commented for the first time on the ouster of the Adams Oshiomhole-led national
working committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The NWC was dissolved on Thursday by the party’s national
executive committee (NEC) at an emergency meeting.
This was seen as a blow on Tinubu’s rumoured presidential
ambition because of his closeness to Oshiomhole.
“To those who have been actively bleating how the
President’s actions and the NEC meeting have ended my purported 2023 ambitions,
I seek your pity. I am but a mere mortal who does not enjoy the length of
foresight or political wisdom you profess to have. Already, you have assigned
colourful epitaphs to the 2023 death of an alleged political ambition that is
not yet even born,” he said.
“At this extenuating moment with COVID-19 and its economic
fallout hounding us, I cannot see as far into the distance as you. I have made
no decision regarding 2023 for the concerns of this hour are momentous enough.”
THE FULL STATEMENT: BECOMING THE PARTY WE WERE INTENDED TO
BE
I wish to begin my remarks by commending members of the
National Working Committee. Under their collective stewardship, the party
earned great and important victories, not least the vital second mandate handed
to President Buhari. President Buhari’s victory, and the overall electoral
success of APC speak highly of them. Our
task as a party is to build upon the progress thus made so that both nation and
party may advance to their better future.
Yet, we must acknowledge that something important has gone
off track. For some months we have experienced growing disagreement within the
leadership of the party. This unfortunate competition had grown so intense as
to impair the performance of the NWC, thus undermining the internal cohesion
and discipline vital to success.
Some people have gone so far as to predict the total
disintegration of our party. Most such dire predictions were from critics whose
forecasts said more about their ill will than they revealed about our party’s
objective condition. Predictions of the APC’s imminent demise are premature and
mostly mean-spirited. However, an honest person must admit the party had
entered a space where it had no good reason to be.
The trouble is not that we would forfeit our collective
existence but whether we were in danger of losing our collective purpose. In
some ways, this possibility is of greater concern. A political party that has
lost sight of the reason for its existence becomes but the vehicle of blind and
clashing ambitions. This is not what drove the APC’s creation.
Those who believe Nigeria can be forged into a better nation
and deserves good governance must harken back to the establishment of our
party. Those who were there and contributed the most to the party’s genesis
embraced a common vision. Not only did we believe the venal, purblind PDP was
leading the nation into a pit, we sincerely held a common vision of progressive
good governance. This was the overriding reason for the APC.
Those most intimately involved in founding the party remain
faithful to this benign, timely assignment. Sadly, many members have lost their
balance. Their personal ambition apparently came to greatly outweigh the
obvious national imperatives.
Even in the best of times, Nigeria is beset by myriad
challenges. Poverty and economic inequality, insecurity, lack of infrastructure
are longstanding obstacles that have blocked our access to national greatness
for too long.
Through no fault of our own, we now live in a moment of
heightened difficulty. We did not ask for COVID-19 but it has found us. We must
deal with it and navigate its rude economic consequences. At the same time we
must grapple with the violent insecurity caused by increasingly desperate
terrorists and criminals. People need concrete help from us. We must focus on building roads and creating
jobs. For the average man, watching politicians wrestle for position is a poor
substitute to seeing politicians working for the benefit of all.
Yet, such intramural fighting has come to occupy the
attention of many high ranking party officials and members.
The National Working Committee, itself, became riven by
unnecessary conflict. Those who disagreed with one another stopped trying to
find common ground. Attempts were made to use the power of executive authority
to bury each other. I must be blunt here. This is the behaviour of a fight club
not the culture of a progressive political party.
Some members went against their chairman in a bid to
forcefully oust him. In hindsight, his fence-mending attempts were perhaps too
little too late. I believed and continue to believe that Comrade Oshiomhole
tried his best. Mistakes were made and he must own them. Yet, we must remember
also that he was an able and enthusiastic campaigner during the 2019 election.
He is a man of considerable ability as are the rest of you who constituted the
NWC.
It had been my hope that the disagreements could be
resolved. After all, a political solution should not be beyond the ken of
leaders of a major political party. But such resolution has failed to materialise.
It was as if some unseen but strong force continued to stoke the embers.
Instead of calling a prudent ceasefire, too many people sought more destructive
weapons against one another.
Order, party discipline and mutual respect went out of the window.
Members instituted all manner of court cases, most of them destructive, some of
them frivolous, none of them necessary. In the process, a dense fog fell upon
our party.
When this matter first came to a boil a few months ago, I
issued a statement against this litigious tendency. President Buhari and former
interim chairman Akande published strong words against this misuse of the
courts as being contrary to the spirit of the party and the letter of its
constitution. Each of us knew nothing good would come of such conduct. Instead
of listening to this counsel, party members increased their trips to the
courts. While busy providing ample livelihood for a gaggle of lawyers, these
actions cast the good of the party to the wind.
After the fusillade of lawsuits and countersuits, two NWC
members laid competing claims to the chairmanship. One legitimately elected at
our national convention; the latter whose claim was based on the questionable
suspension of the former.
With lawsuits so numerous one needed a spread sheet to keep
track, President Buhari has reasonably decided that he has seen enough.
I do not lament his intervention or its outcome. I lament
that the situation degenerated to the point where he felt compelled to
intervene.
President Buhari is much more than a mere beneficiary of the
party. He is one of its founding fathers. The APC does not exist in its current
form without his singular contributions. That is not opinion; it is undisputed
fact.
Given these antecedents, he cares about the condition of the
party as any parent would care for its offspring.President Buhari has done what
any parent in his position and with his authority would do. The more troubling
consideration is that so many trusted people acted in such a way as to force
the president to put aside the issues of statecraft in order to address these
problems.
The President has spoken and his decision has been accepted.
It is now beholden on all of us, as members of the APC, to recommit ourselves
to the ideals and principles on which our party was founded. While we recognize
that people have personal ambitions, those ambitions are secondary, not
sacrosanct. Members must subordinate their ambitions to health and well-being
of the party. Never should our party be defined by one person’s interests or
even the amalgam of all members’ individual interests. A successful party must
be greater than the sum of its parts.
In this vein, I appeal to all former members of the National
Working Committee and all members of our party to sheathe their swords and look
to the larger picture.
We have governorship elections around the corner in Edo and
a primary and elections in Ondo. On these important events we must concentrate
our immediate energies. In the longer run, we must restore the collegial nature
to the party so that it should be in the practice of coming to support the
President instead of him having to rescue the party from itself.
In Edo, we must rally round our candidate Pastor Osagie Ize
Iyamu. In this, Comrade Oshiomhole has a crucial role to play. I congratulate
him for his equanimity and loyalty to the party and our President in accepting
the dissolution of the NWC. I encourage him, now, to return to Edo State to
energise the campaign for the election of Pastor Ize-Iyamu.
In Ondo, we must set the procedures for primaries and
conduct that exercise in a fair, transparent manner that shows the Nigerian
people the party has left turmoil behind.
In addition to the daily operation of the party, the Caretaker
Committee has the mandate to prepare for a mini national convention within six
months. We must give the committee the support needed to fulfil this assignment
in an impartial manner.
As I understand it, no one has been precluded from seeking
any party office to which he is otherwise eligible. Former NWC members are free
to seek re-election to the NWC. Provided they have the support of party
members, they will have an opportunity to return to serve the party in a
leadership capacity. This reflects our overriding desire to restore and
maintain internal democracy not subvert it.
To those who have been actively bleating how the President’s
actions and the NEC meeting have ended my purported 2023 ambitions, I seek your
pity. I am but a mere mortal who does not enjoy the length of foresight or
political wisdom you profess to have. Already, you have assigned colourful
epitaphs to the 2023 death of an alleged political ambition that is not yet
even born.
At this extenuating moment with COVID-19 and its economic
fallout hounding us, I cannot see as far into the distance as you. I have made
no decision regarding 2023 for the concerns of this hour are momentous enough.
During this period, I have not busied myself with
politicking regarding 2023. I find that a bit distasteful and somewhat uncaring
particularly when so many of our people have been unbalanced by the twin public
health and economic crises we face. I have devoted these last few months to
thinking of policies that may help the nation in the here and now. What I may
or may not do 3 years hence seems too remote given present exigencies.
Those who seek to cast themselves as political Nostradamus’
are free to so engage their energies. I trust the discerning public will give
the views of such eager seers the scant weight such divinations warrant.
Personally, I find greater merit trying to help in the
present by offering policy ideas, both privately and publicly, where I think
they might help. I will continue in this same mode for the immediate future.
2023 will answer its own questions in due time.
I have toiled for this party as much as any other person and
perhaps more than most. Despite this investment or perhaps due to it, I have no
problem with making personal sacrifices (and none of us should have such a
problem) as long as the party remains true to its progressive, democratic
creed. Politics is but a vehicle to arrive at governance. Good politics
promotes good governance. Yet, politics is also an uncertain venture. No one
gets all they want all the time. In even a tightly-woven family, differences
and competing interests must be balanced and accommodated.
My fellow party members who now feel aggrieved by the NEC
meeting I urge you to accept the sacrifice you have been asked to make so that
the air can be cleared, the party can assume its proper role of helping this
government lead the nation toward enlightened improvement, and the party itself
can grow and firmly establish itself as the best, most democratic party in the
land.
SIGNED
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
27 June 2020.
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