The President, Muhammadu Buhari, has broken his silence over
the crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media,
Garba Shehu, the president warned the leaders and members of APC to desist from
“name-calling and backstabbing”.
He reiterated that the party’s national convention would
hold on March 26.
The president urged APC members to “remain steadfast and
maintain unity if the party is to continue in the path of victory and its dominance
at all levels throughout the country”.
The statement also quoted Buhari as asking members of the
party to “look at the once-powerful, main opposition Peoples Democratic Party
now enfeebled and adrift and learn lessons in disunity, mismanagement and
corruption”.
He said, “They (PDP) failed in 16 years in power and a
failure as opposition.
“Yes, we are entitled to our own share of dissent and
intra-party discord. These are common in all parties, left and right all over
the world.
“But parties splintered by competing egos destine themselves
to the worst possible fate.
“As the country prepares for the long run-up to the 2023
presidential election, we all expect a robust debate on the issues that matter
and what is going in the APC should be a reflection of this, not the infighting
we are seeing. There must be no more distractions ahead of the convention to
choose new leaders.”
He claimed that APC started out with a confidence of victory
and enjoyed confidence in nearly two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.
“This is a party that has been in existence barely for eight
years, becoming the dominant party because it has thrown open its doors to
defectors from other parties, big and small.
“This alone, in addition to the fact that we didn’t start on
the note of arrogance of power, nor see government as a vehicle for
self-aggrandisement, to be held at all costs, but a vehicle to bring
development to all without discrimination-political, ethnic or regional to our
dear country made this success possible.
“Given all that is at
a stake, we can expect contests into offices as we are now faced with to be
heated although candidates and their promoters for party offices are not so
much debating policy differences but differences of management, personality,
character, and suitability for the most important leadership roles in our
country and therefore the continent.”
The president, however, blamed the role of the media in the
crisis rocking the party.
He said, “It is equally clear that over the last week or so,
the internal management affairs of the APC have been afforded generous media
coverage – over and above its importance to the voters of Nigeria.
“It is important to ask what benefits the poor are getting
during the period of intense negative coverage.
“When precisely the party’s convention is held and who is
the party’s chairman is hardly a matter for the average voter: vastly more
important is who convention delegates will elect as the party’s flagbearer in
the coming weeks to take forward the party’s platform to the people in the
general election in February next year.
“It is therefore important for the media to put such matters
into perspective. No one is debating policy differences here. That is for the
general election. None of the declared aspirants and any of those that may step
forward will change because of who may be in the party in the chairman’s seat.
It is essentially the same party.
“Of course, the media are welcome to comment on the content
of the character of the potential APC candidates; discuss their suitability for
leadership; scrutinize their offer to the membership. But to focus on the
routine internal divisions and magnify them into what they have become today is
a waste of everyone’s time, amounting to no more than a discussion over seating
arrangements.
“This is not what Nigerians talk of in their communities.
They have an inclination only for things that matter.”
Details later…
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