Oshiomhole lacks capacity, acting like APC undertaker – Senator Shuaibu

Fresh crisis, yesterday, hit the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as Deputy National Chairman of the party, North, Senator Lawali Shuaibu, asked the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to resign, following last Friday’s  Supreme Court judgment in favour of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Zamfara State.

Shuaibu, who had had a cold war with his principal for some time, said that given the huge losses suffered by the ruling party during the last general election, it had become evident that Oshiomhole lacked the competence to continue to lead the party.

In a six-page letter, dated May 27, 2019 and addressed to the National Chairman of the APC, Shuaibu said that Oshiomhole lacked the ability, necessary composure and requisite experience to run a political party.
He accused Oshiomhole of acting like an undertaker of the ruling party.

Shuaibu alleged that in the last one year of Oshiomhole’s stewardship, the respect which APC commanded among its members and sympathizers have been completely eroded, while the goodwill it enjoyed had equally evaporated following Oshiomhole’s dictatorial leadership style.

According to him, Oshiomhole’s attitude of issuing threats to members, including senior members like governors, senators, ministers and other government officials whose functions do not fall within the party’s jurisdiction, has done more harm than good to the party.

In advanced democracies, Shuaibu said, people who fail to add value or build over and above what they met on assumption of duty show some civilized example, by honourably bowing out.

His words: “It is my honest opinion that your ability to ensure this party flourishes is deficient as you lack the necessary composure and you also don’t possess the capabilities and the requisite experience to run a political party.

“The respect APC was commanding among its members and sympathizers have been completely eroded, while the goodwill has equally evaporated with the type of attitude of threats to members you deploy, including senior members like governors, senators, ministers and other government officials whose functions do not fall within your jurisdiction.

“In advanced democracies, people who fail to add value or build over and above what they met on assumption of duty show some civilized example, they honourably bow out.

“In that connection, therefore, I want to advise you to take the path of honour, to step aside and allow the party to embark on the onerous task of reconstruction and rehabilitation in those states it was weakened by the effect of manner the last primary election exercises were conducted or even the task of recreating the party where it is on the path of extinction, arising from the loss of a sitting APC government, for example in Zamfara State, where you directly personally created the problem leading to the painful complete loss of APC’s electoral fortunes, from up to down. All these are uncontestable facts. You cannot exonerate yourself from blame on what happened to APC Zamfara State, thereby destroying the hopes and aspirations of 534,541 APC members and supporters, including my good self.”

Shuaibu, who is from Zamfara State, had had altercation with the APC National Chairman on the dissolution of the Zamfara State Executive.
Oshiomhole had, before now, directed that the Zamfara State Executive Committee of the APC be dissolved while Shuaibu gave a contrary directive on the same matter.
The Deputy National Chairman alleged that such unilateral decisions of the party chairman were responsible for the crisis in the state chapters of the party which caused the party losses in the elections.
Shuaibu argued that the National Chairman and  other NWC members were elected to make the party flourish and not to serve as undertakers who had come to kill and bury the party.

“The strength of every political party, I also believe, lies in the number of states it is able to win elections. NWC meetings, in my own experience, shall not be held in private residences, especially where it involves thousands of party men and women with grudges over injustice meted out on them by officials of the party. The party secretariat is the officially recognized venue of such meetings, unless if there are other motives for keeping away from there.

“…Apart from the President, more than 60% of members, including those that contested elections under the APC in 2019, are not happy with the process as it left a lot to be desired. We have court cases in every state, by far much more than it was in 2015 and I wonder how much money the party is likely to spend on litigations arising from mistakes of the National Chairman in not adhering to due process and sidelining transparency.

“Committees for primaries became secret affair to the extent that not even members of the NWC were aware of how certain committees were constituted with members, mostly from Edo State, outnumbering every other state and, in some instance, the same Edo members sewing in more than one state in conducting primaries. The records are there to be seen. What is wrong with being just in what you find yourself doing for the people? Personal interest should not be allowed to overshadow the interests of our teeming loyal members across the country.

“We had 23 states in 2015, but after the 2019 elections we lost seven states! We also had 60 Senators in 2015 at the end of the election count, we now end up with 57 senators in 2019! You were not brought in to lose election; it is absolutely unacceptable!

“What this entails is that for any Senator to become a presiding officer, he needs to go and kneel down before the PDP Senators and beg for support! And to make things worse, you announced that APC will not allow any PDP Senator to be appointed as Committee Chairman except the committees statutorily meant for the opposition members of the Senate.

That is never the tradition of the legislature anywhere! The legislature is the house of collaboration and lobby and you can never succeed with hostile approach, you must lobby, seek for cooperation of members across party divides.

“If you don’t know, you have made the situation worse than it seems. Try and use your calculator and you will find that as at now, if anybody, backed by the PDP members, wants to become Senate President, all he needs is the support of only six APC senators to win the election on the floor of the Senate! Chairman, strategies are not announced on television, they are discussed at caucuses.