APC Crisis Worsens As Tinubu Asks Oyegun, NWC To Resign

The crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has worsened following allegation by a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu asked them to resign as a way of finding a lasting solution to the intractable crisis rocking the party.
This followed on Thursday a scathing letter written by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, chairman of the party’s reconciliation committee, to Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, national chairman, accusing him of sabotaging his efforts in reconciling aggrieved members of the party.
The former Lagos State governor, whose relationship with Odigie-Oyegun has been on the downward trend since the conduct of the Ondo State governorship primary of the party in 2016, said rather than providing him the necessary support needed in his assignment, the party’s national chairman is undermining his presidential mandate by constituting himself as an obstacle towards the reconciliation process.
He specifically mentioned Kogi, Kaduna, Kano, and Adamawa as the key states where Odigie-Oyegun is working to frustrate his efforts in reconciling aggrieved members of the party.
Tinubu, who copied the letter to the president, vice-president, Senate president and speaker of the House of Representatives, accused Odigie-Oyegun of contravening the spirit of the discussions both of them had at the party secretariat when President Muhammadu Buhari gave him the assignment of reconciling aggrieved members.
In the letter, dated February 21, 2018, Tinubu said “disappointment greeted me when I discovered that you had swiftly acted in contravention of the spirit of our discussions. Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of APC”.
Tinubu said while Odigie-Oyegun mentioned Kogi, Kaduna, Kano and Adamawa as places affected by serious party issues, he has taken it as his own personal ambition to thwart his presidential assignment in these key states.
He accused the chairman of rushing to Kogi State to unilaterally inaugurate officials “parallel to the officials already heading the state chapter of the party”.
“While this may place you in significant affinity with those parallel officials you handpicked, this machination suggests no improvement in the welfare of the party in Kogi or at the national level”.
Tinubu said Odigie-Oyegun apparently seeks “to undermine my mandate by engaging in dilatory tactics for the most part. When forced to act, you do so in an arbitrary and capricious manner”.
Speaking further, Tinubu said even if Odigie-Oyegun had personal qualms with him, it is his right as a human being but “you have no such right as the chairman of this party. The party belongs to all of its members”.
While not turning down the assignment, he, however, warned Odigie-Oyegun to refrain from taking any more “improper unilateral decisions with regard to the national and state chapters of the party”.
He reminded Odigie-Oyegun that the assignment was given to him by Buhari, stating that “in furtherance, I request that you make available to me the status reports and all the pertinent information regarding the state chapters without further delay”.
Speaking with DAILY INDEPENDENT on the genesis of the current crisis between the two party stalwarts, a member of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) said Tinubu during the closed door meeting he had with them during his visit to the party secretariat had asked them to resign as a way of finding a lasting solution to the intractable crisis rocking the party.
“I am not surprised by the current letter written by Asiwaju Tinubu. During his visit to the party secretariat, he had asked us members of the NWC led by Chief Oyegun to resign but we told him that it is impossible since our tenure will end in June.
“We later understood he wanted to install a Caretaker Committee to be headed by Chief Bisi Akande, thereby having his structures in chharge of the party. That I can tell you is the genesis of the crisis”, he said.