The immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has opened up on several issues concerning his party, especially on the circumstances surrounding his exit as the chairman of the ruling party.

Speaking to Sunday Sun in Abuja, the former Edo State governor revealed his fears for the 2019 general elections, what he is missing most since leaving office and what the Nigerian youths must do to permanently retire the old politicians, among other issues.

He told the Sunday Sun "I have decided to deliberately and totally stay out of controversy because we are in a system that is so dynamic and so active that whatever you say is capable of either being misinterpreted or not being particularly helpful. I have decided to keep away from the politics of who is right or who is wrong. As an elder statesman, I want to make an appeal first in the general polity for a lot more decorum and for our leaders to keep away from distractions and none issues. The social media is full of such terrible distractions, insults and humongous percentage of clear patent falsehood. This seems to have become the main issues whereas they are mere distractions. Such issues as whether people have a certificate or not, whether they went to school or not, and quite a lot of other manufactured stories against prominent individuals. It looks as if the past time is the search for scandal rather than an attempt to build up issues, debate alternative approaches. We all know the problem of the country, who has answers to these problems and what are the answers.

"I was basically an originator because I knew that what we were doing while in opposition was wrong. We in opposition truly want to present our nation with a democratic choice. We need to build a party that can be comparable in levels, strength and acceptability to the Nigerian public not for them to keep saying that they don’t like them yet they don’t have a choice. Having been an originator to that process, it will be extremely difficult to see myself elsewhere. Yes, the party has issues and problems, but you don’t run away from the party because it is passing through a phase or difficulty. I cannot run away. I will rather give what I have to patch the cracks. We will maintain the direction and goals we have set for ourselves otherwise the fluidity of the movement does not make sense and does not show commitment. Yes, there are difficulties, but they are meant to be addressed, sorted out so that the party does not lose its soul and the message that brought it into being. Those are the critical issues. The real problem comes if a party stands in danger of losing its bearing in those respects. I am APC and I don’t see myself somewhere else. I cannot just quite envisage it."

https://www.naijanewspapers.com.ng/2018/12/am-afraid-youths-must-retire-old-politicians-oyegun/