The national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, currently on a presidential assignment to resolve crisis within the party at various levels, has accused the national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, of undermining him.
Tinubu was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari to lead the consultation, reconciliation and confidence-building efforts in the APC.
However, in a seven-page letter to Odigie-Oyegun, Tinubu accused the party chairman of positioning himself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the party.
He also sent copies of his letter to President Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and House Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.
He picked holes in the attitude of the party chairman to his request on status reports on state party chapters especially on Kogi and Kaduna States.
In the letter dated Wednesday and titled “Actions and Conduct Weakening the Party from within Tinubu said Chief Odigie-Oyegun had acted in contravention of the meeting with the NWC and his promise to support the assignment presidential.
He said that the delay in not reporting a single state chapter threatened his assignment, stating that “I cannot overstate the imperatives of time in this regard just as I cannot overstate the need for cooperation and to work in accordance with the formal rules and ways of our party.”
Tinubu, who recalled that the party national chairman told him during the meeting that Adamawa, Kano, Kaduna and Kogi remained the States with serious issues, said that he had expected “intense and detailed” cooperation from the Edo State-born politician.
The former governor of Lagos State, therefore, faulted what he tagged the “hurried” inauguration of a caretaker committee in Kogi State.
Tinubu said, “In Kogi, you rushed to the state, to unilaterally inaugurate a new set of state 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 had picked, this machination suggests no improvement in the welfare of the party in Kogi State or at the national level.
“This usurpation of authority exacerbates conflict and confusion. It doesn’t resolve it. It is my understanding that the dissolution of the duly constituted state executive and the hurried naming of the above mentioned group wasn’t approved by the NWC.
“This arrogation of power sets you at variance with members of the NWC as evidenced by the national publicity secretary, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi statement condemning your improper and usual action.
“You had let this situation fester for months on end. Only when I was appointed to help resolve internal disputes and when you realized I might focus early on Kogi did you stir from your indifference and inaction.
“You could have wisely and prudently treated this matter before hand. By waiting to the last moment, your unilateral action was implemented in haste and unbalanced in thought. By creating a parallel body, you not only acted improperly, you grew a second problem from the stem where previously there had sprouted but one.”
The letter further read, “I am led to the inference that you have no intention of actually supporting my assignment. Instead, you apparently seek 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, without the counsel of other NWC members and without regard to our internal procedures.
“You may have personal qualms with me. That is your right as a human being. However, you have no such right as the chairman of the party. This party belongs to all of its members. You have no greater claim on it than any of the rest of us.
“Whatever personal qualms you may have with me are secondary at this point. You have a moral and professional obligation as the party chairman to act in the party’s best interests. Your hurried and unilateral actions belie the important agency you hold for the party.
“Thus, in furtherance of the assignment given to me by President Buhari, I request that you make available to me the status reports and all other pertinent information regarding the state chapters without further delay.
“If you continue to do so, I fear you may undermine the party in no small degree. You may well cause internal fractures and dissension difficult to repair yet visible to all.
“I fear this can undermine our goodwill with the electorate and make the approaching challenges to the party materially difficult than they need to be.
“As chairman of this party, you should not want this to be your legacy. As a member of this party from its inception, I don’t want this to happen to the party and I don’t want such an awful thing to be your legacy.”
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, said since “the letter was written to the chairman”, he could not “speak on it”.
But speaking earlier yesterday when members of Adamawa State House of Assembly visited him to pass a vote of confidence in him, Chief Odigie-Oyegun thanked the state lawmakers for their solidarity and show of support for the President, Adamawa State governor and party executive at the state and national levels.
“In the last few months, I have had the fortune of having nothing but good news from Adamawa State.
Your colleagues from the National Assembly have been here to visit and have indicated solidarity, loyalty.
“I thank you very much for the solidarity, we are proud of what you have achieved, we are proud of what you are doing and I will support that for people who deserve so much, we will make sure that we don’t stand in your way to greater heights, and we will do what is right to support you. Of course, the caveat is that the people who are responsible for your future are seeing what you are doing and reward you appropriately,” Odigie-Oyegun said this to a delegation led by the Speaker, Kabiru Mijinyawa.
Speaker Mijinyawa, in his remarks, said, “We bring warm greetings from the popular government and people of Adamawa state. It is a great pleasure for us members of the Adamawa State House of Assembly to be in your midst to deliver our solidarity message.
“There is a tendency to have divisions and criticisms amongst ourselves at this crucial time. But most of the criticisms are not constructive and theyQ hold no weight. That is why today we are here to register and show our appreciation and support to our state executive, the governor of Adamawa state and the national executive of our great party led by our national chairman, Chief Odigie-Oyegun.”
The strained relationship between the two party stalwarts dated back to the conduct of the Ondo State governorship primary of the party won by Chief Rotimi Akeredolu.
Tinubu, in a statement shortly after the primaries, accused Oyegun of overruling the decision of an appeal committee constituted by the party for a fresh primary, describing the national chairman as a turncoat democrat, who should resign from office.
In response, Oyegun said Tinubu’s public letter contained “reckless falsehood” and that the party’s constitution has a clear guidelines on removing its chairman.
