These are trying times for the ruling All Progressives Congress and its National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. Keen watchers of the unfolding political events within the party are of the view that Oshiomhole’s clamour for party supremacy and discipline may have endeared him to his staunch supporters, including President Muhammadu Buhari. However, his combustible personality and inflexible approach to issues have apparently alienated him from the majority of party faithful, particularly some APC governors. The seething crises in the various state chapters of the party have further demonstrated that the former Edo State governor may be riding an unwilling horse.
Oshiomhole rode to power on the wings of great expectations following the exit of his predecessor, John Odigie-Oyegun, who was literally hounded out of office. Having secured the endorsement of the President and a former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Oshiomhole’s emergence as party chairman was a done deal.
At his formal declaration in Abuja, Oshiomhole pledged to make the APC the envy of other parties in Africa, saying he would always ensure a win-win solution “rather than a loser and a winner.” He added, “If I am privileged to become the chairman, I would help the executive and the legislature to find common ground to win together. Let me say that I think with all sense of modesty that I am well prepared for this kind of role.”
He added that as a former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, he had the skills to negotiate, persuade and “make consensus.”
Oshiomhole’s fight to stamp his authority on the party started quite early. From his well publicised face-off with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, whom he threatened to sack from the party for not constituting the board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund to the threat to sanction the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, for a similar offence.
He said, “If the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. And when we expel the minister, we will prevail on the President that he can’t keep him in his cabinet; people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party without which they would not have been ministers. No minister is above the party and they have taken undue advantage of the President’s fatherly dispositions.”
The rippling effect of what was considered as his intemperate outbursts had yet to abate when he launched a verbal offensive against Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State for defecting to the Peoples Democratic Party. Describing him as a failure, the APC Chairman said he was relieved that the governor left. Ironically, Oshiomhole had persuaded Ortom not to leave the party about a week earlier.
“I am relieved as national chairman, and I believe that the leadership of the party in Benue is also relieved that Ortom has left the party and returned to the club he belongs, a club whose philosophy is to share the money and not develop communities,” he said.
Like a warrior without an armour of discretion, the APC boss yet again got involved in a fresh political tango with the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, who had defected to the PDP. He issued torrents of threats against Saraki and admonished the APC lawmakers in the Senate to impeach the Senate President.
In reaction, Saraki said “the day two-thirds of our members no longer have confidence in us, we will leave this place.”
Oshiomhole, however, insisted that Saraki should immediately resign as Senate President or be impeached. “The only way Saraki can avoid impeachment is for him to do what is honourable, which again leads to the issue of character,” he stated.
There were reports that the party chairman met secretly with the APC lawmakers where they perfected plans to impeach Saraki. The invasion of the National Assembly by operatives of the Department of State Services on August 7 was attributed to some Presidency officials in cahoots with Oshiomhole to pull the rug from under Saraki’s feet. The plot failed and the then Director-General of the DSS, Lawal Dauda, took the hammer for the failed conspiracy.
The loud accusations and protests that trailed the congresses which had resulted in litigations had put the chairman in a tight spot and provided the oil needed to roast him. Disenchanted party leaders and members in Bauchi, Zamfara, Rivers, Ogun, Imo and other states have either called for his removal or were working with other aggrieved colleagues to ease out the APC chairman from office.
https://punchng.com/the-fire-threatening-to-consume-oshiomhole-and-apcs-chances-in-2019/