The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been thrown into confusion as the party's heavy weights split over embattled National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Oshiomhole who has been suspended from the Edo State chapter of the APC, also had his position as National Leader, on a knife's edge following disapproval of his leadership by some members of the party.
Two weeks ago, A federal capital territory (FCT) high Court, suspended Oshiomhole as national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), following a ruling by Justice Danlami Senchi. The judge, gave the order on following an application of interlocutory injunction filed by one Oluwale Afolabi seeking the removal of Oshiomhole as APC national chairman.
Meanwhile, Oshiomhole, following a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, said he remains confident of retaining his position despite numerous attempts to get him “out at all cost”. He insists he's done more for the party despite his imperfections.
He said, “You see in whatever you do, those who want to fight you will fight you. But I know that my tenure will be defined by God not by man. And I worry more about what I will be remembered for when I was chairman rather than how long I was chairman.
“I am convinced that I have done my very best, mistakes would have been made and I want to see the one person who will say he has never made mistakes. But if there are mistakes of the head, we have the capacity to correct mistakes of the head. But I know I have not set out to make the mistakes of the heart. It is just that by the reason of the position that I occupy, it is not quite appropriate for me to join at this hour in explaining who is responsible for the losses that people point out and they want to heap on my head.”
Whether or not Buhari is on Oshiomhole's side is unclear. But the embattled national chairman can find succor in the fact that the party's national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has seemingly thrown his weight behind him.
National Leader on Sunday, opened up on the crisis rocking the party, rejecting attempts by some forces to oust the national chairman. He said removing the national chairman whom he said had toiled hard for the party would be an act of “ingratitude.”
Tinubu also lashed out at those fuelling the crisis because of the 2023 ambition, accusing them of being afflicted with malady worse than the Coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement he personally signed, the national leader for the umpteenth time said discussing about the 2023 race would be a “disservice” to the party and President Muhammadu Buhari who has a four-year mandate and is piloting the affairs of the country on a path of progressive governance.
Tinubu said the embattled Chairman has “been a tireless campaigner and mobilizer for the party.”
“He has steered the party through difficult elections. His contributions should not be undervalued now that the bulk of elections are behind us. To do so would be an act of ingratitude.”
Speaking further he said, “Those touched by this malady find that their ability to tell time and discern the difference between the present and the future has been strongly impaired. The carriers of this sickness are confused as to the very season our nation now finds itself.
“They conflate things, which no sensible person would conflate. The primary symptom of their malady is the driving tendency to believe the events of 2023 will be decided before we even exit the year 2020.
“Consequently, everything they say and do is geared toward obsessive jockeying for position to control and manipulate a race still three years away. In doing so, they recklessly undermine the very party which they claim to serve and weaken the administration of President Buhari to which they claim to be loyal. They line up to run a race for which the track has not even yet been constructed."
