Oyegun calls out Oshiomhole for Party's Crisis, supports Shuaibu - APC replies.

The former National Chairman of All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on Sunday, 2nd June said his successor, Adams Oshiomhole, does not have the capacity to run a political party.


Mr John Odigie-Oyegun said this on Sunday as a support after the National Deputy Chairman of the party (North), Senator Lawan Shuaibu, demanded for Oshiomhole’s resignation saying Oshiomhole does not have the temperament to run a political party.

Speaking against the backdrop of his indictment by the six South South states chairmen of the APC, Odigie-Oyegun through his media aid, Ray Morphy, said Oshiomhole failed because he lacks the temperament to manage different interests in the party.

He blamed the party's crisis on Oshiomhole, saying he engages his mouth before his mind.

“Oshiomhole fails because he lacks the temperament required to run a political party. He lacks the capacity to manage different interests and tendencies that constitute a political party. He engages his mouth before engaging his mind, so he offends party members, so how does that constitute traps by Oyegun.”

Odigie-Oyegun also spoke of how Oshiomhole led the party into its current wave of crises, faulting the indecision of the national chairman with regards to adopting a uniform template for the conduct of the last primaries of the party before the general elections.

“How would you not have crisis in states with the confusion that Oshiomhole created when he gave the states freedom to choose their methods of choosing candidates for elections."

“Much of the crisis in states arose out of sheer incapacity on the part of the current chairman. How does Oshiomhole’s incapacity become booby traps by Oyegun? Many party men were aghast at the unfairness and injustice meted them during the primaries process.

“Oshiomhole and his chairmen should leave his predecessor out and face his duties of running the party which seems to be overwhelming him. He should face the dwindling fortunes of the party which he himself created.

“Only a bad carpenter quarrels with his tools. Indeed, Oshiomhole is degrading and de-marketing the party. Rather than seek to bring more people on board, he is rather chasing people out of the party with his agbero style of engagement.”

In the same vein, the APC responded on Tuesday, 4th June saying the former chairman condoned indiscipline while he was at the helm of affairs of the party.

This was voice through her National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, who spoke to journalists, said the National Working Committee led by Odigie-Oyegun had lacked the courage required to confront the “pockets of political despots,” who could not operate by the party’s rules.

He said, “Let me agree that the NWC that led the party into the 2015 elections and continued till June 2018 did nothing different from what you would find in the Peoples Democratic Party. It was a period the party was seen as a mere vehicle to attain political office.

“The system accommodated impunity as certain members appeared to be superior to the party. Their interests were far more important than the collective interests of the APC, even when most times such interests are at variance with the ideals the party stand for.

“The leadership under Chief Oyegun, with due respect to him, condoned all sorts of acts of indiscipline from certain members. It is not surprising that the current National Working Committee inherited such a huge mess, where the party was struggling to differentiate itself from the delinquent PDP.”

“It goes without saying that when an organisation is unable to enforce its own rules, it would suffer the consequences sooner than later.

“We should not be ashamed to say that our party’s leadership under Chief Oyegun lacked the courage required to confront the pockets of political despots who could not operate by the party’s rules,” he concluded.