By Ayo Kehinde.
Following the embarrassing lose of key electoral seats by the All Progressives Congress in the last elections, namely the governorship in Imo, Bauchi, Adamawa and now Zamfara and some National Assembly seats, not to talk of its inability to reclaim Sokoto and Benue whose governors defected before the polls, many members and some officials of the party have become restive and started heaping the blame on what they consider the buccaneering and undemocratic ways of its National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
The first among the officials to openly take a shot at him is the APC Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu, to Oshiomhole.
In a statement on Tuesday, he questioned Oshiomhole’s administrative capacity, cognitive ability and democratic credentials to lead a great and ruling party as the APC. In fact he blames the current low public image of the party on him.
He said: “It is my honest opinion that your ability to ensure this party flourishes is deficient as you lack the necessary composure and you also don’t possess the capabilities and requisite experience to run a political party.
“The respect APC was commanding among its members and sympathisers has been completely eroded, while the goodwill has equally evaporated.
He continued: “We had 23 States in 2015, but after the 2019 elections we lost 7 States! We also had 60 Senators in 2015 at the end of the election count, we now end up with 57 Senators in 2019! You were not brought in to lose election, It is absolutely unacceptable!
“What this entails is that for any Senator to become a presiding Officer he needs to go and kneel down before the PDP Senators and beg for support! And to make things worse, you announced that APC would not allow any PDP Senator to be, appointed as Committee Chairman except the committees statutorily meant for the opposition members of the Senate. That is never the tradition of the legislature anywhere!
“The Legislature is the house of collaboration and lobby and you can never succeed with hostile approach, you must lobby seek for cooperation of members across Party divides. If you don’t know, you have made the situation worse than it seems.
“Try and use your calculator and you will find that as at now, if anybody, backed by the PDP members, wants to become Senate President, all he needs is the support of only 6 APC Senators to win the election on the floor of the Senate! Chairman, strategies are not announced on television, they are discussed at caucuses”.
“In advanced democracies, people who failed to add value or build over and above what they met on assumption of duty show some civilised examples, they honourably bow out.
“In that connection therefore, I want to advise you to take the path of honour to step aside”.
