Tinubu had on Wednesday in a
letter, accused Oyegun of sabotaging his efforts to reconcile aggrieved APC
members .
The letter dated February 21,
2018, was addressed to President Buhari, copied to the Vice-President, Yemi
Osinbajo, Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
Here’s the full text of the letter:
“I trust that this letter finds
you in good health and may that never change. I also hope that you are in an
apt frame of mind to read this letter according to the spirit in which it is
written and to derive apt counsel from it.
Our party has travelled far in a
brief time. To pull and mend the disparate legacy parties into one, we
surmounted high obstacles that would have daunted others. To win the election,
the then candidate Muhammadu Buhari had to campaign as never before and we, as
a party, had to stare down great odds to win.
We held firm to our principles
and did not cast our eyes away from the progressive objectives that led us to
form this party in the first instance. We kept faith with the best of our
ideals and we matched noble ideals to strong effort. We won. Nigeria won.
Sadly, some, who were entrusted
with positions of high responsibility within the party seemed unable to handle
the success given them. Little attention was tendered the principles upon which
this party was formed and pursuant to which it was presented to the public as
an alternative to the cynical politics of the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party).
We were born as a party of
internal democracy; but our internal institutions have been actively undermined
or allowed to atrophy. The spirit of a new and better Nigeria that guided us to
unprecedented electoral success has been steadily replaced by the bankrupt and
rule-less ways that brought the PDP low.
Since the election, there have
been several reports of lack of openness and fairness which have led to
internal crisis in some of our states. There have been allegations of
self-induced crisis resulting from merchandising of internal processes. We all
must agree that the party was bound to suffer growing pains but not to the extent
of losing part of the substantial goodwill that brought us to power.
However, that which concerns me
has little to do with the manner by which the party is growing. What concerns
me is the manner in which the crisis is developing that can lead to serious
erosion of party cohesion and confidence. Were I alone in this concern, I would
discount my observations as a sign of my own misperceptions or infirmity.
However, I stand not alone in this worry. My grief is shared by so many party
members that I would not be accused of exaggeration if I said substantial party
leaders are worried about the course of our vessel.
I believe it was from this sober
concern that President Muhammadu Buhari recently appointed me to lead the
consultation, reconciliation and confidence-building efforts in our party. Upon
the appointment, I gave the President my word that I would work diligently and
objectively to achieve the goal set before me.
In this vein, my first port of
call after receiving this assignment was our party’s National Secretariat to
present myself before the National Working Committee (NWC), with you as one of
its members by virtue of your position as Chairman of the party. During my
interaction with the NWC, I enjoined its members to freely express their views concerning
the state of the party at the national, state and local levels. I listened
attentively to the views of every member of the NWC present.
On your part, you promised
unalloyed support for my mission. Consonant with that vow, you said you would
provide all information at your disposal and you vowed to act as a liaison
between me and the state party chapters. At that very meeting, I announced I
had formally started the assignment handed me by President Buhari. I offered to
keep you abreast of my work. I said that I wanted the NWC to be like an
informal advisory council and sounding board to me in the discharge of this
presidential mandate.
Unfortunately, the spirit of
understanding and of cooperative undertaking to revive the party seems not to
have lived beyond the temporal confines of that meeting. I assure anyone who
cares to know that this positive spirit of cooperation did not meet its demise
at my hands.
My position was and is that we
can only restore the party by resolving its current deficiencies in an
unbiased, neutral manner that allows us to strengthen our internal democracy by
annealing those internal institutions and processes vital to such internal
fairness. I stated this position then and still hold to it with all sincerity.
Yet, disappointment greeted me
when I discovered that you had swiftly acted in contravention of the spirit of
our discussions. Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you
positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the
progressive and democratic nature of the APC. As a party, we have strived to be
the best, present hope for the nation. Yet, your goal appears to be something
of a lesser pedigree.
In our discussion, you personally
mentioned Kogi, Kaduna, Kano and Adamawa States as places afflicted by serious
party issues. Given your assessment, these were states where I believed
cooperation between you and I should have been intense and detailed. Instead,
you have taken it as your personal mission to thwart my presidential assignment
in these key states.
In Kogi, you rushed to the state
to unilaterally inaugurate a new slate 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 handpicked, this
machination suggests no improvement in the welfare of the party in Kogi or at
the national level. This usurpation of authority exacerbates conflict and
confusion; it does not resolve them.
It is my understanding that your
dissolution of the duly- constituted state executives and the hurried naming of
the above-mentioned caretaker group was not approved by the NWC. This
arrogation of power sets you at variance with members of the NWC as evidenced
by National Publicity Secretary Malam Bolaji Abdullahi’s statement, condemning
your improper and unusual action.
You had let this situation fester
for months on end. Only when I was appointed to help resolve internal disputes
and when you realised I might focus early on Kogi, did you stir from your
indifference and inaction. You could have wisely and prudently treated this
matter beforehand. 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 Kaduna State chapter
apparently has been troubled by disputes over who the party recognises as
acting chairman for the state. The dispute has at times degenerated to the
point where there purportedly has been demolition of property and the threat of
violence.
This eruptive state of affairs is
a direct and proximate result of the inability of the party under your
leadership to follow the dictates of the party constitution and regulations to
arrive at a result that all may agree was rendered objectively, in harmony with
the principles by which this party was founded.
While everyone may not be pleased
with the result, all contestants would acknowledge that the process had been
fair and neutral. In this way, rancour is contained and reconciliation more
easily achieved.
Because this matter has been left
to fester, positions have hardened and intrigue and animosity are more the
authors of the day than unity, compromise and cooperation. It is always better
to repair the crack before it becomes a hole and the hole before it becomes a
gap. You did neither in this instance. Yet, you lifted not a finger to honour
your vow to provide information and contacts to help me do this important
repair.
After my interaction with the NWC
and given the urgency of the work needed to mend and heal the party, you should
have presented the status reports on state party chapters as promised, and
certainly without much delay. Your reportage is vital to my work. Your delay in
not reporting on a single state chapter now delays and threatens my assignment.
Mr. Chairman, 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.
Yet, something else is afoot and
I must draw attention to it so that we can end the malpractice before it
impairs the party and my assignment any further. Drawing from your behaviour in
Kogi, Kaduna and with regard to the state chapter assessment requested, 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 this 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.
Also, to lessen animosity and
return the party to the path of internal democracy and openness, I beg that you
refrain from taking any more improper unilateral decisions with regard to the
national and state chapters of the party. As the chairman of the party, you
must work within the confines of the duties and responsibilities enumerated
under the party constitution. You must not stretch beyond them.
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 more 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.
Who really know Oyegun? He is an ingrate to Mr. Tinubu. Only God using Tinubu to bring Oyegun back to limelight, yet he betrayed him. What a world? Mr. Tinubu, take heart, even the Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed. Then who are we?
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