APC national convention may lead to implosion, presidential aspirant warns

 

 

 

.As party screens Oyetola, Lasun, Adeoti for Osun guber primary

 

OBIORA IFOH, Abuja

 

A presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Alhaji Adamu Garba, has warned the party leadership to put its house in order before the forthcoming national convention, warning that the ruling party may explode if the necessary steps are not taken.

 

Garba said the party should not go into the national convention with so many contestations unresolved.

 

He also called for a consensus ahead of the national convention.

 

Speaking with newsmen Thursday in Abuja, Garba said he seeking to be President to bridge the gap President Muhammadu Buhari has not been able to do because of age and people around him.

 

When asked why he earlier called for the postponement of February national convention, Garba said: “Seriously, if we do not put our house in order, and pay serious attention to this contesting interests, we might end up having implosion. There are other people waiting for this implosion. I am sure you are monitoring what is happening in the party. There is this emergence of mega party and it is deliberate this time around. It is a combination of strong interest. They are interested in breaking both the APC and PDP to emerge and win elections. This is ongoing.

 

“The strongest broker to that success is the success of APC. That means the merger party will do everything possible to see APC break so that they can gain from it. So, we should not allow them. Even if it warrants giving extral time, even if it means giving more months for the CECPC to regularise the fake membership within the party, we will be able to do that. If we fail in this convention, it will be difficult to win power.

 

“You cannot go to war field without effective Generals who has the support of the majority of his lieutenants. If the lieutenants break themselves from within, and house divided against itself cannot stand. And that is exactly what we are trying to avoid.”

 

When asked what he will do differently from what President Muhammadu Buhari has done, the APC presidential aspirant said: “I think what we intend to do is to consolidate on the successes of President Muhammadu Buhari. He has done his best giving the number of challenges he met and especially on the issue of insecurity, even though we may want to condemn.

 

“We have so many issues in the North-west, and we hope to have peace in the zone too as we move forward. I believe the president became a prison of the Nigerian system because it is design in such a way that no matter how great or excellent you become, if you get to the centre especially the presidency without extensive plan to fundamentally transform the country, from its bases, roots  arrangement, it might not be easy.

 

“So that gap, I believe, is one the president is unable to achieve maybe due to age and some constraints around the people surrounding him. But ths is the area we intend to be able to achieve when we get there.”

 

Speaking further on why he wanted the national convention postponed, Garba said: “What I wanted to achieve is a peace and united party as we confront 2023 general elections.

 

“We have a very serious internal wrangling in the party. You know, we talk about camps; ANPP, ACN, CPC, you have APGA. And the nPDP. And lots of democratic parties that have joined to form APC. If you go back to the states, there are issues between the state Governors existing and the state legislators. And again, you have the issues between sitting governors and former. There are a lot of confusions.

 

“So, when you have this kind of confused arrangements, if you pay attention to only reconciling the governors,  you are only addressing one part of the issues. There are so many parts of the problems. And this is the kind of situation we have found ourselves in 2013, 2014 that PDP crashed and APC became net gainer of it.

 

“So, we should avoid this kind of situation. And we now have a caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee under Mai Mala Buni that was instituted by the President himself and off course court of law validated that it is legal. And this guys are doing everything possible to stabilize the party. And so far, we have gain so much members into the party that we have ever gotten. And we have achieved so much stability that we can dream of.

 

“So since they have demonstrated this capacity, then give them extra time to make sure that we reconcile some of these toxic deep interests. There are interests whether we like it or not they might end up leaving the party. But there are some interests that we cannot lose them in the party. Why because they are genuine lovers of the party. They have their sweat and blood in the party.

 

“So, you have to fond way to give them a level playing field. And this interest needs to be attended to for proper reconciliation. And since we are now approaching the convention ground, these warring parties with all their arsenals, then if we are able to achieve the unity fine, we can go to the convention. But if we are not able let us have extral opportunity for the main time for this CECPC to succeed in bringing and mainstreaming the majority stakeholders of the party before we go public show.

 

“I don’t believe as a party, we should go into convention with contestations. Off course, it is democratic to contest outside, but inside the family affair, we have to be able to sit together and agree that this is our leader. We all trust him. So, going into the convention ground with contestation is not solid for us. We have to wait and reconciliate, filter one candidates across board ensure unity list and once we go there we anoint them. It is a family affair.”

However, The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has screened the Osun state governor Gboyega Oyetola and two governorship aspirants ahead of it February 19 primary election in the state.

 

Others aspirants screened by APC APC Committee included; former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yusuff Sulaimon Lasun and former Secretary to the State Government of Osun, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti who recently returned to the ruling APC from Action Democratic Party (ADP).

 

Speaking with newsmen after the exercise, Alhaj Oyetola said his performance in office is enough for him to win the primary in the party and also win the general election.

 

“Let me say this, my performance in office as I speak today is enough for me to win the primary in the party and to win the election in all areas of endeavour, in the area of infrastructure, Health, Education, Security and the economy.

 

“That means by every standard, we have done so well. So giving the fact that within the last three and a half years I have been able to justify the confidence reposed in me by the people.

 

“I have been very much involved in the party, right from the time of AD till date. I’m not a novice when it comes to the issue of party. If My performance speaks for me and that is good and fine.”

 

When asked how prepared he was, Oyetola said: “I have been going round to talk to members of the party in all the local governments. As of yesterday out of thirty we have visited about eighteen of the local government areas and we will continue with the strategic engagements starting from tomorrow (Friday). So that is to show you the fact that I don’t want to take anything for granted.

 

“This is an election that is among members of the party so I will need their endorsement to be able to fly the flag of the party. I have been going around to ask for for the support of the members of the party in all the local governments of the state. So I’m prepared.”

 

Also speaking, Alhaji Adeoti said he is worried about the position of the governor as a member of the Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party whose duty is also to decide the outcome of the primary election.

 

He said, “Oyetola can not be a referee in a game he is one of the players”.