Omoniyi Salaudeen
Following the pressure from the critical stakeholders in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari has finally resolved to intervene in the leadership stalemate arising from the Tuesday ruling of the Court of Appeal which sacked Comrade Adam Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the party, Sunday Sun has reliably gathered.
According to a top hierarchy of the party, who was privy to the resolution, the President is expected to meet all parties involved in the crisis today to reconcile the warring factions. Expressing optimism over the latest trouble-shooting effort by the President, he said: “There is no cause for alarm; we will resolve the crisis on Monday. I am telling you authoritatively that the President will intervene on Sunday (today) to resolve the crisis.”
The protracted leadership crisis bedeviling the party got to a head on Tuesday when two parallel factions declared ownership claims on the chairmanship position. While the faction loyal to Oshiomhole announced Senator Ajimobi as the acting national chairman, the Deputy National Secretary of the party, Victor Giadom, foisted himself as the right claimant to the vacant seat. The party’s National Vice Chairman (South-south), Hilliard Eta, who stood in for Abiola Ajimobi, said that the national leadership had constituted a committee to conclude the remaining activities for the party’s primaries for the Edo poll, and appointed the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, to head the committee. In a swift reaction, Giadom, on his part, cancelled the screening exercise which disqualified Governor Obaseki from participating in the coming election.
President Buhari has been roundly blamed for the lingering crisis in the APC. A member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party, Chief Frank Kokori, while speaking with Sunday Sun in a telephone interview, could not hide his emotion, saying “since the leaders of the party at the centre and the President do not want to take charge, let confusion go on. If I am the President, I should have solved all those problems. All these unnecessary crises in APC are the result of the nonchalant attitude of the President. As a father, you have to discipline your children. As a politician, you must intervene when a matter gets to a stage like this. Politics is different from other types of business. You have to make some concessions and behave like a politician,” he added.
However, Prince Tony Momoh, absolved the President of the allegation of complacence, explaining that final authority on any matter lies with the NEC or National Convention of the party. “Yes, the President is the national leader, but the president will not be holding national press conference to tell you what he has done. What he has done is internal to APC. So, if you think he has done nothing, it is simply because you expect him to hold a press conference to tell you that he has done something,” he said.