Despite the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors have returned to the trenches in their bid to unseat the National Chairman, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, zeroing in on the former governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, as his replacement.
OBSERVERS TIMES can authoritatively confirms, that last night that about 10 of the party’s 17 governors have resolved to deepen their push against the national chairman, who has been under intense pressure to stand down over sundry accusations, including his style of leadership, which his traducers claim has left the APC more divided than ever.
Pressure from the governors had forced Oshiomhole to summon the meeting of the National Executive Committee three weeks ago, having not been held since August last year contrary to the provision of the party’s constitution, which mandates a quarterly meeting.
Preceding the NEC meeting was the National Caucus, where the president was said to have provided the national chairman with a lifeline, requesting all the combatants to sheath their swords and recommended that a reconciliation committee be set up to douse the raging inferno he warned could consume the party.
But at the NEC meeting, Oshiomhole’s opponents still drew blood. He was, however, saved by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, who called the attention of the meeting to Buhari’s proposal for reconciliation and pleaded that the process be allowed to run its course.
Preceding the NEC meeting was the National Caucus, where the president was said to have provided the national chairman with a lifeline, requesting all the combatants to sheath their swords and recommended that a reconciliation committee be set up to douse the raging inferno he warned could consume the party.
But at the NEC meeting, Oshiomhole’s opponents still drew blood. He was, however, saved by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, who called the attention of the meeting to Buhari’s proposal for reconciliation and pleaded that the process be allowed to run its course.
The president’s thinking, according to the reliable sources at the meetings, was that the national chairman should be given another chance to retrace his steps by reconciling with aggrieved leading members, including in the party’s National Vice Chairman (North-west), Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir, who had been suspended by his Sokoto State branch; Governors Rotimi Akeredolu and Godwin Obaseki as well as former governors Rochas Okorocha and Ibikunle Amosun.
Buhari was also said to believe that fences could still be mended between Oshiomhole and his Edo State Governor, Obaseki.
The source also doubts the viability of the opposing governors’ strategy of proposing Yari as replacement, saying although the party has no zoning policy, practical politics dictates that the president and the national chairman could not possibly come from the North, talk less of the same North-west.