The raging crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday,
took a different dimension with the call by one of the party’s National
Working Committee (NWC) members, Mr. Timi Frank that the party’s national
chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun should resign.
Mr. Frank who blamed the chairman and some members of the APC’s NWC for
the crisis that has resulted from the election of leaders of National
Assembly, said it was unfortunate that the leadership of the party played
hide and seek and over indulged themselves in the choice of Senate
President and House Speaker.
Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara had emerged Senate President
and House Speaker, respectively, against the wishes and position of the
APC. Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila had been favored by the
party after the initial conduct of a mock election which was won by the
duo, to occupy the seats.
Speaking in Abuja yesterday, however, Mr. Frank who deputises for
Alhaji Lai Muhammed in the party stated that the chairman and leadership
of the party ought to resign having embarked on an embarrassing mock
election that never had the blessings of the entire party’s leadership,
more so that the leadership exhibited gross incompetence to manage the
National Assembly issue until it blew out of hand. This he said was
because of the vested interest manifested by the chairman and few of his
colleagues in the party.
“If my party could not keep to the promise of change, then we must correct
them to keep to that. I have no fear or favour than to say that the
current leadership of the party has practically failed. With this incident
alone, the chairman should resign from his position after taking a
position against the people and the people’s position has finally come to
stay. In the Western world, by today the party’s national chairman would
have resigned honourably.
“Not just the national chairman but the entire leadership that took this
decision of conducting mock election against the outcry of the larger
members of the party. Against the bigger picture of Nigerians. A hand-full
of the party leadership came to take a decision, and by today the
people have shown that the voice of the people is the voice of God,” Timi
Frank stated.
He specifically blamed APC chairman, Odigie Oyegun for clearly failing to
consult widely before embarking on the mock election which he said
ridiculed the party. He submitted that the chairman’s action suggested
that he acted under undue pressure to conduct the mock elections as
admitted by him and was therefore of the opinion that if the APC
was to rid itself of the mistakes of the PDP, it needed a chairman that
would insulate himself from undue pressures no matter where such pressure
emanated from.
“You could see the way the party including the national chairman
was speaking before the NASS leadership elections; it showed
clearly that the chairman had totally taken sides which wasn’t meant to
be. I understand, he took some of those decisions based on pressure. In
this century, APC as a party, does not need a chairman that will be under
pressure.
“And the party’s national chairman caused it because times out of
numbers some of leaders told him to come up with a zoning formula from the
beginning. He was asked to take a decision and let people follow
that but he didn’t do that. They were playing hide and seek with the issue
until the last minute when they saw the danger, and they wanted to play
hanky-panky, which led us to lose one position at the Senate,” Comrade
Frank said.
On remarks attributed to the APC’s national publicity secretary that
Buhari is a product of the party and not the party’s leader, Timi Frank
who frowned at the statement, called on Lai Mohammed to desist from such
comments as it was capable of putting the party in bad light.
” Let’s go back and ask Lai Mohammed who the leader of the party is. If he
does not recognise the President as the leader. In my own view, If Lai
Mohammed that is my direct boss could come up to tell Nigerians that the
President is only a product of the party and not the national leader of
the party, then he should have been able to tell us who the leader of the
party is.
“We have seen that even in then PDP, former President Goodluck Jonathan
was the leader of the party. If in our own case the President cannot be
the leader of the party, he should tell us who the leader is then,” Frank
averred.
He described what transpired at the national Assembly as good for
democracy, noting that Nigeria stood to be the overall beneficiary.
“Those that are calling for the deputy senate president to resign are
anti-people, and I will campaign against it. I will continue to support
Burkola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu and every progressive Nigerian should
support this mission as it will take Nigeria to the next phase because
failure to do this will disrupt democracy, ” the deputy national publicity
secretary stated.