John Oyegun says he will not seek re-election as national chairman of the
All Progressives Congress (APC).
Oyegun said this on Friday while speaking with journalists in Abuja.
The chairman said he does not want to be part of the problem that the
ruling party would have to solve.
“I do not intend to be part of the problem for APC to solve. It is for
this reason that I hereby declare that I will not be seeking reelection as
the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC,” Oyegun said.
“However, I will continue to perform my functions as the national chairman
of the party till my tenure officially ends on Monday the 25th June when a
new set of party executives will be inaugurated.”
He explained that the national executive committee (NEC) initially
extended the tenure of the party executives so that the APC could go into
the 2019 elections united.
“With the 2019 general election looming in the horizon, some of us
considered it to be in the best interest of the party to go into the
elections as a united fighting force, rather than one that was potentially
weakened by internal conflicts arising from competitive congresses and
convention,” Oyegun said.
“It was for this reason that we canvassed and obtained the NEC dusk of
February 27, asking all executives of the party to continue in acting
capacities fora mother period of 12 months.
“If this decision was sustained, we probably would have achieved our
objective. But we would only have succeeded also in postponing the evil
days as it were. In retrospect, I am inclined to agree with the viewpoint
that even a young political party as ours need to be subjected to the
crucible of these contestations, which in any case, is the hallmark of
progressive politics.
“In the end, even as difficult as the situation may appear at the
beginning, the experience we would draw from managing the contending
interests, can only hope to make our party stronger and more resilient.”