There seems to be a misunderstanding brewing between the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, and the national chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, with the assignment of reconciling aggrieved party members at stake.
Tinubu, in a letter he copied President Muhammadu Buhari, vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the speaker of the house of representatives, Yakubu Dogara, accused Odigie-Oyegun of allegedly sabotaging his presidential assignment. Recall that President Buhari had, few weeks ago, appointed Tinubu to head a reconciliation committee to reconcile aggrieved members of the party.
But Tinubu, in the letter exclusively obtained by TheCable, claimed Odigie-Oyegun breached the spirit of their discussion by “taken it as your own personal ambition to thwart my presidential assignment in these key states” by, for instance, rushing to Kogi state and inaugurating officials “parallel to the officials already heading the state chapter of the party.”
In the letter, dated February 21, 2018, Tinubu lamented saying, “disappointment greeted me when I discovered that you had swiftly acted in contravention of the spirit of our discussions. Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of APC”.
He said while Kogi, Kaduna, Kano and Adamawa states were subjects of his earlier discussion with Oyegun as being the places affected by serious party issues, that Oyegun, however, has “taken it as your own personal ambition to thwart my presidential assignment in these key states.”
He said, “While this may place you in significant affinity with those parallel officials you handpicked, this machination suggests no improvement in the welfare of the party in Kogi or at the national level.”
Tinubu also accused Odigie-Oyegun of seeking “to undermine my mandate by engaging in dilatory tactics for the most part. When forced to act, you do so in an arbitrary and capricious manner.” He said Odigie-Oyegun has “no such right as the chairman of this party” to act the way he did, maintaining that “the party belongs to all of its members.”
Tinubu however reminded Odigie-Oyegun that the assignment for which he(Oyegun) is indirectly usurping was given to him(tinubu) by President Buhari. He therefore urged Odigie-Oyegun saying, “in furtherance… I request that you make available to me the status reports and all the pertinent information regarding the state chapters without further delay.”
