BREAKING NEWS
APC Crisis: Here Is The Full Letter Of
Tinubu To Buhari Against Oyegun, Accusing Him Of Frustrating His Effort
NAIJA VOICE has received the full letter
written by Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the All Progressives Congress
(APC), to President Muhammadu Buhari, over the lingering leadership tussle
between him and the national chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun.
The letter dated February 21, 2018, was addressed to
President Buhari, copied to the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, Senate
President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu
Dogara.
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Here’s the full letter:
“I trust that this letter finds you in good health
and may that never change. I also hope that you are in an apt frame of mind to
read this letter according to the spirit in which it is written and to derive
apt counsel from it.
Our party has travelled far in a brief time. To pull
and mend the disparate legacy parties into one, we surmounted high obstacles
that would have daunted others. To win the election, the then candidate
Muhammadu Buhari had to campaign as never before and we, as a party, had to
stare down great odds to win.
We held firm to our principles and did not cast our
eyes away from the progressive objectives that led us to form this party in the
first instance. We kept faith with the best of our ideals and we matched noble
ideals to strong effort. We won. Nigeria won.
Sadly, some, who were entrusted with positions of
high responsibility within the party seemed unable to handle the success given
them. Little attention was tendered the principles upon which this party was
formed and pursuant to which it was presented to the public as an alternative
to the cynical politics of the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party).
We were born as a party of internal democracy; but
our internal institutions have been actively undermined or allowed to atrophy.
The spirit of a new and better Nigeria that guided us to unprecedented
electoral success has been steadily replaced by the bankrupt and rule-less ways
that brought the PDP low.
Since the election, there have been several reports
of lack of openness and fairness which have led to internal crisis in some of
our states. There have been allegations of self-induced crisis resulting from
merchandising of internal processes. We all must agree that the party was bound
to suffer growing pains but not to the extent of losing part of the substantial
goodwill that brought us to power.
However, that which concerns me has little to do
with the manner by which the party is growing. What concerns me is the manner
in which the crisis is developing that can lead to serious erosion of party
cohesion and confidence. Were I alone in this concern, I would discount my
observations as a sign of my own misperceptions or infirmity. However, I stand
not alone in this worry. My grief is shared by so many party members that I
would not be accused of exaggeration if I said substantial party leaders are
worried about the course of our vessel.
I believe it was from this sober concern that
President Muhammadu Buhari recently appointed me to lead the consultation,
reconciliation and confidence-building efforts in our party. Upon the
appointment, I gave the President my word that I would work diligently and
objectively to achieve the goal set before me.
In this vein, my first port of call after receiving
this assignment was our party’s National Secretariat to present myself before
the National Working Committee (NWC), with you as one of its members by virtue
of your position as Chairman of the party. During my interaction with the NWC,
I enjoined its members to freely express their views concerning the state of
the party at the national, state and local levels. I listened attentively to
the views of every member of the NWC present.
On your part, you promised unalloyed support for my
mission. Consonant with that vow, you said you would provide all information at
your disposal and you vowed to act as a liaison between me and the state party
chapters. At that very meeting, I announced I had formally started the assignment
handed me by President Buhari. I offered to keep you abreast of my work. I said
that I wanted the NWC to be like an informal advisory council and sounding
board to me in the discharge of this presidential mandate.
Unfortunately, the spirit of understanding and of
cooperative undertaking to revive the party seems not to have lived beyond the
temporal confines of that meeting. I assure anyone who cares to know that this
positive spirit of cooperation did not meet its demise at my hands.
My position was and is that we can only restore the
party by resolving its current deficiencies in an unbiased, neutral manner that
allows us to strengthen our internal democracy by annealing those internal
institutions and processes vital to such internal fairness. I stated this
position then and still hold to it with all sincerity.
Yet, 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 the APC. As a party, we have strived to be the best, present hope for
the nation. Yet, your goal appears to be something of a lesser pedigree.
In our discussion, you personally mentioned Kogi,
Kaduna, Kano and Adamawa States as places afflicted by serious party issues.
Given your assessment, these were states where I believed cooperation between
you and I should have been intense and detailed. Instead, you have taken it as
your personal mission to thwart my presidential assignment in these key states.
In Kogi, you rushed to the state to unilaterally
inaugurate a new slate of state officials, parallel to the officials already
heading the state chapter of the party. 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. This usurpation of authority exacerbates conflict and confusion; it does
not resolve them.
It is my understanding that your dissolution of the
duly- constituted state executives and the hurried naming of the
above-mentioned caretaker group was not approved by the NWC. This arrogation of
power sets you at variance with members of the NWC as evidenced by National
Publicity Secretary Malam Bolaji Abdullahi’s statement, condemning your
improper and unusual action.
You had let this situation fester for months on end.
Only when I was appointed to help resolve internal disputes and when you
realised I might focus early on Kogi, did you stir from your indifference and
inaction. You could have wisely and prudently treated this matter beforehand.
By waiting to the last moment, your unilateral action was implemented in haste
and unbalanced in thought. By creating a parallel body, you not only acted
improperly, you grew a second problem from the stem where previously there had
sprouted but one.
The Kaduna State chapter apparently has been
troubled by disputes over who the party recognises as acting chairman for the
state. The dispute has at times degenerated to the point where there
purportedly has been demolition of property and the threat of violence.
This eruptive state of affairs is a direct and
proximate result of the inability of the party under your leadership to follow
the dictates of the party constitution and regulations to arrive at a result
that all may agree was rendered objectively, in harmony with the principles by
which this party was founded.
While everyone may not be pleased with the result,
all contestants would acknowledge that the process had been fair and neutral.
In this way, rancour is contained and reconciliation more easily achieved.
Because this matter has been left to fester,
positions have hardened and intrigue and animosity are more the authors of the
day than unity, compromise and cooperation. It is always better to repair the
crack before it becomes a hole and the hole before it becomes a gap. You did
neither in this instance. Yet, you lifted not a finger to honour your vow to
provide information and contacts to help me do this important repair.
After my interaction with the NWC and given the
urgency of the work needed to mend and heal the party, you should have
presented the status reports on state party chapters as promised, and certainly
without much delay. Your reportage is vital to my work. Your delay in not
reporting on a single state chapter now delays and threatens my assignment.
Mr. Chairman, I cannot overstate the imperatives of
time in this regard just as I cannot overstate the need for cooperation and to
work in accordance with the formal rules and ways of our party.
Yet, something else is afoot and I must draw
attention to it so that we can end the malpractice before it impairs the party
and my assignment any further. Drawing from your behaviour in Kogi, Kaduna and
with regard to the state chapter assessment requested, I am led to the
inference that you have no intention of actually supporting my assignment.
Instead, you apparently seek 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, without the counsel of other NWC
members and without regard to our internal procedures.
You may have personal qualms with me. That is your
right as a human being. However, you have no such right as the chairman of this
party. This party belongs to all of its members. You have no greater claim on
it than any of the rest of us. Whatever personal qualms you may have with me
are secondary at this point. You have a moral and professional obligation as
the party chairman to act in the party’s best interests. Your hurried and
unilateral actions belie the important agency you hold for the party.
Thus, in furtherance of the assignment given to me
by President Buhari, I request that you make available to me the status reports
and all other pertinent information regarding the state chapters without
further delay.
Also, to lessen animosity and return the party to the
path of internal democracy and openness, I beg that you refrain from taking any
more improper unilateral decisions with regard to the national and state
chapters of the party. As the chairman of the party, you must work within the
confines of the duties and responsibilities enumerated under the party
constitution. You must not stretch beyond them.
If you continue to do so, I fear you may undermine
the party in no small degree. You may well cause internal fractures and
dissension difficult to repair yet visible to all. I fear this can undermine
our goodwill with the electorate and make the approaching challenges to the
party materially more difficult than they need to be.
As chairman of this party, you should not want this
to be your legacy. As a member of this party from its inception, I don’t want
this to happen to the party and I don’t want such an awful thing to be your
legacy.
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