In reactions to remarks made by the Director General of the Progressives Governor’s Forum (PGF), Salihu Mohammed Lukman, last week on APC’s campaign in Edo state ahead of September 19, gubernatorial elections, the Senate ‘s spokesman, Senator Ajibola Basiru, reacted somewhat angrily. Taiye Odewale reports.
Progressives’ forum DG’s comment damaging
In remarks that are not only critical but somewhat damaging to the chances of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Ize Iyamu, in the September 19 gubernatorial election in the state, the Director – General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum in a statement issued on Saturday, said the campaign being led by the former national chairman of the party in Nigeria, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was damaging to the party and by extension, chances of its candidate.
According to him, Ize Iyamu, being the governorship candidate of the party, supposed to be the face of the campaign and not Oshiomhole who has a lot of scores to settle with different power blocks in the state.
He specifically decried the method adopted for the APC governorship campaign in Edo state, particularly the activities of the erstwhile national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, saying he must be made to calm down and take the back seat while the party’s candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, is projected as the face of the campaign.
He added that APC having come out of a very difficult crisis, its leaders and party members “must be vigilant to ensure that our politics is not recklessly managed as to reduce us to the level of just working to win elections by all means.”
He said Ize-Iyamu has now become an onlooker in an election where he is the candidate of the party, adding that the APC must own up to the activities of Governor Godwin Obaseki, warts and all, prior to his leaving the APC for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Oshiomhole not face of APC in Edo
His words: “We need to remind our leaders that the last leadership crisis was triggered by the deep concerns around the diminishing electoral viability of the party. The reality is, resolving the last leadership crisis with the dissolution of the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC has not solved the problem of diminishing electoral viability of the party.
“Therefore, what is it that needs to be done to address the problem of diminishing electoral viability of the APC? Do our leaders even agree that the APC is faced with the problem of diminishing electoral viability? This may be the problem partly because if our leaders are unable to recognise that the APC is faced with the problem of diminishing electoral viability then there is a big problem.
“In the present day Nigeria, with tempers very high everywhere and all manner of negatively imposed public perception, which are false and mostly engineered by our political opponents, it is only people who don’t believe in the votes of citizens as determinant of electoral victories that will imagine that APC’s electoral prospects are high”.
He, therefore, posited that the APC needs to recall that with the exception of the Presidential election of 2019, in virtually all elections between 2018 and today, in almost all cases where APC won, it was marginal.
Learn for 2018 Ekiti guber
Specifically, he cited the Ekiti 2018 governorship election, where theAPC won with less than 20,000 votes. In Osun state 2018 governorship election, where the party’s saving grace, was rerun election conducted later by INEC.
“This was almost the experience in virtually all cases. We lost states like Bauchi, Adamawa, Oyo, etc. where it would have been guaranteed since we won those states during the Presidential election with wide margins.
“One of the things that should be humbling for every APC leader and member is that whatever is our current electoral credential as a party is on account of the personal popularity of President Buhari. If that is recognised, then we need to check whether we want to take advantage of it, or we want to squander it?”, He queried.
DG’s remarks shameful, treacherous
But in a personally signed statement on Sunday, the spokesman of the Senate, Senator Ajibola Basiru (APC Osun Central), slammed Lukman for his remarks, describing them as more of observations coming from an enemy within and not friend in anyway.
According to him, Lukman’s criticisms are defeatist, cowardly and treacherous. Salihu Moh Lukman, he added, should immediately be called to order by the Governors Forum and be shut out from making disparaging remarks about the party.
” People who really have nothing useful to contribute to the ongoing campaigns should desist from making remarks that will discourage genuine Democrats who are working for the progress of APC and the Nation”, he said.
Senator Basiru in the statement, dismissed Lukman’s view point as conceeding electoral victory to the opposition before casting the first ballot and that no true progressive minded individual ought to nurse that kind of negative view point.
“The approach advocated by the DG that Oshiomhole should be withdrawn into the background is cowardly, weak and at the best defeatist as well as treacherous”, he stressed.
“How can anyone withdraw his best asset when needed most? We shall be indulging in self-delusion if we say Comrade Oshiomhole is not important or central to the on-going campaigns especially when the opposition has made him the focus of their campaign”, he added.
He reminded the DG that the same Oshiomhole-led Obaseki by the nose and campaigned vigorously for him to become governor years back.
Comments not progressive
“It is disturbing for a progressive to take the position of Salihu berating your own party publicly as ‘beating the drums of war’ and so awarding conceding victory to your opponent before the actual contest.
“The view of the DG that Pastor Ize Iyamu is an on looker in his own election is also not correct because Ize Iyamu is sufficiently popular and had been in political limelight in the State for years. In fact, we fought ‘tooth and nail’ to defeat him in the 2016 election.
“The intentions of the DG and some of the so-called progressive governors whose opinions are represented in this unsolicited outburst, that at best could be an internal memo, are less than noble and amounts to shooting down what the party has laboured to build”, he stressed.
He, therefore, admonished the DG to rid himself of the anti Oshiomhole sentiments running deep among his haters and allow him to perform his legal and fundamental rights of canvassing for the candidate of his choice, especially when those against him have nothing, absolutely nothing to contribute.
Whether the DG’s remarks are pieces of advice for National leadership of APC on how to win Edo state back or destructive criticisms from within in favour of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), time will tell through the outcome of the September 19, gubernatorial election.
