A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) Osita Okechukwu, has reiterated that the future of the party cannot be guaranteed in the hands of present leadership, insisting the APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has glaringly shown he lacks the capacity run an inclusive structure.
Okechukwu said the plethora of crisis points, grievances and expressions of discontent by members across the states are clear indication that the APC cannot survive another season with Oshiomhole on the saddle, saying that many of those that spoke out early have been vindicated.
The VON DG spoke at weekend at the AGM of APC Correspondents in Abuja.
He said that it is however gratifying to note that top leaders of the party and membership across the country have now come to accept the reality that the APC cannot continue on the steady descent.
Describing the APC National Chairman as fortunate man given his modest background, Okechukwu said the former labour leader has every opportunity to use the 2019 APC primaries to mobilize national support for the party.
Instead, he said the national Chairman allowed narrow partisan cleavages to override his best judgement.
According to him, “I listed nine states in the primaries and some people even faulted me , they said it is more than nine, where our friends and colleagues from Edo were the chairmen”.
He also accused Oshiomhole of narrowing the political space for youths, women and other interest groups by using only one panel populated by people from Edo to run the APC primaries.
“You raised only one panel per state and in political science we were thought that primaries is a time for you to engage the party apparachiks- on gender, on youth level. A panel in state – in House of Assembly for one state, a panel for House of Representatives, a panel for those who are running for Senate. In each state, let us say minimum of five.
“Without mounting it, if I am the national chairman of APC I will make it 10-10, then the panel on governoship. You can imagine if you unleash 40 membership from Kebbi back to Kaduna, this one to Calabar, this one to that state etc”
He noted that it is for purpose of this mobilization that aspirants buy forms, suggesting that billions of naira contributed by contestants were not utilized for the benefit of APC.
Okechukwu who described Oshiomhole as the proverbial man whose kernel was cracked benevolent spirits, noted however that the APC national Chairman failed to keep his home in order, saying Philip, Shuaibu was entirely his own creation.
“So, you could see without being immodest, we can solve this problem but Comrade Oshiomhole, I don’t want to go personal, he has exposed his incapacity.
“It was later that we actually sat down and said who met this man in any of the universities in this country, nobody met him, there are no classmate in any University.
“He was a lucky man from a small platform in Kaduna Textile mill, he became a labour activist, I don’t want to talk about that, but you could see why it is saddening.
“But the solution is this, those who do not believe that he has incapacity and are now seeing , because like they say in Igbo, the worst you can do is to engage in village warfare; that if you kill people in Abuja don’t fight in your village,” alluding to the unending crisis facing the APC national Chairman in his home state.
