APC convention: Protest over consensus candidate for national secretary

THE issue of a consensus candidate from the SouthWest for the post of national secretary at next Saturday’s convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) appears unresolved by stakeholders from the zone. 

Some aspirants, who paid for nomination forms have vowed to show up for screening at the APC headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday despite the supposed endorsement of a former governor of Osun State, Iyiola Omisore for the position by governors elected on the ticket of APC from the South-West. 

The post of national secretary and national youth leaders are among the key national offices the APC zoned to the South-West. With South-West governors reportedly backing a former Osun deputy governor, Iyiola Omisore as consensus candidate for the position, other contestants who purchased form for the position, have called on the governors to allow a level play field for the convention. 

Chairman of the South West governors’ forum, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, in a statement on Sunday, in Akure, explained that the decision of the governors was in line with stakeholders in the zone micro-zoning the national secretary to Oyo/Osun axis, adding that certain elements outside the zone were creating unnecessary confusion and attempting to micro-zone offices for the area. 

Prior to Sunday’s declaration by the governors, those who purchased and submitted forms included Omisore (Osun); former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu and former deputy governorship candidate, Professor Abideen Olaiya (both from Oyo) and Executive Director, Niger Delta Power Holding, Ife Oyedele (Ondo). Omisore’s endorsement was the governors taking a stance against certain forces keen on having a person of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) extraction become national secretary. 

Though the position of national secretary was micro-zoned to Oyo/Osun, there is still uncertainty over who gets what with the fact that Oyedele from the Ondo/ Ekiti micro-zone also purchased form for the position. 

Forces in favour of Omisore’s argue that, in the immediate, he is crucial for the party’s success in the forthcoming Osun governorship election. 

The duo of Shittu and Olaiya, in conversations with the Nigerian Tribune, argued that the fact that Oyo does not have a sitting governor of APC extraction does not mean that the state should be excluded whenever critical party decisions are to be made. 

Having purchased the form to contest, they noted that they are unaware of a consensus and still look forward to being screened on Tuesday and the delegates making their choice of a national secretary at the convention. 

They claimed that the state chairman, Isaac Omodewu, who is the de facto leader of the party, is being sidelined from decisions of the South-West caucus of the APC and this may not augur well for the fortunes of the party in the state. 

Shittu said: “Our party is a democratic party. By the grace of God, we will go into contest on Saturday. Nobody has informed us of the decision of leaders of the South-West caucus. There is no way the South-West caucus of the party will be holding a meeting and I should not be a part of it. The fact that Oyo does not have a governor does not mean that there are no APC members in Oyo state. 

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

• My Wife Packed Out Of My House Despite Giving Her, Our 3 Children N1,000 Per Week For Food —Husband

• IBEDC: How Boardroom Squabbles Brought Down A High Flier

“If APC is to make a better outing, it is only right for us to be involved in whatever leaders in the South West are doing. Consensus means that all parties must agree on a single candidate. As a democratic party, we should not be afraid of election. There must be a properly organized meeting and all contestants must agree that they don’t want to go for election.” 

On his part, Olaiya said: “It is just unfortunate that we do not have a serving APC governor in Oyo State. However, that does not preclude Oyo from being part of the South West. That post was zoned to South West. 

“If there will be a consensus, the six states should sit at a table not three, four or five at the exclusion of one state. Such consensus is somehow. When five come together to take decision on behalf of the six, can that be referred to as consensus? Three states purchased forms for Secretary, if there had been consensus; it should be from one state. It means that there was no consensus. When this happens, the next thing is to allow a level playing ground for all the contestants because we all belong to South West and to the party. 

“I will plead with the governors to allow us a level-play ground since they couldn’t properly engage us to have a consensus. The only better opportunity available is to allow us have a level-playing ground. If they could not sit us down to agree on zoning this to that, like they have in other regions. We have 11 posts given to the South West and nobody can equivocally say this is what is given to this state.”