APC: Tasks before Oshiomhole…

THE governing party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), at the weekend, conducted its national convention where new set of national officers to run its national secretariat for four years were elected. To lead the team of national working committee is the immediate past Edo state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

At the gathering of the APC highest organ,  President Muhammadu Buhari, the new national chairman and top chieftains of the party, in their goodwill messages, made remarks that were very instructive and ultimately, not lost on the party faithful.

Comrade Oshiomhole’s acceptance speech was revealing, as it convinced agitated party faithful that he was fully aware of the seeming intractable crises dogging the fractured party.

The processes that culminated in the weekend convention were trailed by controversial ward, local and state congresses as aggrieved groups conducted parallel congresses in some states. A power bloc within the party, the new Peoples Democratic Party, (nPDP),  had equally squealed against what it described as perceived marginalisation of its members.

Within the precinct of Eagles Square, members of the party from Imo and Delta states engaged in physical confrontation. While former Kano State governor, Senator Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso, Senator Sheu Sani, who were statutory delegates, stayed away from the convention ground, their counterpart from Zamfara State,  Kabiru Marafa, was prevented from gaining access to the venue.

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Comrade Oshiomhole said his leadership would ensure a win-win situation for all the power blocs and individuals that laboured to build the party,  particularly at the uncertain days of its formative stage.

He said: “I want to say to all our leaders that regardless of their legacy parties, we have come voluntarily to dissolve those parties to form the APC.

“As things stand now, we have no other party other than the APC and we must all remain in it and rebuild it, reform it, strengthen it so that it can provide comfort for all of its members and leaders regardless of how and where or when they came in to join in our shared commitment to provide leadership for our great  country.

“I am aware there are challenges here and there. But I believe that the team that has just been elected, we have what it takes to address those challenges. The instruments required do not need to be rocket science, but basic commitment to the provisions of our constitution, commitment to internal democracy, mutual respect for each and everyone of us, purge ourselves of any arrogance and a commitment to honesty, listen, discuss, persuade and find common ground so that in the end, we can have a win, win solution in any states we have challenges and even on issues affecting various arms of government elected on the platform of our party.

“Mr President, you have invested so much trust not only in my person, but in all of us that have just been elected.

“We owe you and all members of our party and all our leaders and our governors, I assure you that working together, we will democratically resolve all those issues that appear to be intractable. I believe that with my own background, things will be resolved amicably because I am used to managing divergences and this is just another task. It will be done to the satisfaction of our President, governors, senators, representatives, House of Assembly members and all the rank and file members of our party. We will devote all our time to it because that is the oath of office that we have just swore to and we will administer the party on the basis of our constitution.”

On fidelity to the APC manifesto, Oshiomhole promised to “organise summit to discuss issues, create platform for popular participation so that we replace the current situation in which issues are not being discussed. The only issues discussed are ethnicity and religion. We must reinvent ideas and identify progressive intellectuals to assist in generating ideas on better policy options that should guide our party in our commitment to affect, positively, the Nigeria polity, economy and society. We have the will and we are committed to having a political party that, in the near future, can be compared to African National Congress, (ANC) and serve as a strong pillar, not only to the Federal Government, but to all the governments elected on the platform and ensure that when elected, the party is not reduced to a mere election platform, but remain a platform to engage, interrogate and interface with all those elected on our party platform. Working together, we will ensure that the management of reward reflect the amount of efforts that people puts into it. Once there is no relationship between efforts and reward, people are bound to grumble here and there. I believe we can make up for whatever complaint people have. The important thing is that this is a process and I have faith that we can resolve all these things.”

The duo of Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, in their individual presentations, made insinuations to the perceived alienation of their group, the nPDP

Dogara cautioned that the APC must walk its talk on fight against injustice and find accommodation not only for the strong, but the weak within the amorphous platform.

He said: “Oshiomhole’s leadership skills will be tested and the job is neatly cut out for him. The challenges he will face are enormous. But there are no challenges that have no solution and if we search deeper, we will definitely find solution to all the challenges confronting this movement. I know that with the deep knowledge and rich pedigree that he brings to the table, by the grace of God, we will bade bye to most of our problems.

“One issue that I want to dwell on is the issue of justice, which we know Mr. President stands on. He stands  for the common man. It is therefore very important that the new leadership creates equal opportunity for the weak and the strong. Challenges will come, but we must always rise against them. I want to also charge you to maintain the culture of democracy, which is conflict, compromise, consensus and progress. Without conflict. There cannot be progress.”

Senator Saraki’s speech was more illuminating as he took the audience spell bound with a historic voyage around the formation of the erstwhile main opposition party. The Senate President declared that the APC confronted the erstwhile main opposition party, the PDP as a united political family. Saraki whose Man Friday, Kawu Baraje, is the chairman of the nPDP, expressed regret that team spirit has taken flight in the APC. He expressed confidence that Comrade Oshiomhole has the capacity to inspire confidence building amidst the pervasive mutual suspicion.

He said: “With Oshiomhole, I can see that there is hope and a future in what he has promised. We look to the future and as we do that, we must ask ourselves, how have we been successful so far? How were we able to win an election against all forms of oppositions? We did it because we were courageous and because we had leadership led by the President. We did it because we came together united and with a focus and direction. We did it because we made sacrifices and worked as a team. That was what we did to make this achievement. Can we do it again? Of course, we can. We do have challenges, but the responsibility of leadership is to tackle challenges and take them head on.

“You have spoken so well by admitting that there are challenges and I am happy that you promised to set to work to address those challenges. There are people who are supposed to be here because we need everybody, we want everybody so that we can carry on with the assignment that Nigerians have given us. The intention of all of us is to make Nigeria better and move forward.”