Court actions capable of weakening APC, Akande warns

A former interim national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and chairman of its special reconciliation committee, Chief Bisi Akande, has admonished party members frequenting courts for orders against the leadership of the party to desist from doing so, warning that the action is capable of weakening the governing party.

In a statement on Saturday, the former Osun State governor charged those shopping for court orders to allow his committee to do the job of reconciling aggrieved party leaders and members.

Bypassing the committee to seek judicial intervention, Akande said, amounted to pouring insult on the committee and the party organs which endorsed the setting up of the committee.

“The APC is a democratic body. This means we seek to resolve internal conflict through dialogue, deliberation and ultimately through open and transparent voting procedures.

“Consequently, I am a bit taken aback by the swift resort to the courts by some members who seek external decisions on what are intrinsically internal matters best determined by the deliberative process that is part and parcel of democratically-oriented party politics.

“Their actions are harmful to the party in compound ways. First, the subject matter they bring before the court is not amenable to judicial pronouncement. The manner by which court decisions are rendered – one side wins, the other loses – is not the best way to resolve political disputes. Again, such disputes are better treated by dialogue and the give-and-take that dialogue engenders. Courts do not proceed in such a manner.

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“Second, to resort to the courts casts the party in a negative public light. Third, this penchant for litigation undermines party discipline, internal dispute resolution mechanisms and institutions.

“For members to act otherwise would be to discard the party constitution and ignore the tenets of deliberation and compromise upon which all successful political parties are founded.

“I do not know the motivations behind this litigious conduct.  It is not in my nature to ascribe negative or harmful motives to anyone. Those seeking access to the courts to decide what are basically political questions perhaps think they are doing the right thing. If this is the case, I must state that they are innocently in error.

“I must remind party members the party constitution requires that all internal dispute resolution measures be exhausted before a member carries a matter to court. I dare say this provision has not been honored either in spirit or in letter by those initiating these court cases seeking to oust party officials.

“Thus, it runs contrary to the explicit decision of the party and is severely premature for members to seek judicial intervention in areas that form the very subject matter of the special committee’s mandate. To do this even before the committee has had time to do and finish its work not only insults the committee, it offends the NWC, NEC and the entire party,” he said.