Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum, (PGF), Salihu Lukman has urged the former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to learn to tolerate dissenting views.
Comrade Oshiomhole while addressing newsmen on Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja had alleged that governors on the APC platform were instigating Lukman to attack him.
But the DG of the PGF at a press briefing on Tuesday exonerated the APC governors and further said his past critique of Comrade Oshiomhole leadership of the party and the recent criticism of his campaign method in Edo State were his personal opinion.
Lukman who insisted that he was not being used by the governors advised the former APC chairman and other leaders of the party to live with the conviction that those who hold contrary opinions on how the APC should conduct itself also meant well for it.
The PGF DG said:” You are all aware of the statement attributed to the former National Chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. I want to make two brief statements as a rider to what I will call an appeal. The first statement is to say very unequivocally that I hold Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in very high esteem.
“I respect him, not just as a leader of APC, but as a person I have had a very good relationship with him and my relationship with him is special. My relationship with him is not in the way people imagined. The question of agreeing or disagreeing has been part of our relationship. I respect him and I respect every leader of the party.
“My prayer and hope are that our leaders will be able to have the needed large heart to tolerate one another and tolerate all of us because as human beings, God has created us differently. And it is the basis of the test of leadership – to be able to show an open, accommodating disposition to each one of us.
“The second statement I want to make is that I grew up in a very complex extended family set up and one of the things it has done in terms of my personal makeup is that it imposes on me to be accountable at every point in time.
“When I commit an offence, based on my upbringing in that environment, I never transfer any of my offences to my parents or to any of my senior ones. I was always made to account and where there is the need as part of that accountability for me to be punished, I get punished. Having said that, I am open and ready to account for whatever I had said to the party and the leadership; if in the end, the process of countability requires that I get sanctioned, I will accept and I will remain in this party and continue to contribute in whatever way I can to help the development of the party.
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“I account for my ‘offence’. Nobody should transfer my offence to any other leader of the party. I take responsibility and all that I have said, you all have it. It is written in ink. It is not verbal communication that I can dispute. They are written documents.”
“I have said it over and over again and I will repeat it- I am a proud member of the APC and my membership of APC supersedes any other responsibility that I may be called to discharge. I believe today in Nigeria, APC is about the only political party where internal contestation is permissible and to some extent, people like me are enjoying that privilege on account of availability of such a space.
The PGF DG dismissed insinuation that his position was under threat because of his open criticisms of party policies. He further admonished the party leaders to give adequate cooperation to the interim national leadership led by Yobe state governor, Mai Mala Buni to ensure hitch-free national convention.
“No. I have said it before and even in the last statement in the submission to Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee, I am very proud to work for progressive governors and no doubt people would have individual positions on the position that I have taken but as far as I know, I think it encourages me that our leaders are truly disposed to engagement when it comes to issues of ideas on how to develop this party.
“So, it is not a matter of running away from certain issues that I had raised. I talked about the dangers of a single story as espoused by Chimamanda and I did not want the story that is all over the air now around what Comrade Oshiomhole said to be the only or single story. I want people to hear from me. I mean, I respect him and that is it.”
“At the moment, I am confident about the Caretaker Committee. They are working and I am absolutely sure they will begin to address the issues in no distance time.
“Whether they will have a problem of time? We will cross the bridge when we get there. I think it is better to have that approach than to set out with the mindset that there will be a problem, we will continue to belabour the matter and that will distract them from focusing on getting initiated. That is my position.” The PGF DG said.
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