Oyegun must apologise —Timi Frank

Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and member of the National Working Committee (NWC), Timi Frank, who has been placed on suspension by the party, speaks with Senior Deputy Editor, TAIWO AMODU, on the party, his rift with the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, among others.

YOU have been at the vanguard of those calling for a national convention. But there has been the insinuation that your national chairman will not call for a convention while ailing President, Muhammadu Buhari is still out of the country. What is your take?

That’s why he isn’t competent. That’s why he isn’t a leader, because as the president isn’t in the country right now, is Nigeria not moving? Has the president not transferred power to the vice-president, as acting president? So, if the president isn’t around, it doesn’t mean that the party cannot do its job anymore.

The president isn’t the national chairman of the party; he is only a leader of the party. We have a national chairman that runs the party’s affairs. So, any chairman that knows his job doesn’t need the president to tell him what to do. The party is a different arm; the government is also different. So, if you start tying the party to the president, since the president isn’t there, the party will not even do election, because the president isn’t around. That is an excuse of somebody that doesn’t know how to run a party. So, in all of these that’s why some of us have taken the pains to say this party cannot continue this way. The party needs to make progress; the party needs to move on, the party needs to keep its promise to Nigerians. So, how can we achieve all of these? It is only when you have a strong party. How can you achieve a strong party? It is only when you have a strong chairman. If you don’t have a strong chairman, truly you will not have a strong party, because the chairman means a lot to the party. In running the affairs of the party, he calls the shot. Despite the fact that we have other National Working Committee members, but the whole job rests with the chairman. If he refuses to call for even NWC meeting, nobody will call for that meeting and that’s why no matter what happens today, I always ask the chairman to go, because he is the problem of the party. So, if he cannot do the job anymore, I want him to take a bow. So, the excuse that because the president isn’t around, we cannot call for NEC and convention doesn’t hold water. The acting president is there.

But some of your party’s chieftains have argued that the APC Constitution doesn’t recognise Professor Osinbajo, the acting president, as leader of the party. How do you react to this?

Look, it isn’t the issue of whether he is the leader of the party. The issue is, is he not standing in for Mr President? So, what are we talking about? Do we even need the president to be in NEC meeting? Is it a must? We have seen in the days of PDP, sometimes they called for NEC meeting and the president wouldn’t be there, when he is too busy or not in the country. But the fact that the party had fixed date for the meeting they would never shift it because the president wasn’t around. Once the vice-president is there, the governors and every other person would attend. That’s when you know a serious party, a party that understands what it takes. Don’t forget that this whole agenda has a constitutional effect on the party. Because the president isn’t there, the party should continue to break its own constitution? It doesn’t work that way; we should respect the constitution of the party first before the interest of any person in the party.

It is said Oyegun has issues with certain leaders of the party, including the governors. There is the insinuation that the rug could be pulled off his feet if he calls for NEC meeting while President Buhari, his main backer isn’t around.

Does he think, if the president is around, he cannot be removed? Will the president save him? If the president thinks Oyegun isn’t  competent, whether he is there or not, if they want to change him, they will move against him. Recently, I was reading his outburst where he was complaining that the executive doesn’t take the party along. I laughed when I saw that statement. He should have made the statement when Buhari was in the country. Was he not there when the president was making all the appointments without consulting with the party? Why is he talking now, less than two years to the end of the administration? Why did he keep quiet for two years? So, this is like medicine after death. Now he wants to be seen as talking on behalf of the party. As far as I am concerned, that’s Oyegun’s view and I disagree with him. Whatever he is saying now about the executive not taking the party along, it is his fault; he caused it. If he had started from the beginning confronting the executive on the manner they did the first appointment, I believe the executive would have listened and amend their ways. You kept quiet for two years and now you are coming to cry. Who are you crying to? So, it is joke, but for me, I wouldn’t relent because I love this party. I am a very committed member and I know how some of us worked hard to build this party. So, being a young man doesn’t mean I don’t know my right. I know my right and that’s why I am talking and I want this party to win in 2019. I just believe that Oyegun is trying to sabotage the progress of this party and that’s why he is ignoring the cries of the people. I can confirm to you that there many  party leaders that are tired of his leadership, from governors to the presidency that you are talking about. They are tired. That they cannot speak now doesn’t mean they are supporting Oyegun.

But what could have informed the governors sudden silence, because at a time they were plotting to unseat him?

Well, if the governors choose to keep silent while the party is dying and they think it will benefit them, well they should continue to keep silent. But for me, Timi Frank, I wouldn’t keep quiet. I will say it again: APC as of today is dead, whether you like it or not. So, I believe this is the time for us;  we have some few months left to redeem the image of this party and if we fail to do so, and continue to keep Oyegun there, when the party collapses, it will collapse on everybody. But for me, I won’t keep quiet because then posterity will judge all of us. But I can tell you the governors and other party leaders won’t keep quiet.

But have they been talking?

That they haven’t been talking doesn’t mean that they don’t have their own plans. Sometimes some people choose their own ways of handling issues. APC has 24 governors today and I can tell you, 90 per cent of them, if you ask them to make their opinion clear, will pass vote of no confidence in Oyegun. They are tired of him. So for me, I am just saying that the party needs restructuring and the time to do that is now and if we don’t do that now, then there will be no APC in 2019. It might be like a joke, we might think that the PDP is dead, but I can tell you that people are regrouping, they are re-strategising;  people are planning. So, if we don’t put our house in order by changing the current leadership we have under Oyegun that has failed in all aspect of running the party, this is how APC will fail in 2019.

At [last] Monday media briefing, you blamed Oyegun for the party’s defeat in Osun senatorial bye-election. But there are those who think that Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola and Bola Tinubu should be held responsible for putting pressure on the party’s national secretariat to dump the result of the screening and appeal committees that actually disqualified their anointed candidate, Senator Mudashiru Hussein. Don’t you think they share in the blame?

That’s why we don’t need a push and start national chairman. We need a chairman that will be firm on his position; we need a chairman that will go with the views of the majority of his party members. We don’t need a chairman that will take instruction from one leader of the party for a decision that will collapse the party or collapse the popular view of the people. We don’t need that kind of chairman. We need a chairman that can stand and confront the truth. So, I will not blame Tinubu or Aregbesola. The person I will still blame, I can tell you clearly is the national chairman. When the chairman knows that there is illegality in what they are asking him to do, he should have confronted them and said, this thing you are asking me to do, I cannot do it. This is mere illegality. Your candidate in question was disqualified by two panels: the screening and appeal panels set up by the party, because he didn’t resign as commissioner before he went into that election. That alone is against the constitution and guidelines of the APC, if you know what the person has done is an infringement on the party constitution, because one godfather or governor called you and you decided to defer to them. That’s why we are where we are and that’s why I am agitating we need a national chairman that can stand for the truth. but not for godfatherism. We need a national chairman that will stop breaching our party’s constitution the way Oyegun has been doing. We need a national chairman to come and unify all aggrieved members of this party and harmonise the interests of people. We don’t need a national chairman that will come and divide

Normatively, the party should be independent and a senior partner with the government and also insulated from it. But in Nigeria, does the presidency defer to the party’s leadership? Some may even argue that the government runs the party secretariat; What is your take?

The ruling party and any government in power, whether you like it or not, goes together. It is just mere change of name of party and presidency. But they go together, because it is the party that brings the presidency. But they can only go together when there is an understanding, when there is competent leadership. But in our own case today, the presidency is on one hand, the party is doing its own. I won’t blame the presidency because it doesn’t trust the current leadership of the party and that’s why they are treating the party with disdain. So, we shouldn’t blame the presidency,  because if the party, from day one, had taken charge, the presidency won’t treat the party the way it is doing. Again, when you have the chairman that cannot exercise the powers confers on him, you cannot go anywhere and that’s why you see crises rocking everywhere. We have 36 states in Nigeria, but I can tell you, if you check, all APC states in the country are in crises. Over 20 states have issues, but some people will be denying this. The crises are growing every day. In Kano, Kwankwaso and Ganduje are fighting; in Bauchi, Dogara and the governor are fighting; in Kaduna, el-Rufai and Shehu Sani are fighting; in Rivers, Magnus Abe and Rotimi Amaechi are in serious duel there. In Kogi, Yahaya Bello and Dino Melaye are fighting. Even in Lagos State, as of today, there is crisis between Chief Ajomale, state chairman and Muiz Banire. In Ondo state there is crisis. My brother, I can go on and on and that’s why it is painful.

There is this allegation that certain chieftains like Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar  the ones goading you on to engage Oyegun  to create distraction for his leadership. What is your reaction to allegation?

First of all, what binds me and Tinubu? We aren’t in the same political family. So, how can Tinubu use me to come and fight Oyegun? Again, how can Atiku ask me to go and fight Oyegun? The Atiku that I know, if he isn’t happy, he will confront Oyegun. The Tinubu that I know will confront Oyegun without Timi Frank. Tinubu even demonstrated the act in the past. The answer is no. So, anybody that is saying that, is just a campaign blackmail from Oyegun and his clique. For God sake, I have an antecedent that people know in this country. They know me to be a young man that stands for the masses, for the truth, for equity. So nobody can tell me what to do; I am not a small boy. I know what is good for me and the masses of this country. I prefer to go with the people than with any godfather. So, whatever I am doing, I am not

sent by Atiku or Tinubu. I am doing it because it is the views of Timi Frank, not these leaders. They cannot even tell me to stop. If they want me to stop, they have to convince me why I shouldn’t say Oyegun should resign.

On two occasions, your national chairman has declared that the party presidential ticket for 2019 has been reserved for incumbent President; is that the position of the NWC?

That’s sycophantic, but I want to let him know that whether he is doing sycophancy to suppress the truth, some day the truth will suppress him, because first of all, Oyegun’s statement coming from the chairman of the party is biased; it is sentimental; it is a position that can divide the party. For God sake, as much as we know even in the United States, there is what we call right of first refusal in a party, but it isn’t meant to come from you as the chairman. To start saying that the president will get automatic ticket, for God sake, this isn’t the best time for him to make that kind of statement. At the time when the president is struggling for his life and the president himself hasn’t even said, ‘I want to run.’’ If he has said so, it is even a different case. He hasn’t said that for one day. So, it isn’t the duty of Oyegun to make that case. He is the chairman of the party, not for any individual in the party. So as far as I am concerned, I believe he should apologise to leaders of the party. Let me tell you, with Oyegun’s statement, assuming that the president said he wants to run, what it shows is that if any other person has interest in 2019, Oyegun has compromised his position; he has compromised the process. So how can I be confident that there will be fair play in the process of picking the presidential candidate. Once the chairman has said that, why am I in the party if I have the same ambition with the president? That means I should look for an alternative platform. That’s very wrong statement for a leader and chairman of the party to make. I can tell you that Oyegun is sabotaging this party. He doesn’t love this party; somebody that loves this party wouldn’t be making this kind of statement. What I expect him to do at this time is to pray for the president quick recovery. He should be campaigning for the health of the president.

Finally, you have been suspended. How long can you endure being shut out of the national secretariat of your party? Are you already working on an alternative platform?

Please, I am not under any suspension. Nobody suspended me. I am still a full blown member of the APC. I am still the deputy spokesperson of this party. It is because I don’t want to join issues. Otherwise I know my right. By right, I am the acting national publicity secretary of this party, but I don’t want to go into that issue right now. There is a process to suspend me and until that process is followed, anything called suspension is illegal. It was orchestrated by Oyegun, not the party. As a national officer it isn’t easy to get me suspended. The same process you can use to suspend Oyegun is the same you must use to suspend me. I was voted as deputy national publicity secretary of this party, the same way Oyegun emerged. So I have every full right like him.  To suspend me, you have to go to my ward, and it has to petition my local government and from there to the state. The state has to bring it to zonal and they have to table it before the NWC. The working committee must also bring it to NEC. So, it is only NEC that can suspend me. Have you seen any of these processes? None! Go and ask Oyegun. Can he tell you that I am under suspension? The answer is no. I remain in this party and I will be in this party and make sure that what Oyegun couldn’t do, I do it. I will make sure that people are united in this party.