Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The immediate past national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie Oyegun, has said that his successor, Adams Oshiomhole, lacked the capacity to manage the different interests and tendencies that constitute a political party.
In apparent reaction to the allegation by the South-south states’ APC chairmen that he laid landmines for the Oshiomhole-led national executive , Oyegun described it as “ludicrous and infantile and an attempt to dream up justification for the failings of the party under Oshiomhole’s chairmanship”.
In a statement issued yesterday by his Public Affairs Adviser, Chief Ray Morphy, the former national chairman of the ruling party said that Oshiomhole failed because he lacks the temperament required to run a big political party like APC.
“That statement of booby traps is ludicrous and infantile and an attempt to dream up justification for the failings of the party under Oshiomhole’s chairmanship,” he said.
Reacting to the brewing crisis of confidence and the misfortune the ruling party witnessed at the last general election, the former chairman said the crisis in some states arose out of sheer incapacity on the part of the current chairman.
He said Oshiomhole failed because he lacked the temperament that is required to run a political party.
He said Oshiomhole also lacked the capacity to manage the different interests and tendencies that constitute a political party.
“He engages his mouth before engaging his mind; so, he offends party members; so, how does that constitute booby traps by Oyegun, the erstwhile chairman.
“Already, the deputy national chairman has confirmed that Oshiomhole runs the party without recourse to the NWC.
“He acts in direct opposite of decisions taken by NWC. No minutes of NWC meetings, which in any event take place outside the party’s secretariat,” he said.
Oyegun said that part of the poor sense of judgment Oshiomhole committed was when he gave the states freedom to choose their methods of picking candidates for elections.
“How would you not have crisis in states with the confusion that Oshiomhole created when he gave the states freedom to choose their methods of choosing candidates for elections? Much of the crisis in states arose out of sheer incapacity on the part of the current chairman; how does this Oshiomhole’s incapacity become booby traps by Oyegun?
“Many party men were aghast at the unfairness and injustice meted them during the primaries process. Only a bad carpenter quarrels with his tools. Indeed Oshiomhole is degrading and demarketing the party, rather than seek to bring more people on board, he is rather chasing people out of the party with his agbero-style of engagement,” Oyegun said.
