Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Henry Ajomale has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to act quickly and ensure that the committee he set up to reconcile warring members of the party did not fail in its assignment. Ajomale was reacting to a letter written by the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to the National Chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, accusing the latter of sabotaging the effort of the committee.
He said President Buhari should do something to ensure that all members of the party cooperate with the Tinubu-led presidential committee to achieve success at the 2019 election which is fast approaching. Tinubu had in his letter accused Oyegun of undermining the effort of the committee by hurriedly inaugurating a factional executive of the party in Kogi State without recourse to the committee. The Lagos APC chairman wondered what Chief Odigie-Oyegun stood to gain by undermining the efforts of the presidential committee to reconcile aggrieved members of the party, especially when the election is near.
"To me, I think it was a wrong move by the national chairman to undermine the efforts of the committee. He should have waited and allow the committee to move into all the states and settle all the problems there. You don’t add to a problem because by the time you are inaugurating a sectional executive whereas there is an existing executive, what you are doing is that you are dividing the party the more. "Not only that, the national chairman and some of his executives know that they are not following due process by removing a state chairman of the party. These are part of the problems within the party. We know that and if efforts are now being made to correct them, you are not supposed to jeopardise them.”
"Why do you now go behind to create more problems for the committee. If you agree to cooperate, you don’t have to go behind and undermine the effort. "And for Asiwaju to cry out, I think it is the best thing for him to do, for the president to know that, look what you have sent me to do, there are certain people that are undermining me. I think it is the right time for Asiwaju Tinubu to shout out because the time for the election is so near that he cannot afford to wait and keep quiet, because somebody is destroying their effort,” Ajomale stated.
Ajomale believes that undermining the presidential committee is tantamount to undermining the President himself, saying, ”Because Asiwau Tinubu is not representing himself, he is representing the president and anybody that undermines that committee certainly is undermining the president. "The implication of Oyegun’s action is that it will create more problems because those who did not want the party to reconcile and win the forthcoming election will create more confusion in the party.
"So, I believe Mr President must do something to ensure that his effort is recognised by party members. Members must cooperate with the committee that he established to reconcile the leadership. It is in the leadership that we have crisis. There is no problem with the members. It is the leadership that is fighting each other and where two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers,” Ajomale added.