SIMON EBEGBULEM,

BENIN CITY

Ahead the June 2, 2018 national convention of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the caucus of the party in the House of Representatives has endorsed the immediate past governor of Edo state, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the APC. The party members in the House gave the endorsement when Oshiomhole visited them at the National Assembly complex. On his arrival, Oshiomhole was warmly received by the APC Caucus members from Edo state led by the Deputy Whip of the House and member representing Owan Federal constituency of Edo State, Pally Iriase and E J Agbonayinma representing Egor/Ikpoba. They ushered the Comrade into the hall where Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, other principal officers of the House as well as other APC lawmakers were waiting. Oshiomhole took time to exchange warm pleasantries with the entire caucus members in the hall including Speaker Dogara and jokingly informed them that he brought their former colleague and now Deputy Governor of Edo state, Comrade Philip Shaibu to them. The lawmakers were also excited when they saw Patrick Obahiagbon (Igodomigodo) who was on Oshiomhole’s entourage and telling him how much they missed him in the House.

When it was time for business, Oshiomhole informed the lawmakers why he decided to join the race for the national chairmanship position of the APC.

He said, “when I left office in 2016 I thank God I was able to hand over to my successor who is from my own party, the APC (applause from the crowd). It is on the basis of the forthcoming convention that I have decided to offer myself to contest, by the special grace of God and with your support, for the office of the national chairman of the APC. I am contesting not because there is leadership vacuum, obviously we have an executive whose tenure will expire sometime in June, 2018. But I am contesting because having been an active member of the party, I am convinced that we can always improve on the state of affairs and given the fact that as we are in a very dynamic environment, the expectations of our people are ever mounting and the challenge of leadership is getting more complex. I believe that in moments like this whoever thinks he can add value to strengthen the APC and make it more powerful, should step forward and contribute to this task.

Oshiomhole

“As things stand, it is an open secret that not too many people are happy the way our party seems to have managed its affairs since we had that historic merger. The task of building and sustaining a truly cohesive political party that will move beyond creating a political platform for electioneering campaign and for winning and losing election, remains work in progress. I am convinced that working with leaders of the party and with everyone, we can build a political party that is founded on inclusiveness rather than exclusion”.

Speaking further, Oshiomhole noted that “a political party that is open, democratic, and encourages debate among its members at various levels, can hardly fall into trouble. In my view I think the main challenge that we face is how to evolve a party machinery which decision making is open, where disagreement is not seen as an offence or disrespect of any one whether on account of age or position of the person. It should also be one where members can disagree or agree and where they disagree they have the skills to manage those disagreements and at the end of the day we can arrive at the decision that we can refer to as the party’s decision. My view is that when we develop the skill and capacity to do that at the unit level, ward level, local government level, state level and obviously at the National Working Committee level, when we make decisions on the basis of participation and allowing every member to contribute then we can speak of party supremacy. When decisions are democratically taken, majority will have their way and minority will have their say but everybody will have the sense of ownership of the outcome provided the procedures are right and they are participatory”.

Reacting to the crisis rocking the party in some states, Oshiomhole described them as normal in a progressive party, but however pointed out that the situation would not have been this bad if there was a proactive party administration which according to him would have nipped in the bud the escalating crisis in some states.

He said: ¨I believe that no matter what we do, and however clean our intentions are, there will be disagreements from time to time. In fact the evidence of a democratic party is the fact that people are free to hold divergent views and to forcefully canvass those views and the more democratic a political party is the more it is thrown to internal crisis and disagreement. Historically, progressive parties are much more thrown into internal crisis than conservative parties. For me I am not surprised, and I don’t think that crisis and disagreements are necessarily dysfunctional. They can only be dysfunctional if the leadership lacks the skill to provide a non biased platform or leadership style such that after all the disputations, we are able to persuade and negotiate amongst ourselves to arrive at the final decision so that everybody can have a sense of belonging.

¨Just observing what happened in a couple of states, I am convinced that a lot of these things would have been nipped in the bud if we had a more proactive approach party administration at all levels. I also believe as co-drivers in the system that we have consciously chosen as a country, the presidential system of government which has the executive, Legislature and the Judiciary and I believe for good reasons the presidential system is founded on the principle of separation of powers. The challenge I think our party has faced is how to service this principle of separation of powers and yet commit ourselves to a common goal as a government both the executive and the legislature. And if there are gaps the party leadership can intervene to see how those gaps can be bridged. And there are no permanent solutions because the issues are dynamic and these challenges will emerge from time to time. So, conflicts will be constant, there can be no permanent solutions. So the challenge for leadership in my view if given the privilege to preside over the affairs of our party is to develop those appropriate tools and identify people with sufficient experience and connections working together to service the principles of separation of powers and at the same time build healthy bridge between the executive and the legislature because we are separate but we are not autonomous. There is only one government but a government with different arms. But those arms can still work together and deliver the deliverables. The only tool I have had in my eight years as NLC President is my capacity to persuade, convince, to negotiate and even for those who think they might have offended me, I have a duty to convince them that it is just the system and if we don’t offend each other then we are less than human. But truly it becomes a problem when we are not capable of overcoming bitterness as a result of one or two persons that may have wronged us or held a position that is strictly at variance with my own position even as President of the NLC. For eight years I am proud to say that we led NLC without a faction. And a lot went into that particularly when I had to lead the NLC at a time when we had a President who was learning the difference between being a Commander in Chief that gives orders to appoint military governors and dismiss to one that was elected like us. I was pushed to a point I had to remind him that we made him our President, he did not make us Nigerians. Without the National Assembly we would have been de-registered. And the day that proposal collapsed I called my colleagues this is why we must celebrate democracy, because if not for democracy we would have been dealt with”.

Oshiomhole further gave insight about how his administration, if elected as the next APC chairman, will resolve the crisis rocking the party in some states. He said ¨I am aware of a lot of problems that confront our party, every political party has its own fair share of problems and the bigger a political party is the more the problem. Ours are peculiar because we are a progressive party, we are pro people, pro masses and governance is about the people and our tools are different from the tools of the other parties. So I am not surprised about the divisions and some uneasiness in many quarters within the party. But I am convinced that with a proactive leadership which if given the privilege to preside we will try to evolve, these and other problems can be resolved in a win win manner because the choice in the real world is not between winners and losers. It is not a football match, in the real world where people are truly free, what I have learnt is that nobody gets everything that he wants but you get everything you are able to negotiate. And no one needs to go with nothing for somebody else to go with something. We all can have something. Now who gets what, is at the heart of leadership challenge and how we manage and sustain that.

“I want to assure you Mr Speaker and other members of the APC caucus, that given your support which is a very critical one, and under God’s guidance, I am convinced that together we can strengthen our party and encourage everyone who wishes to be in the house to recognize that our long term self interest is better serviced by adopting a policy of inclusion rather than exclusion at all levels. What I learnt when I was a governor was never to look down on a party member because if I exercise my powers and make life tough for him, on election day he can make life very miserable for me. So, I want to assure you all that it is my hope and prayers that given the opportunity, working together, we might see a new APC that is capable of providing leadership to our members¨.

However, after addressing the APC lawmakers, Oshiomhole went into a closed door meeting with them for over two hours. Saturday Vanguard learnt that the lawmakers expressed their concern over the persistent crisis between the National Assembly and the Executive despite the fact that the party is in the majority. It was learnt that they also complained bitterly about the factional crisis rocking the party in some states lamenting that majority of them have been isolated in the internal politics of their states and appealed to him to reconcile the various groups in the party so they can have a formidable party ahead the 2019 general elections.

The Majority Leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, who briefed journalists after the closed door meeting, said that the APC Caucus in the House of Representatives had endorsed Oshiomhole for the position of the national chairman of the party due to his pedigree and track record. According to him, ¨ “Comrade came to discuss with us for over two hours now. And when people sit down like this you know a lot has been accomplished. He came with a rich pedigree in administration and governance. He has laid his programmes on the table for us and we had heart to heart discussion. We are all on the same page, he came to solicit for our support and the result of that is that we, the APC Caucus in the House of Representatives believe in him and we have more or less endorsed him for the position of the National Chairman of the APC. We believe in him and we know he is the man APC needs at this point in time”.