Comrade Adams Oshiomole is back in the saddle of Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, that was pretty much signed, sealed and delivered yesterday at a meeting of the party’s National working committee, in Abuja. What does this mean for the future of the APC? And to what extent can the cessation of hostilities for now be attributed to the group called Council for New Nigeria Initiative. For us to have a more holistic idea of the current internal workings of the APC, we are now been joined in our Arise Abuja studio by Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, a chieftain of the party and one of the leaders of the Council for New Nigeria Initiative.
Reuben Abati: Otunba Ajiboye, good morning, and thank you for joining us.
Otunba Ajiboye: Morning sir , how are you sir?.
Reuben Abati: I am fine, thank you for joining us on the morning show. Yesterday it looks like the APC managed to move it up as a party, on the part of reconciliation, with the chairman of the party even begging for forgiveness and the National Working Committee taking certain steps to reinstate persons who have been suspended, and with the chairman assuring everyone that the party will work together and move forward.
Do you think that we have seen real reconciliation and that we can look forward to the APC now sitting down to put its house in order?
Otunba Ajiboye: Well to the extent that the current crises that was looming about a week back has been put to an end, yes we can say that but you and I know very well that democracy and political parties are just creation of intrigues and intrigues continue at any rate. I do not think that, that is suppose to mean that we are now going to run like the Catholic Church, without any crises or disagreement, or any…you know? Intrigues, No! but, the fact remains that the ability to handle the crises that was brewing a few days back, in the way that we have handled it shows that the party has leadership and where there is leadership in any party, you can expect that problems will arise, and problems will be solved.
Lack of leadership control is a major cause of friction in a political parties, frictions that cannot be put to an end, frictions that end up balkanizing the political parties. When there are no leaders that can actually call warring factions to order,when there are no leaders that are highly respected by the membership of the party, you will see that such a party will just fritter away, you will see break away factions, you will see governors decamping and all of that. Our party is a party that has high respect of leadership and however bad a crises appears, when leaders come together to say let us focus, let us face this direction, they fall in line. That is exactly what we have seen in the case of yesterday.
INTERVIEWER: Thank you for that, but then you know there was a similar issue to what you have just described. We get a sense of deja vu with the reinstating of suspended members or what have you. This happened last year after the senate Ahmed Lawan led reconciliation committee sorted out all the problems, or so it seemed. Fast forward, one year we now have the Bisi Akande led committee of 2020. 2021 I am sure there will be another committee. What is the lasting solution? What you have just said now makes perfect sense, political dispute should have a political resolution but what do you do about disgruntled APC members who are exercising their rights to seek judicial intervention which usually does not necessarily bring the most ideal outcome, because the saying is: “you don’t go to court and come back as friends”. What needs to stop this constant tensions arising in the party?
Otunba Ajiboye: Well, you said something and that you can be sure, that by 2021 there is likely to be another reconciliation committee. First of all, you can’t be sure and i will pray from my end here that we will continue to live in peace, so there is no essence for…you know? But let me go back to your issue right now, first of all like I said, there are no political parties without disagreement, especially when a presidential election is in sight, everybody is jostling, everybody is calculating, everybody is aligning, and realigning, to ensure that a lot of people have interest. To that extent, there will be camps and camps, and intrigues will be on the rise, but what i can tell you like i told you before is that any political party that has good leadership, good leadership in the sense that,you have leadership you respect, you defer to, it is easy to quell crises, especially crises that are going to rock the very foundation of a party. Now the Ahmed Lawan reconciliation committee got distorted by a lot of disgruntled elements who feel oh no there. We now have Bisi Akande, Bisi Akande is a different politician, Bisi Akande is a first republic politician, Chief Bisi Akande has high reputation and he is one of the major founders of APC. To that extent, Chief Bisi Akande as the leader of the new reconciliation committee is a different kettle of fish. Bisi Akande is one person who had seen politics from every shades of politics, from the first republic, to the second republic, to the third republic and you can understand that such a person coming with such huge experience behind him will be able to call everybody to order. With his advantage, he has an advantage of experience, and he is a man by nature is extremely very truthful, and all of us have confidence in Bisi Akande and his committee is likely going to achieve tremendous results and you will see the consequence of which will be peace in our party. That i can tell you sitting here.
INTERVIEWER: Thank you sir, I would like to just retract a little bit and go back to the initial speech that we got from Comrade Adams Oshiomole yesterday before the NWC meeting, whereby he spoke about utilitarianism, the greatest good for the greatest number. He spoke about the All Progressive Congress been just that all progressive, and he referred to the party as a left wing party, a socialist party for the people, etcetera. He also spoke about the fact that crises can loom and exist simply because at the end of the day, yes! people will have disagreements.
However, I am not too sure if that is a narrative that necessarily sits well with the people because, it does still seem as though, where several factions, several divides and yes of course can exist in parties. This is also very linked to of course the politics of 2023, so can we really as citizens really believe or feel as though over the next few years leading up to the next elections, we are going to get that legitimate leadership from the All Progressive Congress if we are being honest and realistic?
OTUNBA AJIBOYE: Can I tell you very frankly, what we should be concentrating on now, that we are actually concentrating on now, is how to make the government successful, there will be no need for any crises if the government is successful because, if the government is able to bequeath or is able to get its acts together, in such a way that it is able to execute most of its projects, especially those that touch the nerves of the common man, you will find out that the party will be acceptable to the people. Then the internal crises within the party, which is about jostling for position will become a secondary issue, in fact, it has always a secondary issue because, it can always sort itself out but, the most important thing like my organization, The Council for New Nigeria Initiative… What we want to do is to ensure that APC is put on a pedestal that can be acceptable to Nigerian people in 2023. How do we do that? By ensuring that the government is effective and the government is able to deliver on its promise to the common man on the street. We are here to take out all distortions and all encumbrances that could make government not perform its role. We took on the issue of the presidential declaration of lifting hundred million people out of poverty in 10 years, our organization had taken that matter up in such a way that, we have drawn plans and templates that can make that declaration achievable, we have told the president, listen sir, this is what we need to do to ensure this declaration of yours on June 12, 2018 does not go in vain, does not go empty.
If we are able to achieve a hundred million people out of poverty even, Sixty million people by the end of this administration, nobody will tell anybody to say that APC is the party to beat. So, these are strategies that are essential. The internal wranglings among younger elements in the party who like to take over the party, they are to me, is a usual issue (sic)in political parties, people are ambitious, people want to show their ambition in many ways and this is why they cleverly really want to get the leadership out of the party, to be able to have their way, but the elders of the party sat back and said No! We can’t go in this direction. If Adams Oshiomole had done wrong things, we can call him to order. The leaders, the elders can call him to order, and Adams Oshiomole in his magnanimity had actually accepted that “there could be many things I did wrong, I will right all of those things. I want us to live in peace, we hereby pardon and lift the suspension of those officers of the party that has been suspended”. I think it’s a good move.
Reuben Abati: well, let me ask you, yesterday the chairman of the party appeal to all the members who are in court over one matter or the other either affecting him or other issues and to please withdraw their cases from court. Do you think that, that is likely to happen? And it is good that you talked about the Council for New Nigeria Initiative, I was going to ask, is that an organ of the APC? or it is an NGO unto itself? And are you still optimistic that we can meet the objective of taking ten million people per annum and hundred million people over the next ten years with the Corona Virus, with Oil prices crashing, stock market not working, with Nigeria not been able to borrow for now.
But we will take a short break, when we return we take your response to those questions.
Welcome back to the morning show here on Arise News channel, with us in our Abuja studio is Otunba Abiodun Ajiboye, a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress and one of the leaders of the Council for New Nigeria, Otunba Ajiboye thank you for staying with us.
Before we went on break i had asked you a question about the possibility of some members of your party withdrawing cases from court, so there can be peace within the party. And then about Council for New Nigeria Initiative and what you said earlier about taking people out of poverty despite the economic challenges that Nigeria faces. I want to know if that is still an achievable objective.
OTUNBA AJIBOYE: Well my brother Reuben, in your usual intellectual bamboozling manner, you asked me about five questions on the roll and i will have to unravel them one after the other (laughs). Well let’s start with the court and withdrawal of cases. Our party has a modus of operation, constitutional; we said it is wrong for any party member to go to court when issues can be addressed using the internal organs of the party. That is a fact but, that as it may, a few people had brushed that proviso aside and they had headed to the courts. With the new wave of reconciliatory spirit that Adams Oshiomole had come up with yesterday, with the dangling of the olive oil and you know, the olive branch and all of that, it is very easy today to say categorically that, every warring member that means well will withdraw his case. If we then encounter any member that does not mean well because, don’t forget, nobody wants to leave APC for any other party. You know, there are not a lot of other parties actually. So therefore, it is easy to have a crises or a disagreement and get it easily resolved. We are on the part of resolution. We have a reconciliatory committee, a thirteen man reconciliatory committee set up and I even understand that the president had told, instructed that two governors should join the reconciliatory committee. We have a robust reconciliatory committee on, that can address any problem of disagreement within the party, so I am optimistic that those people that proceeded to court will withdraw their cases naturally because, we have set up a peace mode, that says look, we can resolve our problems, we need to be one great united party and that is the only way we can navigate it to 2023 and take Nigerians out of the economic trouble that we seem to be in. That is one. Now talking about hundred million Nigerians out of poverty, I tell you that The Council for New Nigeria, is a pro government, it is a government support organization. We are an NGO that is set up to ensure that the Buhari’s administration is able to leave a legacy that can speak for him, for our party, for all progressives even hundred years after he has left power. That is the primary focus of the Council for New Nigeria. We are going to look at the projects of government one after the other, and we are going to take these projects to the common man on the streets, to ensure that the common man on the street benefits from government. Like i said before, all encumbrances and distortions, we clear it off the way, we then take feedback from the common man on the streets to the government and say government, this is the way people are thinking. We must ensure that the relationship between the government and the people becomes fantastically fine. That is the objective of Council for New Nigeria. To that extent, we have seen that lifting hundred million people out of poverty is a major project that is bigger than any other project. If we can get hundred million, even sixty million within the life of this administration out of poverty, the name of APC will be written in gold for another 300 years, Nigeria will not be willing to change from APC to any other political party. How achievable is this? In your question, i tell you sitting here we had drawn up a plan, a robust plan, highly realistic plan, that took into cognizance every part of the world that had similar topography, economically, politically, like Nigeria. We have taken it into consideration and we have drawn up a template. We submitted this template to Mr President and we assured Mr President this is achievable. If you give some support and this is the way we can go about it as a country and we are going to achieve this. We met the senate president, we told him the same thing. The plan is on the way, our leader Senator Abu Ibrahim is making plans and arrangement to meet with the governor’s forum to let them understand that if we do no follow this declaration of Mr President, Nigeria may be in a lot of crises. Every crises we see in this country, be it Banditry, be it Boko Haram, be it whatever… Kidnapping is as a result that people are poor. Taking people out of poverty is a primary project of government. My organization, Council for New Nigeria will see it to a conclusive end, that is as far as that is concerned. You raised another question with respect to economic circumstances oil prices falling, i can tell you sitting here, we have a founding plan that is out of the budget. We know that the budget of Nigeria may not be able to carry this project. We a plan and the plan is extremely very, very positive, robust and possible.
I don’t know if i have left any question, because questions were many my brother. If I have, please you just keep me on then.
INTERVIEWER: You have answered them in your customary…I am starting to see your optimistic style. So i wanted to switch tabs a little bit. Senator Abu Ibrahim who you mentioned just now, a few weeks ago but was reported that he approached the president and told the president to step in and resolve the issues within APC so that the party can have a firm footing even after 2023, and it appears, he was persuasive because the president did intervened, with regards to Adams Oshiomole which is why we are where we are now. All is quiet with the APC front. Now however, the tensions do remain. We all know that according to the APC constitution, that the suspension of Comrade Adams Oshiomole is a nullity because as a national officer he cannot be suspended by his local chapter, but, what should be done to really mend those fences? Because there is a rift there. Comrade Oshiomole said he has seen the error of his ways, what should be done going forward to properly heal the divide in the APC, and also what does APC really want temperamentally and in terms of style from the national chairman, because that has been one of the criticisms leveled against Comrade Oshiomole.
OTUNBA AJIBOYE: Well, thank you very much my sister, I am used to your accent, so I managed. Interestingly there is no leader that is perfect, I cannot sit here and say that the chairman of my party, my leader, Comrade Adams Oshiomole is a perfect human being. However, what the crises had actually done is to expose to him and say “Oga, there are some things you were not doing right”. Those of us who had the opportunity to tell him directly or indirectly, we have been able to make him understand that these are areas where there are lapses. He had undertaken, he had told us, oh yes! we should work on these areas, because he is a genuine progressive and he wants the greatness of the party. Now, we can not rule out the crises we went through in the last couple of days were a combination of many things. The people that were disgruntled, that felt they were probably improperly suspended from the party, they were bringing up a lot of issues, those with inordinate ambition, that want to be, that want to king 2023 (sic) believe that Adams Oshiomole should be taken off the way. Then there are those who feel that Adams Oshiomole is insisting that they will not make either progress in their respective states, or perhaps, get a ticket or something, they too were propping up a lot of issues. The combination of these three wars culminated and ballooned into a major battle for us, Now we have been able to settle the battle, and we have been able to take on proper reconciliation. Now, all other warring parties will now have to submit their memoranda to the reconciliation committee for consideration. That is where we are now, and i can assure you that for you to reconcile people you must be willing to heal their wounds. Healing their wounds is saying your suspension is lifted i have forgiven you. I equally, am now speaking for Adams Oshiomole, he equally asked them for forgiveness.
Reuben Abati: Thank you very much on that note of forgiveness, thank you for joining us this morning.
