Apc Chairman, Oyegun, Reveals Why Ruling Party Is In Crisis

SAN FRANCISCO, December 08, (THEWILL) – The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun has identified series of initial missteps taken shortly after the 2015 elections by the leadership of the party as the root of the internal crisis rocking the governing party, adding that some unfinished businesses among political bigwigs who played a key role in the emergence of the party compounded the crisis.

Oyegun, who disclosed this in his office when he received the leadership of the Senate on Wednesday, was however not specific about the nature of the problem.

“Unfortunately, it is clear, it is a public knowledge now that our very first steps when we came into office created problems and the very nature itself of the amalgamating parties created its own issues,” he said.

There had been palpable friction in the governing party since the National Assembly elected its principal officers on June 9, 2015. Against the wishes of the party leadership, the election produced Bukola Saraki as the Senate President while Yakubu Dogara emerged Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The emergence of the duo immediately paved way for several other principal officers to get coveted positions in the National Assembly, making nonsense of a pre-election arrangement the party's key blocs purportedly put in place for equitable distribution of government positions.

Barely three months after the election in the Upper Chamber, Saraki was dragged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal over allegations that he failed to honestly declare his asset when he ran for governor in Kwara in 2003 and before joining the Senate in 2011.

In one of the times he voiced frustrations about his ordeals, the embattled Senate President accused the leadership of the APC of being behind the plot to rubbish him for daring to actualise his political ambition to be Senate President.

But speaking when Saraki led the Senate delegation to his office, Oyegun noted that all the problems have now piled up to “affect the mode of operations and the level of interactions between the various arms of government and the party”.

He however expressed the determination of the party to foster unity among its members and bring a lasting solution to the internal wrangling in order to provide the needed leadership for the citizens.

“It is my hope that we will at the end of it all be able to present to the Nigerian public, a government, a party and a National Assembly that are working all in the same direction,” the APC Chairman hoped.

Responding, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki expressed optimism in the ability of the party to resolve the acrimony and begin speaking in one voice moving forward.

“We need to work closely together and we are hopeful that the new chapter is being opened today,” he stated.