Oyegun's Job On The Line As Party Moves To Appease Bola Tinubu By Setting Up Caretaker Committee

According to Dailytrust, the party will consider setting up a national caretaker committee to run the affairs of the party in an attempt to appease the Bola Ahmed Tinubu clan in the party. The report said Tinubu has been unhappy with the tenure elongation of the Chief John Odie-Oyegun-led EXCO and has as a result gone cold on his reconciliation drive in the party.

The move is coming barely a month after the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) took what many saw as a “divisive decision” to extend the tenure of party executives, whose current term of office should have ended on June 30 this year, across all levels.

Since the unprecedented move of February 27, which swung the pendulum firmly in Oyegun’s direction, TInubu has remained silent and activities of his reconciliatory committee have ground to a halt.

It would be recalled that on February 6, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari charged a Tinubu-led committee with the task of reconciling aggrieved party members, a task the party leader took very seriously and swung immediately into action.

Tinubu and the party chairman, Oyegun have been at loggerheads for a while and entrusting the reconcillliation committee by the president was seen as a crucial blow to Oyegun’s chances of holding on to the reins of the party and an indication that the pendulum was swinging in the direction of Tinubu.

Meanwhile, since the elongation of Oyegun's tenure, the Tinubu camp has expressed its dissatisfaction over the move, stressing that it was in breach of the party's constitution. Tinubu’s Media Aide, Mr Tunde Rahman in an interview with Dailytrust had said;

“What Asiwaju is saying is that things should be done rightly, I mean constitutionally. Personally, I have looked at the APC constitution and I did not see where it granted elongation of tenure in whatever form to executive committees of parties. Even the 1999 Constitution as amended speaks about what is right with respect to the periodic tenure of party executives. That is in Section 223.

He however said the unfortunate situation had not deterred his principal from the assignment given to him by the president

“Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has gone very far about the reconciliation task. That much I can tell you right away. He is even putting together an interim report for submission to President Muhammadu Buhari. I can also tell you, however, that I have heard him say to journalists who asked him how far he had gone about the reconciliation work that he would only give the progress report on his assignment to President Buhari who appointed him. And I think we can only be fair to him if we grant him that indulgence.

The president asked him to lead the consultation, reconciliation and confidence-building efforts in the party and he would render account to the president,” he said.