The former National party chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun has called on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party as a matter of urgency to meet and institute a caretaker committee for organizing the parties national convention before they send the party to comatose.
Oyegun made this call in his statement titled, “Before its too late”, he called on leaders of the party especially President Muhammadu Buhari and the Governors to halt what he described as ‘disgraceful and humiliating charade” happening at the national secretariat of the party.
According to him, the APC was built on the blood and sweat of Nigerians, young and old which cannot be quantified who were ready to give up everything to ensure the progressive thrives, saying they should not allow such sacrifice go in vain.
The former chairman added, “Today, almost every member of the party feels a deep sense of alienation and dissatisfaction with the state of the party.
“It hurts deeply to see how it now rings to mention our party and “Change’ together.
Oyegun said “The time to act is now before it is too late,”
He expressed sadness that the APC is fast becoming the single and most dangerous threat to all good things the government of present administration has done for Nigerians.
He explained being the former party chairman, he remained proud of the great strides the party under the leadership of President Buhari has achieved as a government.
However, he said he noted most of the legacies of the government are portrayed mostly through the political prism rather than the development achieved so far, no matter how great these achievements are.
“Our recent History bears enough testimony to this reality, he added.
He reflected that “The Military government of President Ibrahim Babangida is today remembered mainly for the June 12, 1993 election and its aftermath,”
The former national chairman noted that those individuals who felt more entitled to the party have been relegated and are no longer interested in seeing the alternative viewpoints other than those counseled by those expressing their self-centeredness which in his opinion has been promoted against all things, including the common decency.
He noted that there is no political party that will survive for long as long as it does not have room for competing ideas and space for healthy debates.
Oyegun said, “In the last few months we have watched how the party has brazenly subverted its own principles of internal democracy and flagrant violation of every rule of decent political engagement in a manner that makes everyone associated with its promise of change liable to be accused of either hypocrisy or apostasy.
He called on his party members to remember their victory in the 2015 presidential elections and the peaceful transfer of power that followed suit as a major testimony of progress in the nationhood journey towards real democracy.
He said such demonstration has become a standard of measuring democratic achievement in the African continent and to which democratic performance is being rated.
However, Odigie-Oyegun said, “Unfortunately, it appears that while other countries have moved ahead in the democratic journey, ours has largely retrogressed.”
He concluded that it is regrettable what they witness in their party is the steady erosion or even the very basic tenet of the democratic principle in a manner that is capable of upturning the very victory they had in the year 2015 into a mockery.
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