Crisis: APC Shops for Oshiomhole’s Replacement

By Chidiebere Onyemaizu

The storms are far from over for the embattled National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole. Multiple sources inform that forces against him have started shopping for his replacement.

“The position of National Chairman is zoned to the South south, so it will remain there but we are looking outside Edo for his replacement”, one of the sources told The Source.

Former Cross River state governor, Clement Ebri, immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom state, Senator Godswill Akpabio, former Edo governor, Osariemen Osunbor are among  the South south APC chieftains, allegedly, being considered as Oshiomhole’s replacement.

Bayelsa state former governor, Timipre Sylva who is warming up to contest the state’s November governorship election is also allegedly being considered.There are also suggestions that immediate past Transport Minister, Chibuike Amaechi is fit to occupy the APC National Chairmanship position.

Our sources are emphatic that Oshiomhole’s fall will happen shortly after the inauguration of the ninth National Assembly. One of the sources said: “The party does not want to be distracted by the Oshiomhole issue now. What is uppermost in our minds now is how to successfully install  our preferred candidates in the leadership of the ninth National Assembly,  but one thing you can take to the bank is that before the end of July, Oshiomhole will be a former national chairman”

A Senior party official who pleaded not to be named accused  the embattled former Edo state governor of lacking diplomacy, flexibility and tact to run a complex party like the APC.

“What the National Chairman failed to realise is that APC is an amalgam of parallel tendencies.The party was hurriedly put together by strange bed followers with the sole aim of ousting President Jonathan and the PDP from power”, he said.

“Oshiomhole is carrying on like a headmaster breathing down on his pupils. That is not how to run a complex party like the APC”, the APC chieftain further added.

This magazine has it on good authority that several members of the party’s National Working Committee, NWC and National Executive Council, NEC had made up their minds to undo Oshiomhole immediately after the general elections which saw the APC losing five states- Adamawa, Bauchi, Oyo, Imo, Zamfara, as well as scores of National Assembly and states assembly seats- to the PDP as a result of what they term the National Chairman’s gross mismanagement of the APC congresses and primaries.

His fate was finally sealed, it was learnt, by the the fiasco in Zamfara leading to the Supreme court’s ousting of all APC’s candidates in the state and declaration of PDP’s as rightful winners.

“The tragedy in Zamfara sealed Oshiomhole’s fate. It was after the Supreme court’s judgement that hawkish elements in the party who are in the majority, hold the levers of power and have the ears of the President, recruited Oshiomhole’s Deputy, Senator Lawal Shaibu, to stir the hornet’s nest by penning a letter to him asking him to resign for ruining the party”, The Source was told.

“Anyone who thinks that Senator Shaibu acted alone, or is acting alone, is under an illusion. The truth of the matter is that anti-Oshiomhole forces in the APC are well entrenched in the executive, National Assembly and, the party itself. Shaibu was merely used to pull the trigger that will eventually consume the national chairman”, this magazine was further told.

John Odigie-Oyegun who handed over to Oshiomhole last June as APC’s National Chairman agrees his successor does not have the capacity to run the party.

Oyegun: “Oshiomhole fails because he lacks the temperament that is required to run a political party. He lacks the capacity to manage the different interests and tendencies that constitute a political party”

Oyegun, who is also a former governor of Edo state further said: “Oshiomhole engages his mouth before engaging his mind, so he offends party members… Much of the crisis in states arose out of sheer incapacity on the part of the current chairman.

Many party men were aghast at the unfairness and injustice meted them during the party primaries process. Only a bad carpenter quarrels with his tools. Indeed, Oshiomhole is degrading and de-marketing the party; rather than seeking to bring more people on board, he is chasing people out of the party with his agbero style of engagement”.

Meanwhile, at the home front, Oshiomhole is also facing insurrection from his godson and Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki. APC in the state is sharply divided between Oshiomhole’s and Obaseki’s factions.

The Oshiomhole camp has allegedly vowed to ensure that the governor is not given second term ticket for the next year’s Edo governorship election.

The magazine was informed that the crux of the matter was Obaseki’s decision to stop sharing the state’s financial resources with Oshiomhole’s loyalists.