Oshiomhole In Trouble: Babachir Lawal Says His Leadership, Funny; Protesters Ask For His Sack

By Akinwale Kasali

For the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, there seem to be no resting place. There is no breather.

Fresh from losing Bayelsa, a state which was already in the bag, to his shocking response to the loss, to his spat with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state, for which Wike thoroughly exposed and dragged him to the gutter, to his avoidable problem with his governor and successor in Edo, Governor Godwin Obaseki, for which the party in the state say it has suspended his membership, it is one day, one trouble.

Problems have dogged his path in the past several months. There have been calls for his resignation and/or sack as the National Chairman of the party. A number of his associates had asked for that one time or the other. And, a number of the party’s governors feel the same way. So far, he has managed to survive. But now, the calls for him to go are becoming more stringent, and hitting nearer to the ears of President Muhammadu Buhari and the National leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Out of the blues, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal, has described the APC under Oshiomhole’s leadership, as funny. “APC is now funny under Adams Oshiomhole”, he  said at a press conference in his home state of Adamawa, at the weekend.

And, on Monday, on the heels of the loss of Bayelsa, hundreds of party faithfuls, under the auspices of the APC Young Stakeholders, stormed the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, in protest of Oshiomhole’s continuous stay as the Chairman,  asking for his resignation.

Brandishing placards, they said Oshiomhole spells bad luck for the party, stressing that they were tired of the many reversals in the party’s fortune since his tenure. The protesters decried the fate that befell the party in Zamfara and Rivers states where the APC was barred from fielding Candidates, and now, the loss of Bayelsa to the PDP. They blame him for the tardiness which put the party in that situation.

And, speaking in Adamawa, Lawal alleged that the North has lost representation in the APC, and accused Oshiomhole of running a one-man show. He described the party as a “funny organization” under Oshiomhole,  and decried the suspension of Lawal Shaibu and Inuwa Abdulkadir, the National Vice Chairmen of the party in the  North, and North West, respectively.

Lawal:”This APC is funny. As we speak, the Chairman and his loyalists have suspended the Deputy National Chairman, North, the whole North, and the National Vice Chairman, North-West, which is the largest geographical zone with seven states. He has been suspended. They no longer attend National Working Committee meetings.

“The National Secretary of the party, who is from Yobe state, has left to become the governor of Yobe. As we speak, there is no firm decision to his replacement.

“For more than one year also, a very substantial part of the country is not represented in the decision making of the party”

Accusing the Chairman of dictatorial tendencies, he said:

“I’m quite close to members of the NWC. They always complain of not being carried along. The Chairman of a party is not an Executive President where whatever you say is taken. You need to carry everyone along.

“A national vice chairman,  North- east, for example, he is for North-east, and there are things unique to the zone which he is not aware, which his own zonal excos have brought to him for processing at the National secretariat. If he does not get the proper hearing, or opportunity  to present those things, they are disenfranchised

“In politics, sometimes, it is better not to reconcile. Somebody must lose out.

First of all, there had to be confidence restored in the NWC that they have the capacity to be impartial and fair in the decisions they take on behalf of party members.

“As i speak, I don’t think there  is any APC member that can confidently tell you that he expects the NWC to be fair and just in some of the cases because we lost election on account of this”.

Babachir Lawal is a close confidant and ally of both the President, and the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

It is, generally, believed that Oshiomhole was installed the APC Chairman by Tinubu.