2019: I’m sad over political friction in APC- Oyegun

Former Governor of Edo State and immediate past national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, has frowned over political wrangling in the party at this critical time as the general elections are days ahead.

Oyegun however indicated that the ongoing peace moves will yield expected results thereby calling for peace to reign as; “we need to confront the election in February next year given the state of the nation with every efforts to approach the general elections as a united force, rallying around a united program of action”

Recall that the ruling party has been in various crisis that lead to defection to other parties including the Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, some State Governors and many other party stalwarts.

Speaking with newsmen at his Abuja residence in Abuja on Wednesday, Oyegun declared that there is no one happy with the instability situation within the APC.

He said: “Well, I can say something for sure, I am not happy as to the state of peace or the relative instability in the party.

I don’t think I know someone who is happy today about that but like I said earlier there are peace missions that I have found all over the country and so at this point in time, it will be ill opportune for me to start saying oh,

things went bad because that happened or because that did not happen but as an elder statesman, I will not start passing my own personal judgment where there is a team out there trying to broker peace, I won’t be helping the situation.

“What we require is peace I pray God give these teams the wisdom that is required to work out the settlement to bring the party back to strong political party, a fighting force”.

Oyegun appealed to party members to show understanding and be loyal to the party saying: “As far as my own party is concerned, well I have only one appeal that there should be peace and that every effort should be made to establish Peace such that we will approach the elections as a united force, a united voice a united party, rallying around a united program of action.

“There is no doubt about it that there are very serious disputations within the party. And I’m very glad that peace teams have been sent out, I was glad to run into one of these teams once while I was on private business in the Southeast. And it is my prayer that they achieve, the goals for which they were set up and for the reason they have been sent out.

“But It is necessary to state that for peace to reign, there is need to emphasize that all sides must be ready to give and take; there must be willingness for compromise, such that can bring the party back together in such a fighting mood. We need to begin to confront the election in February next year which given the state of the nation, are bound to be challenging”.

The former party national chairman also appealed to Nigerians to avoid what he called distractions for real issues during the ongoing campaigns pointing that party leaders should keep away from distractions and non issues.

“If you read the Social Media today you see such terrible distractions, such terrible insults, such humongous, clear patent falsehood and this seem to have become the main issues whereas they are mere distractions, absolute distractions”, he said.

On his relationship with President Buhari, he said; “it is probably an appropriate time to say that my attachment to President Muhammadu Buhari started way back when he was a military President, I think outside Murtala Mohammed, he was the next man to appreciate the need for a disciplined and orderly society

and basic ethics both in our interaction with one another, in our business undertaking and in our dealings with the international community, the need for basic morality and the need for us as a people to start knowing very strongly the difference between right and wrong,

that is the challenge we still face as a people, it is not the challenge of brick and mortal, that is how many kilometers of roads you have built or how many schools you have renovated.

“It is the challenge of reorientation of the basic mentality of us all as Nigerians learning to do things properly and to accept due process and that might not necessarily be right and because of that, at that early stage, I was sold on him and have remained with him till today, absolutely no reason to change that impression of him.

“What he needs is our genuine support, he needs men and women with passion who will help bring to fruition the corrective measures he has put in place and still pursuing”, he said.