Group, VON boss hail Tinubu’s reconciliation committee

A group under the auspices of Harmony Progressive Forum (HPF) and the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu have hailed the establishment of former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to head the All Progressives Congress (APC) reconciliation committee.

The forum, a coalition of ex-Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) local government chairmen of the Kwara State of the All Progressives Congress (APC), also cautioned the Tinubu-led committee to be wary of individuals that might be out to derail its activities for personal and selfish reasons.

Addressing reporters in Ilorin, Chairman of HPF, Alhaji Musa Umar said: “We appreciate the setting up of a reconciliation committee to settle amicably identified rifts among members of APC in the country. The choice of Tinubu as the team leader is highly commendable in view of his track record of managing political issues.

“The outcome of the committee’s assignment should therefore be guided only by its objectives and verifiable submissions and not allow sentiments and primordial issues to becloud their work. Kwara must change for better and the time to act is now.

“While we call on all our loyal members to continue to work hard for the political victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo come 2019, we equally call on our committed members to be wary of pending political appointments in the state that may be loaded with questionable intentions.”

Alhaji Umar expressed the legacy parties’ frustration and marginalisation under the current APC leadership in the state.

Said he: “Our frustration has more than ever before made us more united in our coalition’s efforts of electing in the state only progressively minded people that can be scolded as at when due as against the present unfortunate order where elected representatives are answerable only to an individual outside their constituencies.

“The national leadership of APC should avoid any disastrous outing of APC in 2019 in Kwara State by quickly reorganising the party in the state.

“Our marginalisation coupled with few nominal party positions ‘awarded’ to a select few of our legacy members shall no longer be tolerated.

“The legacy groups of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), CPC, ANPP with the nPDP in the state was window-dressed believing that proper and effective integration will take place after the 2015 general elections.

Thing suddenly took a dramatic turn and the PDP leadership in the state exhibited what they are best known for-politics of exclusion, discrimination, marginalization and hatred.”

Also speaking at the weekend, the VON boss, Okechukwu, a chieftain of the APC described the appointment of Tinubu, who is the national leaders of the APC, as chairman of APC Reconciliation Committee as a milestone for the ruling party in the country.

Entertaining questions from journalists in Enugu at the sideline of a meeting of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers, Rice Agricultural Programme, Mr. Okechukwu said the appointment of Mr. Tinubu by President Muhammadu Buhari, to lead APC reconciliation committee was timely and a milestone.

He maintained that only a person of Tinubu’s calibre could reconcile all the intra-party feuds in APC, adding that he provided the critical supplement for APC’s victory in 2015.

“It is a milestone. I salute Mr. President for appointing our national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to head such a crucial committee. It is timely and a welcome development.

He was one of the core architects of the merger which gave birth to the APC and has the Midas touch to stitch the torn parts. Let’s be honest there are intra-disputes which need a man of Asiwaju’s calibre to fix.”