Following the statement on the above caption, which I issued on Friday, March 10, 2023, on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 I featured on Africa Independent Television (AIT) Jigsaw, hosted by Mr. Gbenga Aruleba. While on the show, I reiterated my call for our National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore to vacate their positions in the interest of the country, our party and as a demonstration of strong support for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President-elect to proceed with the business of constituting an inclusive Federal Government led by him come May 29, 2023.
While in the case of the National Chairman, Sen. Adamu, the call is necessitated by the need to douse ethnic and religious tension in the country because of the desperate campaigns led by PDP and LP during the Presidential election, the case of Sen. Omisore is necessitated by his inability to provide the needed leadership in Osun, which cost us the 2022 Osun Governorship election. I further supported my call for Sen. Omisore to vacate his position as the National Secretary with the demand for accountability around the management of campaign funds provided by the party, which was delivered through Sen. Omisore.
In response, Sen. Omisore has sent abusive messages and requested his lawyer, Mr. Gboyega Oyewole, SAN, FCArb to ask me to retract my statement, make public apology and pay him the sum of N500 million in compensation for some alleged damages to “his character in the eyes of right-thinking Nigerians.” I am in receipt of the letter from Lords & Temple, signed by Mr. Oyewole, dated 15th March, 2023 (the letter was actually wrongly 15th March 2022).
Since Sen. Omisore’s response to the request for accountability is to threaten legal action, I have also instructed my lawyers to respond appropriately to his legal threat. However, as a committed party member I insist that the challenges facing us as a party and as a nation are broadly political and limiting our actions to the courts may only distract us from initiating the right responses to resolve the challenge of facilitating negotiations for inclusive government under the leadership of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I want to restate that being leaders of the party, we are obligated to facilitate negotiations through our structures, namely National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Caucus. Unfortunately, as things are, these structures have been frozen by our inactions as members of the National Working Committee (NWC) led by Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore. No meetings of these structures have taken place for almost. In ability to make these structures functional will weaken the capacity to regulate the conduct of party leaders and we risk creating a situation whereby challenges of inclusivity will be further compounded in the country. Already, individual Senators-elect and House of Representative members-elect have begun to aspire to positions of Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives in a very insensitive and reckless manner.
May I once again remind all of us, both as leaders and APC members, that APC is a product of sacrifices and more than ever before the challenges we face today calls for sacrifices. Both our National Chairman, Sen. Adamu and National Secretary, Sen. Omisore must demonstrate willingness to make sacrifices to earn the respect and followership of Senators-elect and House of Representative members-elect.
I make this appeal respectfully and without any ill-feeling to anyone, including Sen. Omisore. I stand by my position that Sen. Omisore is unable to unite party leaders and members in Osun State, which is responsible for why we lost the election. He is opposed to any demand for accountability and is resorting to acts of intimidation to perhaps manipulate processes of appointment into the Asiwaju-led Federal Government. What makes democracy attractive is the requirement for accountability and Sen. Omisore must be held accountable. We need to have accountable leaders to the process of negotiations to be facilitated by the party.
Finally, after 24 years of interrupted democracy, we must not shy away from initiatives that will strengthen internal contest within our party, APC. Part of the big challenge of Nigeria’s democracy is that internal contest is being destroyed. As a result, we produced situations where some leaders act as tyrants. Anyone who expresses views that are not in harmony with thinking of some leaders is condemned. This attitude is responsible for the destruction of PDP as a party and is gradually being entrenched in our party. There should be conscious effort to call these leaders to order!
Both as party leaders and Nigerians, we must wake up to the reality that negotiation to form the next APC government under the leadership of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu must depart from the conventional approach of allowing leaders to emerge based on individual aspirations. We cannot risk any further complication of entrenchment of the existing religiously lopsided Muslim-Muslim identity of Asiwaju Tinubu and Sen. Shettima. No legal threat should distract us from addressing this challenge.
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
