Senator Shehu Sani (APC-Kaduna Central) said the party would fare very badly in the forthcoming polls if the reconciliation committee led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu fails. President Muhammadu Buhari had charged Tinubu to head a reconciliation committee to assuage the feelings of aggrieved members and create a unified front as the 2019 elections draw closer.
Sani, speaking to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, said, "it is going to be a tragedy if he fails. This is what I know and I can speak in parables". According to him, the Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, is using his proximity to the president to impose his will on the party’s machinery in the state. He said Tinubu’s appointment has halted, for now, the defection of most APC members to other political parties.
Sani said it is no more news that the APC is faced with crises in some states where it holds sway, adding that the crises have defied solutions for over two years.“It is left for Asiwaju to build the bridges. Lagos is known for bridges; therefore we hope that there will be Seventh Mainland Bridge to connect the divide, but we are not sure of this.
"Right now, the party is already divided in Kaduna and it is for the national secretariat to note this and we have said it in clear terms.“The problem has defied solution for two years, but we believe that Asiwaju can do a lot of reconciliation.“We hope that he will be able to achieve a lot, because if he fails, it is going to be doom for the party.
"In the process where reconciliation is taking place now, I think it is in our interest to put our ambitions in our pockets according to what Mr President said and wait for Asiwaju to address the problem,” he said. Sani advised the Tinubu reconciliation team not to take sides but to give equal treatment, especially as far as Kaduna state is concerned, in the interest of the party and its members. He expressed confidence that Tinubu´s appointment could most likely address the fundamental issues that were confronting the party at both the national and state level.
The Senator, however, maintained that nobody could have solved the party´s many problems other than President Buhari through Tinubu. This according to him, was especially so because APC state governors, Senators and members of House of Representatives could not solve the problems because they were all parties to it. He added that even the party at the national level could not solve the problem because there had been disrespect and disregard for the party´s leadership in the last two years.
Sani noted that the very fact that the APC had been inhibited with lack of funds and other challenges, made it impossible for it to bring to order the situation. While noting that the APC crisis started earlier, the Senator said addressing the situation would prevent more damages that could affect its fortunes in 2019.“It is of concern that a party that came to power with so much goodwill, and hope has found itself in a civil war with itself.
"Right now, the APC is both the government and the opposition, because most of the criticism and opposition that is going on in the country is within the APC itself,” he said. Sani blamed the situation in the APC to lack of party supremacy and internal democracy which he said was evident in South Africa and Ethiopia as was recently displayed. The Senator warned that if all party members are not treated equally and fairly, there would be a problem. He recalled that the PDP was not destroyed from the outside, but from the inside, adding that it was the marginalised and oppressed elements within the party that became the final nail in its coffin.
Tags
Politics