APC leadership crisis: Why Akande-led Reconciliation Committee will yield no positive results – Human Rights Activist

A United Kingdom based human rights activist, Taiwo Olaniyi has said efforts of Chief Bisi Akande, the Chairman, Reconciliation Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) may not yield desired results of settling rifts within the party.

Recall that issues concerning the leadership of the ruling party have generated in-fighting in the party with many seeking the removal of the embattled National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

A Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court had recently suspended Oshiomhole pending the determination of a suit seeking his removal as National Chairman of APC.

But in another twist, a Kano Federal High Court set aside the ruling and ordered Oshiomhole to resume office.

This is just one of the numerous court cases involving members of the party and Akande noted that this is not the best for the party’s image. The party chieftain and former governor of Osun State pointed to the party’s constitution which is being undermined by members who decide to approach the court.

In a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen on Sunday morning, Akande warned that members should allow the committee to do its work and should stop seeking judicial intervention in matters under the purview of the special committee.

The statement read in part:

“I have noticed with growing concern the increasing number of court cases being filed pertaining to disputes regarding the leadership of our party, the All Progressives Congress.

“Competition and different views on leadership are inherent in political parties. Thus, the fact that all party members do not agree on all things is not abnormal.

“Politics, after all, is, in significant degree, the art of resolving conflicts and disputes in a manner that strengthens institutions as well as relationships between the people who share those common institutions.

“The APC is a democratic body. This means we seek to resolve internal conflict through dialogue, deliberation and ultimately through open and transparent voting procedures.

“Consequently, I am a bit taken aback by the swift resort to the courts by some members who seek external decisions on what are intrinsically internal matters best determined by the deliberative process that is part and parcel of democratically-oriented party politics..”

However, Olaniyi in a swift response to Akande’s statement said the elder statesman had sold his credibility and that his committee might not achieve anything meaningful to curb the impending explosion in the ruling party before the 2023 elections.

Read Olaniyi’s reaction below:

WHAT IS AKANDE’S COMMITTEE UP TO?

I read with amazement the piece released by Chief Bisi Akande on the ongoing APC Party disputes and I’m not the least disappointed. As usual, it reflects his usual slant towards his destiny helper in any issue concerning the party. Where was the old man when all the iniquities were being perpetrated by Adams Oshiomole with the active connivance of his destiny helper, Asiwaju Tinubu? Is it now that it just dawned on him that compromise and justice need to be applied? Let me state clearly that nobody reposes confidence in Baba Akande if he does not know. Is he not the same person, who, at the behest of his destiny helper, initiated the journey towards imposing Ajimobi as the Deputy Chairman against the tradition that he left behind and was followed overtime by his successor, Oyegun?

BABA, you have sold and lost your credibility and you should stop deceiving yourself. Let me also erase respectfully your ignorance of the provision regarding exhaustion of internal mechanism in the Constitution of APC. By Section 6 of the Constitution of Nigeria, that APC constitution provision has been declared unconstitutional by the courts. See Nyako v. Ardo (2013) LPELR-20848; Jev. v. Iyortyom (2014) All FWLR (Pt. 747) 749 at 773. I will urge you to return home and enjoy the remnant of your years in peace rather than pursuing elusive peace that is utopia. It will remain a mirage in so far as Oshiomole claims to be chairman of the party. How can you produce a bully of Oshiomhole’s character and expect democracy to still inhabit your dictatorially hostile party structure that panders to the whims and caprices of Tinubu and his henchmen?

BABA, your destiny helper without whom you cannot survive is the source of all the afflictions in the party, so how do you intend to bite the finger that feeds you to do justice? Forget it. NA LIE!