Blame Game: How Oshiomhole is Tearing APC Apart

It will be of no surprise if the All Progressives Congress, APC loses woefully at the 2023 polls, no thanks to its numerous internal crises, and the unpalatable arrogance of its chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

In 2015, the APC capitalised on the negligence of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to emerge the ruling party, but rather than learn from the mistakes of the then President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s led PDP, the APC, under the leadership of Oshiomhole, seems to be the worst.

No doubt, the PDP failed to dominate the 2015 general elections due to many internal crises it was facing, and the exodus of key members to the opposition party. Considering the face-offs between Oshiomhole and many gladiators of the APC, the party is already threading the path of PDP.

Unfortunately, rather than admit his mistakes, correct them and move forward, Oshiomhole usually adopts to play the blame game, accusing others of his own inefficiencies. 

Recently, the APC’s former national chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, accused Oshiomhole of contributing largely to the misfortune the party has suffered recently. The party recorded major losses in the last governorship elections, the latest being its loss of all positions in Zamfara State.

According to Oyegun, “Oshiomhole fails because he lacks the temperament that is required to run a political party. He lacks the capacity to manage the different interests and tendencies that constitute a political party.

“He acts in direct opposite of decisions taken by NWC (National Working Committee). No minutes of NWC meetings which, in any event, take place outside the party secretariat. How would you not have crises in states with the confusion that Oshiomhole created when he gave the states freedom to choose their methods of choosing candidates for elections?

“Much of the crisis in states arose out of sheer incapacity on the part of the current chairman. How does this Oshiomhole’s incapacity become traps by Oyegun? He (Oshiomhole) engages his mouth before engaging his mind, so he offends party members.”

However, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, who reacted on behalf of Oshiomhole, countered that “I would put the painful outcomes broadly under two reasons. One is indiscipline on the part of some members of our party in most of the states. The second reason is that the party leadership did not do much between 2015 and 2018 to move the party from being an amalgam of different political parties to become a truly blended progressive political party.”

He explained further that “The leadership under Chief Oyegun, with due respect to him, condoned all sorts of acts of indiscipline from certain members. It is not surprising that the current National Working Committee inherited such a huge mess, where the party was struggling to differentiate itself from the delinquent PDP. We all know that PDP was practically dead following the devastating defeat of 2015. The PDP bounced back not because the party has changed its insidious way or did anything different, but because APC did not live up to expectations.

“It goes without saying that when an organisation is unable to enforce its own rules, it would suffer the consequences sooner than later. We should not be ashamed to say that our party’s leadership under Chief Oyegun lacked the courage required to confront the pockets of political despots who could not operate by the party’s rules.”

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