By Gbenga Abulude
Immediate past Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has berated the Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), Dr Salihu Lukman for attacking him and issuing statements that discredit his personality.
Oshiomhole reacted to the DG’s attack on Monday at the Presidential Villa after his meeting with President Muhammed Buhari.
Lukman had said Oshiomhole, who is a former Governor of Edo, was pushing for the APC victory in the Edo State governorship election so as to plot his way back to the APC national chairmanship position.
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Reacting, Oshiomhole said he would not want to wrestle with a ‘pig’, referring to Lukman as a failed politician.
The former APC Chairman who was visibly angry at Lukman’s comments, said he was foisted on the Progressives Governors’ Forum as DG by the Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, after failing elections.
He said, “You want me to engage in a fight with a pig? If you engage in a fight with a pig, the pig already is stained by its nature and you will wear your white garment, and in my own case, khaki to go and wrestle with a pig? I will not.
“You see, what I want the media to interrogate, how does winning Edo Governorship elections has to do with, when I was removed as national chairman? Edo was APC when I was chairman of the party. So, do I have to win Edo (State) to become the chairman? Do I look so unemployed? I am 68.
“So, what they don’t understand is that, it is not the office of chairman that made me who I am. It is my pedigree from my days as labourer in the textile industry to be the general secretary of textile workers all over Nigeria and becoming the president of NLC.
“There is no village I go to that people do not know me and it is this that I used to override the Godfathers in Edo State for two consecutive terms and even got the governor elected through elections, no violence before becoming the national chairman.
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“So, if you remove the office, it is like our President now, though I cannot compare myself to him, but it is like President Muhammadu Buhari.
“He bonds with the people, that bond was not created by the fact that he is the president. In fact, he became the president because of that bond.
“So, it takes an empty brain to suggest that Oshiomhole wants to stage a come back to become the national chairman. For what? To go and do a resit?
“So, my attitude is not to reply the noise and it is coming from somebody who says he is an employee and appointee of Progressives Governors Forum. He is just like the cowards that are using him that are not able to come out. Otherwise, you should ask this guy, who is now an election expert.
“He contested for senate against Makarfi, he lost. He even contested against Governor El-rufai during the primaries and he lost, before Fayemi unilaterally appointed him as DG.
“So, if he is now the spokesman abusing me and all of that, you want to drag me to his level? No! A gentleman does not wrestle with a pig, if you do you will always be stained and I don’t want to get into that”, Oshiomhole said.
Again, while responding to Oshiomhole’s outburst, Tuesday, DG PGF, Lukman said he holds him in high esteem and would not want to join issues with him.
He said, “I respect him, not just as a leader of APC, but as a person. I have had very good relationship with him and my relationship with him is special. My relationship with him is not in the way people imagined. The question of agreeing or disagreeing has been part of our relationship. I respect him and I respect every leader of the party.
“My prayer and hope is that our leaders will be able to have the needed large heart to tolerate one another and tolerate all of us because as human beings, God has created us differently. And it is the basis of the test of leadership – to be able to show an open, accommodating disposition to each one of us.”
