- Directs Oshiomhole to Reconcile feuding parties…
- APC Sets Up Nation-wide Reconciliations Team
By Hamilton Nwosa (Head, The New Diplomat’s Poll Tracking Desk)
Ahead of 2023 Presidential polls, President Muhammadu Buhari has pointedly told members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that he is not interested in either seeking a third term or a constitutional amendment that would afford him the opportunity of running for another Presidential term in Office.
President Buhari who reportedly stated this today at the APC National Executive Committee(NEC) meeting urged all feuding political office holders, especially elective Office holders to sheath their swords, respect one another and abide by the ethics and rules of constitutional democracy which entail consensus-building, reconciliation and mutual respect for one another.
Buhari who also urged Party members to respect the leadership of the APC led by Comrade Adams  Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo State further directed the APC leadership to immediately set-up a nation-wide reconciliation committee to, among other things, help galvanize peace-building and reconciliation, stressing that it is imperative for the APC to win  forthcoming elections across the country. Earlier on, the APC national chairman had briefed the NEC about the current state of  the party. He was said to have harped on the party’s recent electoral victory in the Bayelsa State governorship elections, while emphasizing that the APC was confident of winning more States in all up-coming polls across the country.
Multiple sources confided in the The New Diplomat that the evident tension that had enveloped the party ahead of its National Executive Committee(NEC) meeting today have eased substantially following Buhari’s  intervention and directive to all feuding combatants to resolve their differences amicably. The decision of the party’s NEC to also repose its confidence on the national leadership of the party may have  also helped doused growing tension among warring members, a source added.
Sources at the meeting told The New Diplomat that President Buhari who expressed confidence in the ability of the party’s leadership under Comrade Oshiomhole to restore enduring peace and boost more electoral victories for the APC was, however, emphatic on the need for mutual respect among one another as elected office holders across the country.
Among those present at the NEC meeting were Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, serving governors, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Idris Wase, national officers of the APC, principal officers of State, among others.
Party sources revealed the latest Buhari-inspired rapprochement among the two-feuding camps (pro-Oshiomhole and anti-Oshiomhole) may have  left those opposed to Oshiomhole dramatically saddened that “ the pendulum didn’t swing their way at the meeting.” There had been palpable tension at the National Secretariat of the APC ahead of the party’s NEC meeting today. The likely political permutations had been quite difficult to predict by many who feared that the un-abating anger unleashed on Comrade Oshiomhole by his home State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, was becoming a political albatross for the party. All efforts to broker a political truce among the combatants have been thwarted by festering army of supporters on both side of the political divide.
The consequence is that Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, an impregnable and resilient political war-horse who recently decamped to the APC is being tipped to square up to Governor Obaseki in next year’s governorship election. Both Obaseki and Ize-Iyamu are both Binis, thus leaving Edo North where Oshiomhole hails from and Edo Central (Esan, where late elder-statesman, eminent journalist and foremost pre-independence nationalist, Chief Anthony Enahoro’s, the Adolo of Uromi, hails from) to play decisive roles in the battle for the soul of Edo State.
Details to follow…
