Uwoghiren: How APC can resolve Edo crisis

Jefferson Uwoghiren is a lawyer and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State. In this interview with OSAGIE OTABOR, he speaks on the crisis in the chapter and how it can be resolved.

 

The crisis in Edo APC is getting worse by the day. What is your take on the dimension the crisis is taking?

It is getting very clear that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s role as National Chairman of the APC is degenerating into this kind of heat and topsy-turvy relationship within and outside Edo State.

It is not surprising that we are witnessing this type of crisis. For a lot of persons who are not from this state and do not have the opportunity to interact with him personally and assess him closely, the former governor, unfortunately, has never hidden his inability to manage men and material in the manner the members of the APC ascribed to him.

He never had that potential. The crisis in Edo State is expanding in scope and if care is not taken, it will lead to monumental embarrassment to everybody.

It is very frightening now that we now have allegations and counter-allegations of bombing and explosives being bandied by persons and actors involved in this crisis. It is the first time a state governor is accusing the National Chairman of his own political party of organising criminals of this kind of heinous conduct.

Making the state ungovernable by use of explosives and attempt to destroy homes of political opponents and then blame it on government. It is a shameful deterioration of the relationship and it boils down to one fact that Oshiomhole has lost control of the party.

He has lost his relevance. He has shown that he has become a divisive and not a uniting figure within the party. His continuous presence will lead to more schism, more division, more crises, more violence and possibly more deaths within the party.

Some persons are ascribing the problem to Governor Obaseki that was supposed to bring Party members together.

The governor as the leader of the party is a victim of a calculated campaign of calumny designed, managed and sustained or funded by the same persons we are talking about. Who are you bringing together? We have had instances where people disappointed with the party or government in the state, they will decamp after expressing their disappointment.

Why are thy forming parallel structures across the state? What is their intention? They now have the Edo Peoples Movement which is against the spirit of the constitution of this party. It is not the first people are disenchanted with government and political party in this state.

They don’t mobilise thugs or infantry division to make the government ungovernable. If anybody is telling you the governor was not able to bring them together, it is not true. The real cause of the thing is that they could not sustain the kind of patronage they had with the former governor.

This is the policy of appeasement and giving patronage without adding value. They didn’t find that in Obaseki. A lot of persons were given the opportunity to undertake contracts then, go and check whether those contracts took place.

In the schools, they said they put a red roof but where are the chairs? Is it the roof that matters to the children or the teachers and the learning environment? Oshiomhole was interested in removing the roofs of schools but not interested in changing the chairs the students will sit on and learn.

He was not interested in training the teachers to ensure they teach the children properly. A school is not the roof alone. It is the importation process that takes place within the school. It is not the building the makes a church. It is the sermon.

It is the learning structure that makes a school. Parents are now returning their children back to public schools because of the massive investments in the schools ensuring that our kids are now able to learn properly. You hardly find any political leader sending their children to public schools here.

They created schools they cannot send their children to. It was just deception. They knew nothing was happening in those schools. They could not sustain that legacy of deception with Obaseki and here you find them saying Obaseki was not able to bring them together.

Can red oil and water mix together? People who have taken politics as a career and not service as the major bedrock of their involvement in politics will always complain.

How do you think this APC crisis will end?

The first step is for President Buhari to realise that the decision to make Oshiomhole National Chairman of the APC was a horrible decision. It was a misadventure to replace Oyegun with Oshiomhole.

If you notice, from June 23 when Oshiomhole took over the party, it has not had peace. Less than four months after he became National Chairman, Oshiomhole was arrested by the DSS and detained for two days on fraud allegations.

That was a big embarrassment. A lot of party chieftains begged. He is not the first person to be national chairman of a political party. Oshiomhole’s leadership of this party is the second phase of the APC and it is the most disgraceful phase so far.

How will history judge Oshiomhole intervention in the APC? You can use deception to gain political power, but you cannot use deception to sustain it. Oshiomhole used deception to gain the national chairmanship seat, but he has even unable to use deception to sustain that office.

He has been unable to use deception to win over everybody. His hallow intellectual capacity and management skills have been noticeable to all. They know he does not have the rudimentary and elementary capacity to manage a great party like the APC.

It is a big mistake. The earlier the mistake is corrected, the better for the APC because Oshiomhole’s conduct is reflective of the kind of leadership we project.

Oshiomhole’s behaviour is a subject of discussion in diplomatic quarters, in security quarters and outside this country.

The earlier we realised that this man does not have the necessary capacity to sustain the kind of anti-corruption fight of President Buhari, the earlier we realised that Oshiomhole does not have the capacity to bring peace to the APC. He does not have the capacity to unite the different contending factors within APC, the better for all of us.

Who should make the truce? Oshiomhole, Buhari or Obaseki?

When a man has vowed to bring down the roof of a house, you cannot wait for him to bring truce because a mad man is not as ashamed as his relations. President Buhari, Ogbonnaya Onu and others have a role in stopping the nonsense that is happening; this rubbish and threat to life.

Read Also: PDP chairman says party better positioned to reclaim Edo

They have a lot to do to clear the present danger threatening the Edo APC. This is not the first time we are having a national chairman from Edo. Chief Tom Ikimi was national chairman, the late Chief Anenih was the National Chairman of the SDP when Oyegun was governor of this state.

He became National Chairman of the PDP when Lucky Igbinedion was governor of the state. They had a disagreement but no issue suspension. Oyegun was National Chairman of the APC when Oshiomhole was governor.

In Ward Two, where Oyegun comes from, it was Oshiomhole’s boy that was controlling the ward. Oyegun didn’t bring the roof down. Oyegun did not say that as the National Chairman, he will control his local government. He accepted things and allowed them to be. What is Oshiomhole’s interest in Edo?

There is the argument that Obaseki should understand that Oshiomhole is the National Chairman and leader of the party…

Oshiomhole is the leader of the party nationwide and Obaseki is the leader in Edo State. Oshiomhole does not have dual leadership. He cannot be the leader in Abuja and also be the leader in Edo.

That is not possible. That is an invitation to anarchy. When Oyegun was National Chairman, Oshiomhole was the leader of the party in Edo State. Did Oshiomhole allow Oyegun to be the leader of the party even in Oyegun’s ward.

Did he allow him to be the leader in Oredo Local Government where Oyegun comes from? Did he allow him to be the leader of Edo South or the state? You cannot continue to shift the goal post because it suits you now. People are too educated for that politics.

A man who has 36 states to contend with as a leader is fighting over one small part. He feels he can bring down this party because of his inordinate ambition. The whole thing will collapse on him. When it happens very soon, those same persons will abandon him.

Do you think the PDP will benefit from this crisis?

The PDP has nothing to reap from the crisis because it is dead and buried in Edo. They lost it 100 over 100 in the last election. PDP had nothing to reap.

If they choose to sit aside like vultures waiting for carcasses, they will die of hunger. Anybody who leaves the APC now to go to the PDP as the basis for reviving the PDP is missing his step. The APC will come out stronger. Obaseki will win the ticket and he will be governor for the second term.

There are four other aspirants on the APC ticket?

How many aspirants were there when Obaseki becomes governor? Check your history. Did he not defeat them? I have respect for the aspirants like Airhiavbere, Ogiemwonyi, Odubu and Pastor Ize-Iyamu. Obaseki defeated all of them.

They are not strangers. They are not a threat to Obaseki. My prayer is for the issue to be resolved quickly and timely so that they can work with Obaseki. They have a lot to contribute to Edo State but they are being mismanaged from Iyamho.

They ought to be leading people like that and not the person leading them. Oshiomhole does not have what it takes to lead somebody like them.

Oshiomhole may be standing on the shoulders of a giant but he is still a political pigmy. He cannot lead these giants. Oshiomhole’s mistake will be corrected very soon.

Will those 14 members-elect ever be back to the assembly?

They lost a chance to be in the Assembly. The elected gentlemen are now struggling to refer themselves as members-elect. We have passed the issue of the proclamation.

The issue is whether they are member-elect in perpetuity or how long they can remain as members-elect. You can see how inordinate ambition has reduced them.

These are persons who were validly elected by their people. They said they will not go to the House because the proclamation was not properly issued.

They choose to walk away. Their seat was declared vacant and they said they have no seat in the first instant ever. There was no seat to be declared vacant.