Former chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, has decried that the ruling APC has brazenly subverted its own principles of internal democracy which President Muhammadu Buhari was known for.
Odigie-Oyegun stated this in reacting to the leadership crisis that has engulfed the APC following a court of appeal order upholding the suspension of Adams Oshiomhole as national chairman of the party.
While Abiola Ajimobi, a former Oyo governor, has been declared as acting chairman, Victor Giadom, APC national secretary, said he is in charge of the party.
In a statement on Saturday, Oyegun said in the past few months, the party has “brazenly subverted” its own principles of internal democracy.
The former chairman said APC’s victory at the 2015 presidential poll and the peaceful transfer of power that followed is a major testament of progress in the nation’s democracy but while other African countries have marched forward, Nigeria is “regressing.”
“Our own political party, the APC, is fast becoming the single most dangerous threat to the legacy of our government and our president,” he said.
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“In the last few months, we have watched how the party has brazenly subverted its own principles of internal democracy and flagrant violation of every rule of decent political engagement in a manner that makes everyone associated with its promise of change liable to be accused of either hypocrisy or apostasy.
“We must, therefore, remember that our victory in the 2015 Presidential elections and the peaceful transfer of power that followed was a major testament of progress in our nation’s journey towards real democracy.
“This unprecedented democratic achievement has since inspired progressive forces all over Africa and has become a standard by which democracy is measured in the rest of the continent.
“Unfortunately, it appears that while other countries around us have marched ahead in the democratic journey, we have largely regressed.”
Oyegun said there is a need for the national executive committee (NEC) of the APC to meet and set up a caretaker panel.
“There is a most urgent need for the party NEC to meet and institute for the party a caretaker committee (even if we have to invoke the doctrine of necessity), whose main responsibility will be to arrange for a special national convention,” he said.
The former chairman said it hurts “deeply” to see how hollow it is to mention APC and change together”.
