A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
says he has not taken any decision to run for president in 2023 contrary to
speculations.
He said rather, he was more concerned about the health and
economic challenges facing the country at the moment.
Tinubu said this in a statement issued on Saturday while
reacting to comments that the dissolution of the party’s National Working
Committee had ended his purported 2023 ambitions.
He described the comments as distasteful, saying “already, you
have assigned colourful epitaphs to the 2023 death of an alleged political
ambition that is not yet even born”.
According to him, rather than politicking, he has been spending
his time trying to think of helpful ideas and policies to help in solving the
myriad of problems in the country.
“During this period, I have not busied myself with politicking
regarding 2023. I find that a bit distasteful and somewhat uncaring
particularly when so many of our people have been unbalanced by the twin public
health and economic crises we face. I have devoted these last few months to
thinking of 8 policies that may help the nation in the here and now. What I may
or may not do 3 years hence seems too remote given present exigencies,” the
statement read in part.
Read the full statement below.
THE FULL STATEMENT: BECOMING THE PARTY WE WERE INTENDED TO BE
I wish to begin my remarks by commending members of the National Working
Committee. Under their collective stewardship, the party earned great and
important victories, not least the vital second mandate handed to President
Buhari. President Buhari’s victory, and the overall electoral success of APC
speak highly of them. Our task as a party is to build upon the progress thus
made so that both nation and party may advance to their better future.
Yet, we must acknowledge that something important has gone off track. For
some months we have experienced growing disagreement within the leadership of
the party. This unfortunate competition had grown so intense as to impair the
performance of the NWC, thus undermining the internal cohesion and discipline
vital to success.
Some people have gone so far as to predict the total disintegration of
our party. Most such dire predictions were from critics whose forecasts said
more about their ill will than they revealed about our party’s objective
condition. Predictions of the APC’s imminent demise are premature and mostly
mean-spirited. However, an honest person must admit the party had entered a
space where it had no good reason to be.
The trouble is not that we would forfeit our collective existence but
whether we were in danger of losing our collective purpose. In some ways, this
possibility is of greater concern. A political party that has lost sight of the
reason for its existence becomes but the vehicle of blind and clashing
ambitions. This is not what drove the APC’s creation.
Those who believe Nigeria can be forged into a better nation and deserves
good governance must harken back to the establishment of our party. Those who
were there and contributed the most to the party’s genesis embraced a common
vision. Not only did we believe the venal, purblind PDP was leading the nation
into a pit, we sincerely held a common vision of progressive good governance.
This was the overriding reason for the APC.
Those most intimately involved in founding the party remain faithful to
this benign, timely assignment. Sadly, many members have lost their balance.
Their personal ambition apparently came to greatly outweigh the obvious
national imperatives.
Even in the best of times, Nigeria is beset by myriad challenges. Poverty
and economic inequality, insecurity, lack of infrastructure are longstanding
obstacles that have blocked our access to national greatness for too long.
Through no fault of our own, we now live in a moment of heightened
difficulty. We did not ask for COVID-19 but it has found us. We must deal with
it and navigate its rude economic consequences. At the same time we must
grapple with the violent insecurity caused by increasingly desperate terrorists
and criminals. People need concrete help from us. We must focus on building
roads and creating jobs. For the average man, watching politicians wrestle for
position is a poor substitute to seeing politicians working for the benefit of all.
Yet, such intramural fighting has come to occupy the attention of many
high ranking party officials and members.
The National Working Committee, itself, became riven by unnecessary
conflict. Those who disagreed with one another stopped trying to find common
ground. Attempts were made to use the power of executive authority to bury each
other. I must be blunt here. This is the behaviour of a fight club not the
culture of a progressive political party.
Some members went against their chairman in a bid to forcefully oust him.
In hindsight, his fence-mending attempts were perhaps too little too late. I
believed and continue to believe that Comrade Oshiomhole tried his best.
Mistakes were made and he must own them. Yet, we must remember also that he was
an able and enthusiastic campaigner during the 2019 election. He is a man of
considerable ability as are the rest of you who constituted the NWC.
It had been my hope that the disagreements could be resolved. After all,
a political solution should not be beyond the ken of leaders of a major
political party. But such resolution has failed to materialise. It was as if
some unseen but strong force continued to stoke the embers. Instead of calling
a prudent ceasefire, too many people sought more destructive weapons against
one another.
Order, party discipline and mutual respect went out of the window.
Members instituted all manner of court cases, most of them destructive, some of
them frivolous, none of them necessary. In the process, a dense fog fell upon
our party.
When this matter first came to a boil a few months ago, I issued a
statement against this litigious tendency. President Buhari and former interim
chairman Akande published strong words against this misuse of the courts as
being contrary to the spirit of the party and the letter of its constitution.
Each of us knew nothing good would come of such conduct. Instead of listening
to this counsel, party members increased their trips to the courts. While busy
providing ample livelihood for a gaggle of lawyers, these actions cast the good
of the party to the wind.
After the fusillade of lawsuits and countersuits, two NWC members laid
competing claims to the chairmanship. One legitimately elected at our national
convention; the latter whose claim was based on the questionable suspension of
the former.
With lawsuits so numerous one needed a spreadsheet to keep track,
President Buhari has reasonably decided that he has seen enough.
I do not lament his intervention or its outcome. I lament that the
situation degenerated to the point where he felt compelled to intervene.
President Buhari is much more than a mere beneficiary of the party. He is
one of its founding fathers. The APC does not exist in its current form without
his singular contributions. That is not opinion; it is an undisputed fact.
Given these antecedents, he cares about the condition of the party as any
parent would care for its offspring. President Buhari has done what any parent
in his position and with his authority would do. The more troubling consideration
is that so many trusted people acted in such a way as to force the president to
put aside the issues of statecraft in order to address these problems.
The President has spoken and his decision has been accepted. It is now
beholden on all of us, as members of the APC, to recommit ourselves to the
ideals and principles on which our party was founded. While we recognize that
people have personal ambitions, those ambitions are secondary, not sacrosanct.
Members must subordinate their ambitions to health and well-being of the party.
Never should our party be defined by one person’s interests or even the amalgam
of all members’ individual interests. A successful party must be greater than
the sum of its parts.
In this vein, I appeal to all former members of the National Working
Committee and all members of our party to sheathe their swords and look to the
larger picture.
We have governorship elections around the corner in Edo and a primary and
elections in Ondo. On these important events we must concentrate our immediate
energies. In the longer run, we must restore the collegial nature to the party
so that it should be in the practice of coming to support the President instead
of him having to rescue the party from itself.
In Edo, we must rally round our candidate Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu. In
this, Comrade Oshiomhole has a crucial role to play. I congratulate him for his
equanimity and loyalty to the party and our President in accepting the
dissolution of the NWC. I encourage him, now, to return to Edo State to energise
the campaign for the election of Pastor Ize-Iyamu.
In Ondo, we must set the procedures for primaries and conduct that
exercise in a fair, transparent manner that shows the Nigerian people the party
has left turmoil behind.
In addition to the daily operation of the party, the Caretaker Committee
has the mandate to prepare for a mini national convention within six months. We
must give the committee the support needed to fulfil this assignment in an
impartial manner.
As I understand it, no one has been precluded from seeking any party
office to which he is otherwise eligible. Former NWC members are free to seek
re-election to the NWC. Provided they have the support of party members, they
will have an opportunity to return to serve the party in a leadership capacity.
This reflects our overriding desire to restore and maintain internal democracy
not subvert it.
To those who have been actively bleating how the President’s actions and
the NEC meeting have ended my purported 2023 ambitions, I seek your pity. I am
but a mere mortal who does not enjoy the length of foresight or political
wisdom you profess to have. Already, you have assigned colourful epitaphs to
the 2023 death of an alleged political ambition that is not yet even born.
At this extenuating moment with COVID-19 and its economic fallout
hounding us, I cannot see as far into the distance as you. I have made no
decision regarding 2023 for the concerns of this hour are momentous enough.
During this period, I have not busied myself with politicking regarding
2023. I find that a bit distasteful and somewhat uncaring particularly when so
many of our people have been unbalanced by the twin public health and economic
crises we face. I have devoted these last few months to thinking of policies
that may help the nation in the here and now. What I may or may not do 3 years
hence seems too remote given present exigencies.
Those who seek to cast themselves as political Nostradamus’ are free to
so engage their energies. I trust the discerning public will give the views of
such eager seers the scant weight such divinations warrant.
Personally, I find greater merit trying to help in the present by
offering policy ideas, both privately and publicly, where I think they might
help. I will continue in this same mode for the immediate future. 2023 will
answer its own questions in due time.
I have toiled for this party as much as any other person and perhaps more
than most. Despite this investment or perhaps due to it, I have no problem with
making personal sacrifices (and none of us should have such a problem) as long
as the party remains true to its progressive, democratic creed. Politics is but
a vehicle to arrive at governance. Good politics promotes good governance. Yet,
politics is also an uncertain venture. No one gets all they want all the time.
In even a tightly-woven family, differences and competing interests must be
balanced and accommodated.
My fellow party members who now feel aggrieved by the NEC meeting I urge
you to accept the sacrifice you have been asked to make so that the air can be
cleared, the party can assume its proper role of helping this government lead
the nation toward enlightened improvement, and the party itself can grow and
firmly establish itself as the best, most democratic party in the land.
SIGNED
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
27 June 2020.
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