Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, one of the closest allies of President Muhammadu Buhari, thursday admitted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was going through a difficult period, but expressed optimism that the party would pull through it soon.
Amosun was believed to have been one of the kingpins behind the election victory of the party in Ondo State.
His comments came on the heels of a fence-mending meeting between the leadership of the party and Senate President Bukola Saraki and other principal officers of the Senate who are members of the party, at the APC national secretariat in Abuja wednesday.
Amosun, who was particularly concerned about the new status being accorded him within political circles since the Ondo election as the new leader of the APC in the South-west, rejected the title, but reiterated his support and loyalty to Buhari and the APC.
Amosun was apparently reacting to the disenchantment within the party over the Ondo governorship election that is threatening to tear the APC apart.
A National Leader of the APC, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, for instance, have been identified as critical chieftains of the party that have opened talks with the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to form a new mega party that would wrest control from the APC in 2019.
In a statement he personally signed, Amosun said: “For the avoidance of doubt, I am not, by any stretch of imagination, the leader or new leader of the APC in the South-west. I am a loyal party member, and I shall stand by our party and of course, with President Muhammadu Buhari. I am also obliged to respect all our leaders in the state, South-west and Nigeria.
“This is the minimum that is required of every party member by custom, and by the constitution of the party. I acknowledge that these are rather difficult times in the life of our party and in the nation.
“I am confident that we shall overcome and our party, the APC, and our dear country will come out even stronger, more viable and united.”
Addressing the issue of his assumption as the new APC leader in the South-west, the governor added: “I have noticed with consternation the recurring misnomer and mis-description in political nomenclature particularly as they relate to the politics of the South-west, and by extension, the country as a whole.
“I refer to the emerging tendency of referring to me and some other members of our great party as the ‘Leader(s) of the South West’ or ‘New Leader(s) of the APC in the South West’.
“When that phrase was first brought to my attention, particularly during the weeks preceding the Ondo State gubernatorial election, my immediate reaction was to ignore same as yet another distractive antics of the opposition.
“Somehow, the misnomer stuck and it came to appear rather more frequently in several other fora and publications, including respectable gatherings and the media.
“Lies and misconceptions, when told and asserted repeatedly with gusto, have the tendency to assume the toga of the truth. It is for these reasons that I have considered it of critical importance to set the records straight.
“As the governor of an APC controlled state, Ogun, I am a huge stakeholder in my party. In all that I do, in the open and in private, the bigger interest of our party remains the guiding principle for my actions, decisions and alliances.
“I grew up in the old Western Region, where loyalty to corporate goal and party supremacy was the hallmark of a true party member, and indeed every citizen.”
Amosun maintained that “true leadership” could not be by conjecture or wishful thinking. “From the template that we inherited from our forbearers, it is usually earned. In political parlance, leadership also evolves. If we take this as our guide, even as governor, I have leaders from my state and at the national level.
“By the grace of God, I currently serve my people as the governor of Ogun State. My total preoccupation and commitment is to continue to deliver the dividends of democracy to the good people of Ogun State that the Almighty God used to give me the opportunity to serve them.
“We will not take the support of our people for granted. We shall work even harder to justify their confidence and, by the grace of God, leave the state better than we met it and in a blaze of glory.
“These, rather than some insensitive, phony and imaginary leadership contest, are my aspirations,” he stated.
