Adams Oshiomhole, a former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has revealed some of the events that led to his removal from office.
He spoke specifically on his battle with the party’s governors.Oshiomhole served as the APC chairman from 2018 to 2020. He was removed following a turbulent relationship with the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) and his battle with his former protege, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.The former chairman, currently the senator for Edo North, spoke at the launch of a book “APC and Transition Politics,” authored by Salihu Lukman, a former national vice chairman (North-west) of the party, at the Shehu Yar’Adua Center in Abuja on Tuesday.Lukman, a former director general of the PGF, played a leading role in the campaign that led to the removal of Oshiomhole and two other national chairmen of the party; Mai Mala Buni and Abdullahi Adamu.The author also openly opposed the emergence of the current national chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje. He accused the former Kano State governor of having moral and corruption baggage that makes him unfit to occupy the party’s top seat.Despite the history between the two, Ganduje was present at the event and even donated N10 million to buy some copies of the book.In his goodwill remarks, Oshiomhole, a former Edo State, who spoke for 54 minutes, disclosed all the behind-the-scenes events in the days leading to his removal as head of the party and the role of the governors. Oshiomhole said the author alongside some governors spearheaded the campaign that led to his “illegal” removal from office.He specifically fingered former governors of Ekiti and Ogun State, Kayode Fayemi and Ibikunle Amosun, respectively, for instigating his removal. He alleged that the governors deployed all manner of illegal means to remove him following his moves to enshrine party supremacy.Fayemi, who was at the time chairman of the Nigeria Governor’s Forum (NGF), was seated while Oshiomhole was making the allegations.The former Edo governor said the governors wanted to dictate to him how to run the affairs of the party.“Lukman wrote several letters, dismissing my leadership without calling me. When you ride on the back of a tiger, there is only one destination. Lukman was appointed undemocratically by the governors’ forum. I was not consulted—I was a governor. We were told this is the new DG of the APC governors forum.“Lukman was there when I wrote a letter, inviting the governors for a meeting to discuss the guidelines for conducting primaries, let me know the thinking of the various interest groups. I have discussed it with the president, and I needed to discuss it with the governors—so that once the guidelines are out, the party can claim ownership of it because it has been debated.“I wrote to the governors for a meeting. The governors said no, I should come to Imo House, not the APC office. He (Lukman) was there (where they were holding the meeting). He did not see anything wrong with that,” Oshiomhole said.Speaking on the atmosphere at the meeting with the governors, Oshiomhole said, “It felt as though I was in a military barrack.”He said, following the diatribes from the governors, “None of you can lecture me about the power of a governor. Because I have been governor twice. Eight years uninterrupted. At a point, I told Fayemi, ‘You did a resit. You were elected and by the second term, you lost. That means you failed’. I did not do a resit, and you are lecturing me about power. I can mention some of them.“The man in Ogun State, he told me if not for the president, he would have left the party. Some of them told me “You are working for your paymaster in Lagos. Your paymaster in Bourdillon.“I told the Ogun State governor, not the current one, the former one. I said “You are not loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari. Because if you are, when Buhari lost the election, you ported to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in search of a political greener pasture. “You begged Asiwaju to beg Segun Osoba to accept you when you lost in the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP). And today, you are coming to say that you are loyal, what manner of loyalty is that? This is what you call opportunism,” Oshiomhole said.The former chairman also disclosed that Buhari did not intervene to stop the onslaught from the governors. He, therefore, warned Ganduje to be prepared because, according to him, the governors are going to play the same card against him.“Chairman sir, if you have not faced it already, you will face it. The only difference is if the president decides to intervene and moderate. In my own case, we have a president who was not ready to intervene,” he said.Oshiomhole’s speech was delivered with humour and was periodically interrupted by applause from the audience.No money for partyHe also disclosed that under his watch, the APC did not receive money from the governors, but rather funded campaigns across the country.According to him, the party gifted Kwara State N800 million to support the “O to ge” movement that led to the victory of the party in the state.Speaking on the book, Oshiomhole, a former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said the author’s fixation on ills and deliberate disregard of the good done by others is a thing of concern.