Oshiomhole inherited the crisis in APC, says Ebegbulem

Chief John Odigie-Oyegun is one of the elders of this country that I respect so much, he has been there before as National Chairman of APC and it is funny to hear some of the things he says today. Most of the things he says today, he couldn’t do them when he was National Chairman of the party. He actually created the mess Oshiomhole was trying to clear. Most of these crises they are talking about in several states were created by the Oyegun-led NWC.

There was no party when Oshiomhole came, Oshiomhole came to manage the crisis that was created. But for Oshiomhole, a lot more people would have left the APC as at the time Saraki and others left.

He held down a lot of them down and negotiated with them. Look at Rivers, the crisis was there before Oshiomhole came in, the crisis in Imo state APC was there before Oshiomhole came, the crisis in Zamfara was already there before Oshiomhole came, it was just that they now became manifest and escalated because the party was already going into elections when Oshiomhole came in and it now looked as if these crises arose when he was the National Chairman. That is not true at all.

Oshiomhole inherited all of them and had been managing them. These crises were created by individuals due to their ambitions in the various states. APC under Oshiomhole was intact apart from some few selfish individuals who were already thinking about 2023 presidential election and started this plot immediately President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in for his second term.

They don’t mean well for the party, they don’t mean well for Mr. President, they are the ones trying to distract the president and Oshiomhole was saying no, we must run the party according to the constitution and ensure that we support our president to deliver what he promised Nigerians.

—Ebegbulem is the Commissioner for Special Projects in Imo State and former Chief Press Secretary to Oshiomhole.