John Ameh with agency report
The senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the Senate, Shehu Sani, has said that avoidable doom awaits the All Progressives Congress at the 2019 polls, should Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu fail to reconcile aggrieved members.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that Sani, a chieftain of the APC, stated this on Sunday in Abuja in an interview with newsmen.
It was his own reaction to Tinubu’s recent appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari to lead the APC team of consultation, reconciliation and confidence-building.
“It is going to be a tragedy if he fails. This is what I know and I can speak in parables,” said Sani who has not been in a good relationship with Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State.
According to him, el-Rufai has pocketed the party and wants to impose his will and unleash terror on members, by exploiting his proximity to the President.
He said Tinubu’s appointment had halted, for now, the defection of most APC members to other political parties.
“It is left for Asiwaju to build the bridges. Lagos is known for bridges; therefore we hope that there will be the Seventh Mainland Bridge to connect the divide, but we are not sure of this.
“Right now, the party is already divided in Kaduna and it is for the national secretariat to note this and we have said it in clear terms.
“The problem has defied solution for two years, but we believe that Asiwaju can do a lot of reconciliation.
“We hope that he will be able to achieve a lot, because if he fails, it is going to be doom for the party.
“In the process where reconciliation is taking place now, I think it is in our interest to put our ambitions in our pockets according to what Mr. President said and wait for Asiwaju to address the problem,” he said.
Sani advised the Tinubu reconciliation team not to take sides but to give equal treatment, especially in Kaduna State, in the interest of the party and its members.
He expressed confidence that Tinubu´s appointment could most likely address the fundamental issues that were confronting the party at both the national and state level.
Meanwhile, a former Kogi State governorship running mate in the 2015 election, Mr. James Faleke, has said aggrieved groups in the state are ready for talks and welcome the initiative of President Buhari to set up a committee to reconcile members who are unhappy with the party across the country.
Faleke, a member of the House of Representatives, represents Ikeja Federal Constituency of Lagos State. However, his home state is Kogi.
He spoke exclusively with The PUNCH on the telephone in Abuja on Sunday.
Several political upheavals in Kogi State are said to be caused by the dispute between the Faleke cum supporters of the late governor of the state Abubakar Audu on one hand and Governor Yahaya Bello’s faction.
But, speaking with The PUNCH, Faleke said that party loyalists were waiting for the Tinubu-led presidential reconciliation committee to roll out it modus operandi and they would attend any reconciliation meetings called by the committee.
However, Faleke said the members were hoping that the presidential committee would not go the way of two previous committees, which looked into the Kogi matter but nothing happened.
“There were two committees before now, set up by the National Working Committee of the APC.
“One was led by Tony Momoh and the second one by Gen. Chris Garba (retd.). We attended meetings, submissions were made.
“We waited for action and that was where it ended. But, this committee by the President is another good idea and we support it wholeheartedly,” Faleke stated.
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source http://punchng.com/reconciliation-apc-doomed-if-tinubu-fails-says-shehu-sani/
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