National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole has admitted that the hale of defections of the erstwhile members of the party to the opposition Peoples Democratic Part (PDP) mark Tempting moments for the party.
Oshiomhole who fielded questions from newsmen shortly after an audience with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja today, Wednesday, said however that nobody in the APC would be surprised about the development, adding: “in fact, they have stayed little bit longer than we thought. Last week the Kwara has State Governor was alluded to have said he was leaving but he didn’t say when. So, we are not surprised at all.
“But these are what I might call temping moments because I had faced similar situations in my state, when people were leaving. But the beauty of democracy is that whether big or small, it is one man one vote. On election day, no difference between a senator, a president, a journalist and any other person.
“In a sense, we have to accept that once a couple for any reason or the other find that they are not compatible, the only honourable thing is to go.
“I was happy for one thing is that the senate president as a mark of honour accepted that he is leaving not because the new leadership did not make effort; he admitted that not only did I do everything possible along with the Vice President, along with some governors and we had meeting with the President, but he argued that those efforts came too late. But I couldn’t have started acting before I was born.
“But whatever is the reason, we can decamp from parties but we can’t decamp from Nigeria. The only thing is that there are other consequential issues that every man or woman of honour who had taken such decisions would be expected to follow through.
“I mean you should not collect a crown that belongs to a family and wear it on behalf of the family if for your personal reasons which he has enumerated that he has gone to another family. It is just a matter of honour to leave the crown in the house that the crown belongs to. As it stands even now, APC is still the largest party in the senate. We have 53 senators, that is much more than PDP has, or APGA has.
“So, I think the important thing is that our democracy is still evolving; there are a couple of lessons to learn from the development. Going forward, we will expect the system to get stronger to the extent that it is able to learn the correct lessons and take the correct steps to profit from these developments.
“I have made this point and some commentators who don’t seem to understand take one part of the argument and leave the other, I have said that if people have genuine, verifiable grievances, we are committed even now to listen and address those grievances in what I call, win-win manner. I have been consistent with that during campaign, I have been consistent since I was sworn in, I have made the points in my acceptance speech, I have emphasized this when I met with the Senate caucus and speech, I have emphasized this when I met with the House of Representatives caucus, that we are ready to do justice to anyone who is genuinely aggrieved and whose grievances are such that we can deal with them provided we enthroned Justice, fairness and most sides purge themselves of any arrogance.
“To the best of my knowledge, all senators, house of reps members were happy.”
