National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has backed President Muhammadu Buhari on dissolution of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
The President, Tinubu said, acted like a true father to save the party from disintegration with the action.
The former Lagos Governor, in a statement he personally signed on Saturday on the APC crisis, said: “President Buhari has done what any parent in his position and with his authority would do.”
The National Executive Council (NEC) of the APC, on Thursday, endorsed Buhari’s advice to dissolve the NWC following a leadership crisis in the party.
The NEC also set up a caretaker committee headed to pilot affairs of the party for the next six months.
Tinubu said the moves were in order, appealing to members of the dissolved NWC to sheathe the sword and see the larger picture on the development.
According to him: “The President has spoken and his decision has been accepted. It is now beholden on all of us, as members of the APC, to recommit ourselves to the ideals and principles on which our party was founded.
‘’While we recognise that people have personal ambitions, those ambitions are secondary, not sacrosanct. Members must subordinate their ambitions to health and well-being of the party. Never should our party be defined by one person’s interests or even the amalgam of all members’ individual interests. A successful party must be greater than the sum of its parts.’’
On insinuations the actions were to checkmate his purported presidential ambition in 2023, Tinubu said: “To those who have been actively bleating how the President’s actions and the NEC meeting have ended my purported 2023 ambitions, I seek your pity.
“I am but a mere mortal who does not enjoy the length of foresight or political wisdom you profess to have. Already, you have assigned colourful epitaphs to the 2023 death of an alleged political ambition that is not yet even born.
“At this extenuating moment with COVID-19 and its economic fallout hounding us, I cannot see as far into the distance as you. I have made no decision regarding 2023 for the concerns of this hour are momentous enough.
“During this period, I have not busied myself with politicking regarding 2023. I find that a bit distasteful and somewhat uncaring particularly when so many of our people have been unbalanced by the twin public health and economic crises we face.
“I have devoted these last few months to thinking of policies that may help the nation in the here and now. What I may or may not do 3 years hence seems too remote given present exigencies.
“Those who seek to cast themselves as political Nostradamus’ are free to so engage their energies. I trust the discerning public will give the views of such eager seers the scant weight such divinations warrant.
“Personally, I find greater merit trying to help in the present by offering policy ideas, both privately and publicly, where I think they might help. I will continue in this same mode for the immediate future. 2023 will answer its own questions in due time.
“I have toiled for this party as much as any other person and perhaps more than most. Despite this investment or perhaps due to it, I have no problem with making personal sacrifices (and none of us should have such a problem) as long as the party remains true to its progressive, democratic creed. Politics is but a vehicle to arrive at governance.
“Good politics promotes good governance. Yet, politics is also an uncertain venture. No one gets all they want all the time. In even a tightly-woven family, differences and competing interests must be balanced and accommodated.”