APC John Oyegun Gives Reason Why The Party Lost Sensitive Key Senate Positions.

By Ewah Chika.

APC chairman Chief John Oyegun might not be a popular politician outside his home state of Edo State but one cannot deny he was the chairman of the party leading to the April 2015 elections. Though he has not shown much brilliance in changing the fortunes of the party as he is accused of
just been a puppet of party chieftain and former governor of Lagos State Chief Bola Tinubu, the Edo State born man has tried to remain relevant by all means possible.

The former governor of Edo State had this to say to the Daily Trust regarding the National Assembly rumbles,  "There are lots of decisions that I regret, not just one, some of which are private. If you want to limit it to the recent past, I would say the decision to call the meeting that took place on the day the National Assembly was inaugurated. That was a bad mistake.

"I was persuaded and I agreed to call that meeting . Had it been it did not take place, we probably won't have a PDP person(Senetor Ike Ekweremandu) there as Deputy Senate President. The anger within the leadership of the party may not have turned out as strong as it became," he concluded.

 One of the greatest political problems facing the APC today is the rumble in the National Assembly after it failed to put it's house in order making it lose several sensitive positions to both the opposition (PDP) and members of the APC who are perceived to be loyal to the PDP. While no one doubted the political power of the APC before the general elections in April last year, judging from recent events it is clear the party did not prepare in advance for the problems that come with being in power. One of the problem is the fact that the APC could not agree on a consensus candidate to preside over both the Senate and the House of Representative as most of the senators in APC backed Bukola Saraki as president while the party backed senator Lawal/ George Akume. It became evident that each faction tried so hard to outwit the other as the day of elections approached . This was not helped by the silence of the president who preferred to kept mute, gallanting all over the world in his usual manner while his party was burning. This led to a shocking election of Senator Bukola Saraki who was a former governor of Kwara State and also Senator under the PDP before his defection in 2014. In return for the votes of the votes of the PDP , Saraki offered them the Deputy Senate President.

This mistake up until now has not been admitted by the ruling party who are accused to be sponsoring the recent trial of the senate president by the Code Of Conduct Tribunal as a result of that fallout. Though this has been the most famous fighting by the chieftains of the APC, it shows that the party is an assembly of aggrieved politicians whose simple interest was seizing power and sharing of the national cake. Though the PDP are not left out as the battle their own problems with the factions of Alimodu Sheriff and  Ahmed Makarfi all laying claim to the chairmanship position, the APC through it's national conduct are not better off with the politics of the next election likely to tear the party apart.