With the absence of All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Bola Tinubu at the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Friday, July 3, 2015, investigations have revealed that peace seems to be far from the party as the former Lagos State Governor and President Muhammadu Buhari share divergent views over the proper way to resolve the party’s internal war.
According to Vanguard, a source who spoke anonymously said although President Buhari has made it clear that party supremacy must come first, he has opted for a peaceful resolution.
The source said: “It was an open discussion at the NEC meeting that whereas Mr. President has consistently expressed his dissatisfaction at the truncation of the party’s procedure for the emergence of the leaders of the National Assembly, the position he has since taken has been one of reconciliation and not outright antagonism to the leadership of the National Assembly.”
A Tinubu loyalist also made a case for the party leader saying: “Asiwaju is not being rigid. He just believes it is not proper to kick off a government on a note of disobedience to party position by members of the National Assembly.It sends a wrong signal”.
Further investigations revealed that Tinubu boycotted the NEC meeting because the two conditions he gave were not adhered to.
A top APC member availed that Tinubu insisted that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara should not be invited for the NEC meeting, although they are members of the NEC by virtue of their positions in the National Assembly.
The source further added: ”The second condition he put forward was that in the event that the two leaders of the National Assembly were invited, they should be made to commit to an apology letter to the party.”
Another party source also said the crisis is further polarised as former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar is working in concert with President Buhari in order for Saraki and Dogara to be forgiven without any punishment.
The source said that Tinubu, while lobbying for Ahmed Lawan to emerge as Senate President had promised to support Atiku’s bid to be the Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), but with the recent happenings, Tinubu’s supporters have begun canvassing support in order for him to clinch the position.
