ACF berates Akande, warns against reckless statements

OLUSESAN LAOYE

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has berated a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, for accusing the North of conspiring against Yoruba in the current face-off in the party.

A statement issued yesterday by Malam Muhammad Ibrahim, ACF National Publicity Secretary, dismissed Akande’s reported allegations as “disappointing, reckless and unbecoming of an elder statesman.”

It said that the forum was disturbed with the current squabbles in the ruling party, just like other well meaning Nigerians desirous of stability and progress of the nation.

The statement cautioned politicians not to whip up tribal and regional sentiments which Nigerians had voted against in the last election.

“Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) considers such statement as uncharitable and a deviation from the main agenda of change which Nigerians voted for.

“The era of tribal and religious politics or inciting one tribe over the other has no place in our present political focus.

“ACF therefore appeals to our elders and all Nigerians to show decorum and civility in their utterances, as all hands should now be on deck to move the nation forward.

“President Muhammadu Buhari needs the support and understanding of all Nigerians especially his party men and women to clean the mess he inherited.

“Nigerians expect so much from Buhari’s administration. Please help and allow him to perform.”

According to the statement, the crisis at the National Assembly must be addressed through the party’s internal mechanism of resolving conflicts.

A member of the party’s caucus from the North East geopolitical zone, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, also said that it would have been a rancorous session if the caucus meeting had held in what he described as “such an atmosphere of mutual suspicion.”

The party leader, who said he would have spoken on the record if not for the fence-mending efforts being made by other leaders of the party, said, “We northerners are unhappy about Chief Bisi Akande’s outburst.

“It was unnecessary because we are all trying to put out a fire that is threatening to consume our house. And when you have a respected leader and elder making such unguarded statements it does not help.

“I personally hold Chief Akande in high esteem but what he wrote in that letter was nothing short of an insult on our collective sensibilities. How can you single out a section of your party and call them criminals who were supporting rebels to destroy the party we all built? This is most unexpected and uncharitable to say the least.”

Also, a chieftain of the APC, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, on Tuesday, described as unfortunate, the statement by Akande.

Baraje, in a statement in Abuja, said he was disappointed that Akande who had led the party and served as a state governor could author a statement in which he was allegedly seeking to divide the nation by setting the North against the South West.

“I do not know where Chief Akande and his cohorts are getting this unsubstantiated information they are circulating. We challenge them to provide proof and let Nigerians make their judgment.

“Akande and Co believe that they have exclusive right to determine who occupies what position in today’s Nigeria and whoever tries to challenge their position must be subjected to savage attack in the media. That tactic is definitely undemocratic.

“I have known Chief Akande to be an honest man. I got the shock of my life when he alleged that I had a meeting in my house with ‘some old and new PDP members with a view to hijacking the National Assembly’ through the aspiration of Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Senate President.

“I have been quiet as a leader so as to not to be seen as taking sides because of my closeness to Dr. Saraki, else people will read meaning into it.

“Akande has been playing a role which I admire. He will recall that he met some actors, with a governor from the North West and a leader of the party from the South West, where the leader from the South West was cautioned to be reasonable in this crisis.

“He (Akande) supported the view of the governor from the North West that the particular leader from the South West should be admonished for his action. It is therefore surprising that Akande is now being economical with the truth and painting a picture that exists only in his imagination.”

It would be recalled that Akande had fingered fuel subsidy thieves, and corrupt businessmen as being behind the current crisis in the APC which culminated in the emergence of Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Yakubu Dogara as speaker of the House of Representatives, contrary to the wishes of the ruling party.

In a statement on Sunday, the former governor of Osun State said those jittery of President Muhammadu Buhari’s constant threat of anti-corruption battle encouraged and financed the rebellions against the APC democratic positions which led to the emergence of Messrs Saraki and Dogara as candidates of the PDP tendencies inside and outside the APC.

“Before the party knew it, the process had been hijacked by polluted interests who saw the inordinate contests as a loop-hole for stifling APC government’s efforts in its desire to fight corruption.

“Most Northern elite, the Nigerian oil subsidy barons and other business cartels, who never liked Buhari’s anti-corruption political stance, are quickly backing up the rebellion against APC with strong support.”

“While other position seekers are waiting in the wings until Buhari’s ministers are announced, a large section of the South West sees the rebellion as a conspiracy of the North against the Yoruba.

“Now that the whole conspiracy has blown open, it is doubtful if the present institutions of party leadership can muster the required capacity to arrest the drift.

“It is my opinion that President Buhari, and the APC governors should now see APC as a wrecking platform that may not be strong enough again to carry them to political victory in 2019 and they should quickly begin a joint damage control effort to reconstruct the party in its claim to bring about the promised change before the party’s shortcomings begin to aggravate the challenges of governance in their hands,” Akande had said.