Chidi Samuel|
John Oyegun, the current national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has withdrawn from the party’s chairmanship race.
Oyegun who announced his decision on Friday said he decided not to seek re-election because he did not want to be part of the problem of the party needed to solve.
He told newsmen, “I do not intend to be part of the problem for APC to solve. It is for this reason that I hereby declare that I will not be seeking reelection as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC.”
“However, I will continue to perform my functions as the national chairman of the party till my tenure officially ends on Monday the 25th June when a new set of party executives will be inaugurated.”
“With the 2019 general election looming in the horizon, some of us considered it to be in the best interest of the party to go into the elections as a united fighting force, rather than one that was potentially weakened by internal conflicts arising from competitive congresses and convention,” Oyegun said.
“It was for this reason that we canvassed and obtained the NEC dusk of February 27, asking all executives of the party to continue in acting capacities fora mother period of 12 months.
“If this decision was sustained, we probably would have achieved our objective. But we would only have succeeded also in postponing the evil days as it were. In retrospect, I am inclined to agree with the viewpoint that even a young political party as ours need to be subjected to the crucible of these contestations, which in any case, is the hallmark of progressive politics.
“In the end, even as difficult as the situation may appear at the beginning, the experience we would draw from managing the contending interests, can only hope to make our party stronger and more resilient.”