An aspirant, Prof. Abideen Olaiya, has given reasons for withdrawing from the National Secretary race of the All Progressives Congress at the party’s national convention.Olaiya, who was led to the stage by a former governor of Ogun state, Olusegun Osoba, to announce his withdrawal, gave the reasons for stepping down in a press statement on Sunday.
He explained that Osoba pleaded with him to step down out of
respect for the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and leaders
of the party in the South-West.
Olaiya said he decided to contest because nobody had met
with him to step down before the convention.
The statement was titled, ‘2022 APC National Convention: Why
I withdrew from the race of National Secretary of APC’.
It read, “In preparation for the 2022 APC National
Convention, I obtained the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms for the
office of National Secretary of our party which was zoned to the South-West.
“My interest to occupy this seat was based primarily on my
experience in politics over the years, knowing the importance of party politics
and its involvement in installing good governance. More importantly, was the
unfortunate demise of two of our leaders in Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi and Chief
Adebayo Akala, which left a big vacuum in APC Oyo State.
“Thereafter, I got the information that the President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR has requested and
encouraged Governors and leaders from South-West and other regions to agree on
consensus candidate for all position in the party. At this time, I was expecting
intervention from our leaders on what step I should take. This did not come
until the last-minute intervention at the convention ground.
“The process of consensus-building, I learnt was followed to
the letter in case of chairmanship aspirants while that of the secretary was
observed in the breach, hence the ugly scenario that came up last night.
“It is with great respect for the office and personality of
the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and not to bring shame to the
South-West region that I made up my mind to withdraw from the race.
“At this juncture, I must acknowledge the effort of Rotimi
Makinde, Ajibola Famurewa, Opeyemi Bamidele who were the first set of people
who approached me to break the ice. Also, Akin Olajide, Oyo State Chairman,
Chief Isaac Omodewu, and Akeem Akogun are well appreciated. Their efforts
eventually led to the intervention of our leader Chief Segun Osoba.
“In all, I wish the new executives a successful tenure and
also reiterate the fact that we need to hold to principles and ethos of
democracy for the party to engender good governance to Nigerian citizens, this
is the only interest that is sustaining my interest in politics till date.”
Source:PUNCH
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