The proposal for a direct primary method for the conduct of the gubernatorial primary of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) in Osun State has been described as unpopular,devilish and an orchestrated attempt to thwart the will of the majority and steadfast members of the APC in Osun State.
This opinion was expressed in a press statement issued Sunday,July 15,in Osogbo, capital of Osun State,by the Yusuff Lasun Media Centre.
According to the statement, such a call was capable of causing disenchantment in the party,in view of the fact that virtually all the major blocs and stakeholders within the party had registered their resentment to the proposal.
Reading in part,the press statement said “we are aware of the depth of pressure daily mounted on the party national leadership by some officials of the Osun State Government,in cahoot with just four State Working Committee members of the APC,in an effort to impose their preferred candidate on the party.The party national working committee members, whose duty it is to set guidelines for the conduct of the party primaries,are daily harassed with a demand to adopt the direct system,where all card-holding members of the party would have the ‘previlege’ of electing whom the party flagbearer would be in the coming governorship election scheduled for this 22 September.
Whereas this method appears participatory and welcoming because it would afford all shades of members of the party express their choice of candidate through the ballot, we at the Lasun Media Centre, LMC,reject this proposal because it is not altruistic.Much more,it is susceptible to manipulation and also have proclivities to expose members with dissenting voices to physical attack by street urchins on the behest of the purveyors of the proposal…”
The Centre claimed the proposal was an after-thought of the earlier rejection, by the party’s NWC, of a doctored delegate list by a group loyal to Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola.
Oyetola, the Chief of Staff to the Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola,is the acclaimed anointed candidate of the governor.
The press release further alleged that a prominent commissioner in the state had caused to be printed new membersip cards to be distributed to only members amenable to the cause of making the said Oyetola the next Osun State Governor.
”Why should a section of the party be peddling anachronistic idea that has been vehemently rejected by all party members with good conscience?Why should only the state party chairman,alongside his secretary and two other SWC members the only ones conveying this idea…?Why should they feel opinions of other SWC members and 25 local government party chairmen are not worth some consideration?Why should a minority group in the party believe their views should always be sacrosanct?
It is instructive to note that since 2015 when our party formed a government at the federal level,delegate system has always been the model for the party gubernatorial primaries.In Kogi in 2015;Ondo in 2016; Anambra and Edo in 2016; and Ekiti in just a couple of weeks ago,the party adopted the collegiate(delegate) system.This agitation for direct system…,is,by all shreds,suspicious,considering the fact that the same direct method was outrightly rejected by this same group earlier in the year when the party was to conduct its primaries for the local government polls.So why the 360 degree detour at the moment?
Of course,the motive is to allow a room for perfidy in a desperate drive to shore up the irredeemably impugned image of their stooge,and enliven the comatose gubernatorial aspiration of a man mass of delegates have rejected.”
The statement went further,”Let’s assume without conceding that direct primary method is more democratic because more members would vote,can we say,in all honesty,that the party has a water-tight database in place that could fish out unscrupulousness that has been perpetrated on the membership register in the state in recent time? Won’t this process pose some logistical challenges to the party, given that electoral materials have to be provided for approximately 300,000 registered members? Does the party have capacity to mobilise security personnel and party monitors to man all the 332 wards in the state?Is this method an ideal one for a contest that would involve 17 aspirants?”
Finally, the press release conveyed the reaffirmation of the Rt Hon. Yusuff Lasun’s deep commitment to rule of law and ethos of the party.The party NWC, led by Comrade Adams Oshiomole, however,was implored to be fair to all contestants and be weary of any machination to set the party backward through a plan that has been programmed to foist an unpopular candidate on the party.
Packaged by Alice Egbedele
