Keep your ambition in your pockets, Buhari tells APC leaders -Ihenacho Nwosu

President Muham­madu Buhari yesterday ad­monished leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) involved in the current crisis rock­ing the party not to allow their ambition to destroy the party.
He said the party lead­ers must learn to tame their ambition and even keep it in their pockets if pos­sible .The President spoke at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held yesterday. The well-attended meeting witnessed some APC members pro­testing outside the party secretariat, chanting songs that nobody should over­ride party supremacy. It was also observed that the party’s national leader, Asi­waju Ahmed Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo did not attend the meeting.
Some of the national leaders in attendance were: Chief Ogbonaya Onu, Chief Tony Momoh, Gov­ernor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state, Ibrahim Gaid­am of Yobe state, Alhaji Bello Masari of Kastina state, Alhaji Aminu Tam­buwal of Sokoto state, Alh. Bello Bagudau of Bauchi state, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state and his Kano state counterpart, Dr Abdul­lahi Ganduje, Governor Jibrilla Bindo of Adamawa and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos. Others include the Senate Presi­dent, Dr Bukola Saraki, and Speaker, House of Repre­sentatives Hon. Yakubu Dogara,
Reminding APC lead­ers of the huge task ahead of them, President Buhari declared that the disaffec­tion among members over the outcome of National Assembly elections must stop. He declared that no member should consider himself as being above the party insisting that the party was supreme.
He words “Please accept the superiority of the party. I cannot confine myself to the cage or Sambisa forest and refuse to participate in NEC or BoT. So I respect, the superiority of the party.”
The president stressed that “Let us as members of the APC no matter our personal dif­ferences get together and use the mandate given to us by this country. This is my personal appeal to you in the name of God. What­ever your personal interest or ambition, please keep it close to your heart and in your pocket. Let APC work, let the system work and let us have a government that will earn the respect of our constituencies.”
The President’s com­ment came as the party’s governors were yesterday mandated to meet warring camps in the National As­sembly leadership crisis to help broker lasting peace . The party also passed a vote of confidence on the leadership of the embattled national chairman of the party Chief John Odigie-oyegun. Reminding APC leaders of the huge task ahead of them, President Buhari declared that the disaffection among mem­bers over the outcome of National Assembly elec­tions must stop .
He said “The elections have come and gone, the APC has won the battle, but lost the war. This is the par­adox of democracy, and we shall see how we can man­age it going forward.
“I have already addressed you through the chairman, through the leadership of the party, through your ex­cellencies, the governors and through our Senators and House of Representa­tives members.
The APC must not dis­appoint its constituency, that’s the nation state. “We have to convince our vari­ous constituencies that we are individually worthy of the sacrifices that they have made. “They stayed awake day and night, travelling all over the country and made sure as a party, we emerged victorious. What subse­quently happened is human, and as human beings we are not perfect, but let our col­lective actions in this party prove that we have won the elections, the battle and we will win the war.
“As for me as a president, I have to clearly understand the constitution of the fed­eral republic of Nigeria, the constitution of APC, and having tried three times and successfully lost three times and successfully ending up at the Supreme Court. I think I have tasted the bit­ter disappointments and the sweetness of success.
“What happened to APC must be given to God al­mighty. The opposition party, has ruled the coun­try for sixteen years, with all the treasuries, literally in their pockets and all the coercing forces under their command, they still meekly conceded defeat.”
Speaking on the for­mation of the party, the President said “I clearly understand the constitution from which INEC was de­veloped with clear terms of reference and one of its important responsibilities is to register political asso­ciations as political parties, and whoever wants to par­ticipate in elective office as a Nigerian must seek a plat­form. That platform is the political party, hence, the superior state of the parties. APC has been damn lucky.
“The way the opposition parties realized, agreed and accepted that the only way through which we can be in the system is for us to come together. The ACN, the ANPP, the CPC, APGA and DPP wanted to come to par­ticipate fully in the nego­tiation, but they have court cases at various levels, and we suspected that if we al­low them to participate ac­tively in the negotiation for merger, their being in court can cause either delay or deny us registration.
“So we persuaded our colleagues in APGA and DPP that please stay out of the negotiation, but when we eventually get the reg­istration, they can join in block or individually.
“Along the line, I as­sure you that nothing is done by impulse in our process to merger. There have been various com­mittees, quite a number of you sitting here have been members of committees ei­ther leading them or being a member and we agreed. At some stage or the earlier stages, we agreed that nine people should form the in­terim committee, that’s the national chairmen of the parties, the secretaries and the treasurers . We thought we have done a wonderful work, so we sent our ap­plication. For the first time in this sixteen or twelve years of my participating actively , I thanked INEC for what they did to us; they sent back our applica­tion and said we must have 25 to 35 people to man­age your interim if you get registration, and they must come from all the geo po­litical zones. Why I thanked INEC in particular was be­cause if it has been bloody minded, they would have kept on raging until it was almost too late for us to get the merger. So they ad­vised us and we sat down, we got I think 35 people to manage us and I here personally, and on behalf of you congratulate Chief Bisi Akande, it’s a pity he is not here, he led the in­terim party with dexterity and integrity. I respect his patriotism. When we got the APC name through the agreement of various com­mittees of the respective parties, we started working from polling units upwards, eventually we ended up in the convention which gave us the leadership of the party.
“After that the election started, and again it started from the bottom top. I have gone to this extent because not all of us here participat­ed in it and for you to reflect and thank the leadership of the party at various stages for going through all this, which is not easy. But God in His infinite mercy has helped by giving us accep­tance. Let us not throw this success to the wind.”He added that “My problem is the constituencies. I thank you very much for listening to me, and I thank the lead­ership across the board, and I appeal to you to please continue to work together.”

Culled from The sun