- What really provoked Buhari to sack Oshiohmole.
By Madu Onuorah
The insubordination of the former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiohmole to Presidential directives and the insistence of some APC Governors that provided the reasonable grounds for the various actions that culminated in his final sack on June 25, 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari at a special Emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting at Aso Villa.
Global Upfront Newspapers (GUN) can report authoritatively that Comrade Oshiohmole disregarded all entreaties from body language to direct instructions from the President to let Governor Godwin Obaseki have his second term.
Perhaps the height of Oshiohmole’s defiance of authority of the President was when he outwitted the Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, who was directed by the President to meet with Oshiohmole with a view to saving Gov. Obaseki.
But rather than meet with Prof Gambari, Oshiohmole continued dodging him until the Governor was disqualified by both the screening and appeal committee.
GUN learnt that several calls through to Oshiohmole from the Chief of Staff aimed at averting the disqualification was bluffed by the National Chairman who said he was in his village. Even when he came eventually for the meeting, the mission was already accomplished and Obaseki was already gone from the party as the APC Edo State Governorship Appeals panel, which did Oshiomoles’ bidding had acted their own script.
In the midst of the Presidency anger over what happened to Governor Obaseki and how Oshiohmole snubbed them, 13 APC Governors approached the President to open up the implication of the situation to his leadership.
GUN source said that the Governor’s told the President that by the action of the National Chairman in disregarding his directive and yielding instead to that of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that the President was abdicating his responsibility to Tinubu and that anybody not liked by Tinubu was in trouble in the party.
The aggrieved Governors noted that Oshiomhole was calling himself the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of APC who takes no instructions from anybody but that he was taking instructions from Tinubu.
GUN learnt that even after Oshiohmole’s snub, the President was still undecided on what to do until 11 of the 13 Governors threatened to announce their exit from the party and leave it for Oshiohmole and Tinubu to do whatever they like with it.
It was at this juncture that the President realized the enormity of the situation and he sought for a way forward from the Governors who quickly suggested a clean sweep and injection of fresh blood into the party.
The decision to use a serving Governor to lead the interim National Working Committee was the choice of the Governors who wanted to take full control of the party.
GUN gathered that the President is happy with the Governors for helping him to tackle the menace of the party after realizing how relieved he has been since then and how popular his action on the party is to members of the party across the county.
