Former APC Senator, Shehu Sani has disclosed that APC Governors have no respect for President Buhari whom he said is a man of integrity
The Kaduna Senator finally left the APC recently after spending a long time with them and has finally come out to discuss the factors that made him leave.
In an interview with the Nigerian Tribune’s TAIWO AMODU, Sani revealed some of the inner politics that has rocked the APC in recent months
When asked why he left the party, he said that the APC he had initially believed in which was one that had a vision for the Nigerian people, was dead and gone and that they had been unfair to him.
“Now, the question directly goes to why I decided to leave? Well, if you can remember, in the month of July, there was uprising and uproar in the National Assembly, whereby senators and members of House of Representatives decided to leave the APC. I was part and parcel of that move but I stayed back because of these three factors. One, the fact that there was a new leadership in the person of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, a man with whom we have over the years, shared ideals, ideas and we have been in the struggle for a very long time. He impressed it on me to remain behind and I told him that there are issues that I have with the party and the governor of my state and I don’t know how I can cohabit with such a reactionary, I don’t know how I can live with such a man, whose thinking, whose ideas, whose politics are completely antithetical to mine. We have been having issues in the last three years, which include attacks on my office and attempt by the governor to frame me up for murder and I and the governor have been in court for the last one year over a defamation case. He sued me for N2billion and I sued him for N5 billion. Again, this was a governor who came out openly to call on the people to physically attack me, he instigated the people against me and I asked the party’s national chairman, how do I live with this kind of person? But Comrade Oshiomhole assured me that with his own leadership, he would do everything possible, not just to resolve my issue but also to resolve other issues that senators have with their governors.
Sani said that things were not sorted: “There was also an intervention by Senator Bola Tinubu, who cautioned me against leaving the APC and joining the PDP. He told me that I came from a certain background and I don’t have to be part of PDP. He said whatever it was, I should stay back and we would address the issues. Then President Buhari reached out to me and promised me that all would be addressed. Now, that is one aspect.
“The second aspect was that our senators who were defecting from the APC, they said they were going home. Where is home? Home was PDP! My own definition of home was, it is either where you were born, or where you belong and I was not born in PDP; I have never been a PDP member. So, I didn’t want to move from one foster home of the APC to another foster home. I didn’t want to move from one orphanage of the APC to another orphanage of the PDP.
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“The third reason why I couldn’t move in July had to do with the fact that if you are a political office holder with a mandate, you cannot take a political decision on your own because your colleagues in the National Assembly were simply moving. I didn’t want to be seen as moving simply because Dr Bukola Saraki and other persons in the National Assembly were moving. It wouldn’t be in my best interest, and not in the interest of my people. So I had to consult my people and the consultations which I had with my people, they insisted that I should give time, stay because they believed in president Buhari, so I stayed. I was elected on the platform of APC and they are the ones to give me the best advice, whether to move or not to move.
Sani also talked about the undue influence that Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai has on the President and how he was also a factor in him leaving the party
“But now in the last three months, efforts were made but it was very clear that the governor of Kaduna State was not prepared to listen to Adams and he was not prepared to listen to the president. He seems to have overbearing influence on the president. He ended up writing a memo to the president, which later was leaked to the media. In fact, the Presidency had to come out openly and denounce it. But despite all those things, they kept on assuring us but it came to a head during the APC primary election. We went for the screening and the national working committee came up with the list of people who were cleared to contest. I had to be the only person cleared to contest in Kaduna Central for whatever reason, I don’t know, because I am not a member of the national working committee. So, I was getting prepared for the process of affirmation when suddenly the governor of Kaduna State went to the media and said he wouldn’t abide by what the NWC said about clearing only me. So, he reached out: he virtually abandoned governance in Kaduna State and lodged in Abuja. He was moving from the Presidency to Adam’s office. I can correctly say that part of the reason why violence erupted in Kaduna was that at the very time when a governor was needed on his seat to address every issue, to listen to every security reports and to nip the crisis in the bud, he was perpetually in Abuja.
Sani also noted that APC governors have no respect for Buhari and his philosophies
“The governors in the APC today don’t respect President Buhari. They have no respect for him and they don’t share what his philosophy is all about. All they care about is themselves. While the chairman of the party sees the need to preserve the loyal members within the party, the governors don’t see the need for it.”
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