President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday warned stakeholders in the All Progressives Congress to desist from attacking each other ahead of the party’s National Convention.
The ruling party is expected to elect new leaders during the convention which has been scheduled for March 26.
According to Buhari, for the party to continue in the path of victory at all levels, members and leaders need to be united.
He called on members of the APC to learn from how the Peoples Democratic Party was destroyed due to disunity, mismanagement and corruption.
Buhari made this call in a statement released through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publity, Garba Shehu.
Buhari said, “they failed in 16 years in power and a failure as opposition.
“Yes, we are entitled to our own share of dissent and intra-party discord. These are common in all parties, left and right all over the world.
“But parties splintered by competing egos destine themselves to the worst possible fate,” the President warned.
“As the country prepares for the long run-up to the 2023 presidential election, we all expect a robust debate on the issues that matter and what is going in the APC should be a reflection of this, not the infighting we are seeing. There must be no more distractions ahead of the convention to choose new leaders.”
Buhari noted that APC which has ruled for nearly eight years has become a dominant party because it opened its doors to defectors from other parties, big and small.
Buhari said, “we didn’t start on the note of arrogance of power, nor see government as a vehicle for self-aggrandizement, to be held at all costs, but a vehicle to bring development to all without discrimination-political, ethnic or regional to our dear country made this success possible.”
The president stated that the party has won two general elections despite losing a few states in the 2019 elections
Buhari said, “given all that is at a stake, we can expect contests into offices as we are now faced with to be heated although candidates and their promoters for party offices are not so much debating policy differences of management, personality, character, and suitability for the most important leadership roles in our country and therefore the continent.
“It is equally clear that over the last week or so, the internal management affairs of the APC have been afforded generous media coverage over and above its importance to the voters of Nigeria.
“It is important to ask what benefits the poor are getting during the period of intense negative coverage.
“When precisely the party’s convention is held and who is the party’s chairman is hardly a matter for the average voter: vastly more important is who convention delegates will elect as the party’s flagbearer in the coming weeks to take forward the party’s platform to the people in the general election in February next year.
“It is therefore important for the media to put such matters into perspective. No one is debating policy differences here. That is for the general election. None of the declared aspirants and any of those that may step forward will change because of who may be in the party in the chairman’s seat. It is essentially the same party.
“Of course, the media are welcome to comment on the content of the character of the potential APC candidates; discuss their suitability for leadership; scrutinize their offer to the membership. But to focus on the routine internal divisions and magnify them into what they have become today is a waste of everyone’s time, amounting to no more than a discussion over seating arrangements.
” This is not what Nigerians talk of in their communities. They incline only for things that matter.”
