The Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Barrister Solomon Dalung, has attributed the current crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the ambitions of some politicians for future offices.
He said the problems inherited by the party made it impossible for leaders to pay attention to party members, leading to frustration.
The minister made these assertions on Thursday while speaking to journalists at the national secretariat of the APC in Abuja.
“I think we should try and appreciate the chemistry of what is referred to as APC today. APC started as amalgamation of different political groups then graduated into a mass movement and formed the government”, Mr. Dalung said.
“The significance of this was that these are political systems that are an embodiment of diverse interests.
“Now, the management of that interests is very critical, but the challenge the party and the government is facing is that the government itself inherited a situation where it has more challenges of fixing the country, and so nothing or no good attention at all would have trickled down along the line in view of the economic constraints.
“That is enough to stir bitterness in the party and this can give birth to crisis”, he said.
The APC is currently embroiled in a crisis of confidence following the call by a former Lagos governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to resign.
The embattled chairman has refused to resign, telling Mr. Tinubu – a founding father of the party – that he cannot remove him on the pages of newspaper.
Weighing in on the crisis, Mr. Dalung called on the leaders to bury the hatchet and allow the country to move forward.
According to him, the festering crisis was as a result of the ambitious plans of politicians ahead of the next round of elections.
“The second perspective to the crisis has to do with the future; a politician is a very ambitious person. In everything he does including the step of his movement, he calculates ahead of time.
“So, It could also be that some politicians had viewed the future and they are already dusting their weapons for a political showdown to set the tone of their political ambition”, he said.
Mr. Dalung said those in government were worried over the development.
“There is no reasonable person in government that won’t be worried, because the unity of the party is the unity of the government”, he said.
“So we are concerned, our position is just to appeal because all those that are involved in the crisis are our leaders and we respect them very much as young people.
“What we expect from them is to bequeath durable legacies and I don’t think that crisis is part of what they intend to bequeath to us”, he said.
Mr. Dalung said APC leaders should know that younger politicians look up to the leaders for guidance.
