By Ahmed Idris
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Mr. Adams Oshiomhole said on Wednesday that he would not mortgage his conscience to please aggrieved members of the party.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents after having a close-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Oshiomhole dismissed reports that some governors were moblising to unseat him.
He said out of the 23 APC governors, only three – Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state, Ibikunle Amosun of Osun state and Rochas Okorocha of Imo state – were not pleased with the outcome of the primaries in their states.
He said no one could begrudge the governors for not being happy if a particular outcome did not coincide with their expectations, stressing that the APC job is not pensionable and would one day leave, hence the need for him to do the job according to the rules and his conscience.
The APC chairman said he neither had the power to appoint nor the power to change anything, particularly when things had been properly done.
He said: “All I have tried is to find some courage to enforce the rules and I think an overwhelming majority of the governors appreciate that I have done the best because change is not easy.
“We all want change but the process of change can be quite traumatising; because it is not painless. People have been used to a particular way of doing things; to encourage them to do them differently can be a challenge.
“So, here I am as national chairman conducting primaries, the outcome of which some very powerful people did not see their preferred candidates emerging.
“Let me say that if there is a choice between my conscience–what I believe is right and mortgaging that conscience in order to keep the job, I will have no difficulty resolving it in favour of my conscience.
“And those who know me know that at my age, I cannot learn new tricks; I am absolutely committed to justice; fairness; I a stickler to enforcement of rules; because the source of relevance is derived from rules. I have lived my life fighting for justice and fairness.’’
