Stop fighting each other, learn from PDP’s failure, Buhari warns APC leaders

President Muhammadu Buhari has cautioned leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to learn from the “now enfeebled and adrift” Peoples Democratic Party and guide against using disunity to scatter the party.

In a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the president warned them to desist from name-calling and backstabbing ahead of the oncoming March 26 Convention.

WESTERN POST had exclusively reported that many leaders of the party, including the acting Chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, CECPC Abubakar Bello, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami had travelled to the United Kingdom to seek audience with President Buhari on the leadership crisis.

But Buhari in the statement said if the APC leaders continued with the ego, they were destined for a worst possible fate than PDP.

“President Muhammadu Buhari warns the leaders (and membership) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to desist from name-calling and backstabbing ahead of the oncoming March 26 Convention, remain steadfast and maintain its unity if the party is to continue in the path of victory and its dominance at all levels throughout the country.

“President Buhari asks the members to look at the once-powerful, ”main opposition” Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) now enfeebled and adrift and learn lessons in disunity, mismanagement and corruption,” the statement 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.

“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 but differences of management, personality, character, and suitability for the most important leadership roles in our country and therefore the continent.”