Minister of communications, Adebayo Shittu, has explained why President Muhammadu Buhari did not intervene in Oyo APC affairs.
He said President Muhammadu is not dictatorial in his conducts, especially in party affairs and that’s why he is not interfering.
The minister who compared the president to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, accused the ex-president of being a dictator during his administration. According to him, during Obasanjo’s presidency, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) became a toothless bulldog.
Shittu made the comment while responding to a question by New Telegraph on why President Muhammadu Buhari as leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been silent on the happenings in the party.
His words: “Buhari is the leader of the party but that position does not confer on him any extra ordinary power. Buhari ensured that he operates like the exact opposite of the dictator that Obasanjo was in PDP.
You would recall that with Obasanjo as president, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP became a toothless bulldog. “It was Obasanjo who was calling the shots and ensure that the NEC was under his jackboot. That was a violation of the democratic credentials of political parties. So, Buhari as a symbolic leader has no role in the constitution of the party to overrule what the NEC of the party decides. You must understand that Buhari was also an aspirant like the rest of us.
“As an aspirant, you have to be very careful in dealing with some executives of the party as they can embarrass you. He has to behave in a way contrary to the way Obasanjo manipulated his party. I don’t blame him because I know that he sympathises with those of us who have been unfairly treated.
“He has been giving the moral support he needed to give, especially his position that everybody within the party must have his constitutional right preserved. I don’t believe that in the circumstances of trying to nurture a better political party, Buhari could have dictated or insisted on a particular course of action.
“To have done that would have meant putting himself above the national executive. As things are now, if anything goes wrong, he will be exonerated from blame and the national executive will have to take the blame for whatever befalls the party.”
