Stakeholders of All Progressives Congress (APC), in the South-West are alarmed by the lull in political activities as regards the newly registered party.
The lull, checks revealed, could be due to the absence of its leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who has been away abroad for medical attention.
Against this backdrop, Daily Sun learnt at the weekend that some concerned stakeholders were putting pressure on the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, to assume the leadership of the party in the zone in an acting capacity, pending the arrival of Tinubu.
It would be recalled that the former Lagos State governor, about a month ago travelled overseas for knee surgery. But one of Tinubu’s political sons and Chairman, Yaba Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Jide Jimoh has allayed the fears over Tinubu’s state of health, saying, “Jagaban is okay.” Jimoh, who visited the former governor in the United Kingdom, last week told Daily Sun in Lagos that “oga is recovering fast,” adding that “he even walks without crutches.”
Investigations however, revealed that the stakeholders’ anxiety was borne out of the fear that if not given adequate exposure, people might begin to see the new party as an unserious group, thereby robbing it of the required goodwill and patronage.
A chieftain of the party in Osogbo, Osun State, who craved anonymity, confided in Daily Sun that, “if something concrete is not done to arrest the situation now, the party may suffer electoral setback, especially in some states like Anambra, Osun and Ekiti where elections will hold this year and next year respectively.”
Another party chieftain in Lagos State also expressed fears yesterday that, “the lull in the party, especially in the South-West, zone, which is the senior partner in the alliance that threw up the party, is worrisome,” asserting that “someone must deputise for Asiwaju Tinubu in the zone until his return.”
The source, said that Aregbesola would have been asked to deputise for Tinubu nationally if it were the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), explaining that, “now that we have other parties in the new party, we can limit Aregbesola’s area of operation to the South-West where we are the senior partner in the merger arrangement.
Mum, however, was the word those contacted for comments begged not to be dragged into the issue.
Source: Sun
