Oyo APC’s reconciliation process still in murky waters – Minister

The  possibility of putting an end to the internal crisis rocking the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) appears uncertain as the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare dismissed claims that the warring forces in the party had reconciled.

The Minister, who described the reconciliation process as one that is still in murky waters even as the APC National advances efforts to unite the party. He stressed on the urgent need to inaugurate a Normalization Committee that will address contentious issues.

“The reconciliation process is still stuck in murky waters even as the APC National advances efforts to unite the party. A Normalization committee is urgently needed with clear TOR that will address contentious issues, not seek to just plaster them over,” the Minister tweeted.

It will be recalled that Sunday Dare, had in an earlier statement submitted that the idea of handing the party over to a few individuals to the detriment of others will spell doom.

According to him,  “the notion of entitlement or personal ownership of the Oyo APC will keep the party stuck as if caught in wet cement. No one of us owns the party. We all do. The party is an institution of collective membership but also collective ownership.

“The only banner we should raise is the APC banner. Any idea that some informal and nebulous sub-faction should rule and is more important than the party itself must be tossed out the window. To exalt some small group over the larger is against the democratic spirit of the party and it will fate us all to a troublesome and adverse future.

“Either you are an APC member or you or not. There are no conditions or caveats that govern us. The different political tendencies in the party must now discard their adversarial colorations so that we may coalesce and strengthen the party. Currently, Oyo APC is less than the sum of its individual parts. We must reform how we interact so that the party becomes greater than the sum of those individual parts.

“We know what the organizational hierarchy should be within the party. Attempts to usurp or ignore the democratic spirit and letter of our party constitution and established norms will fail.

“APC Oyo is beyond the Ibadan crowd or Ogbomoso crowd or Oke Ogun crowd or any crowd for that matter. Together we win. Separate and tendentious we lose.

“The APC State Executive must embrace a new more inclusive and collegial mentality else they drive the party aground. The fragmentation of the party and the unfair treatment of members associated with a rival faction must stop. A party does not become strong by crushing internal opposition, it becomes strong be reconciling it. And only a strong unified party will win the majority of elections it faces. The idea of handing the party over to a few individuals to the detriment of others will spell doom. You might win the battle for supremacy in the party but may well lose the greater war which is the general elections.

“Unless we bind our wounds and rebuild, we will lose respect and focus as a party. This will allow a lesser party to take the victories and the chance to govern this beloved state that should rightfully be with us,” the statement continued