“I am very confident that we can afford to ignore Buba Galadima… for me, there is no cause for alarm. Nobody should panic over one Buba Galadima, whose group, I believe, cannot define us in the next election in 2019," he said.
Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says the act of rebellion by breakaway members of the party who formed the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC) will not define the performance of the ruling party in the 2019 elections.
On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari’s former ally Buba Galadima, former National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), led some members of the APC to form the R-APC faction on the argument that the ruling party has been “a monumental disaster, worse than the government it replaced” — that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
However, when Oshiomhole hosted former state chairpersons of the CPC in Abuja on Friday evening, he said the party would use the superior power of argument and persuasion to crush the rebellion.
He also said there was no reason to be worried about the group or its potential influence on the performance of the ruling party at next year’s polls.
“It is as if a very hungry bird is dancing at the centre of the road and a disgruntled drummer not far away in the bush is drumming for him,” he said.
“I am very confident that we can afford to ignore Buba Galadima… for me, there is no cause for alarm. Nobody should panic over one Buba Galadima, whose group, I believe, cannot define us in the next election in 2019.
“Nigerians are wiser; they know that corruption is fighting back. They also know that President Buhari’s resolve to fight corruption must elicit a counter force and that force must find attraction in some people.
“But like we have rightly said, we should not be distracted and we encourage the President not to be distracted; he must remain focused and sustain the fight and I believe the rebellion will be crushed using the superior power of argument, persuading our people not to forget in a hurry where we are coming from.”