Buhari’s position on Obaseki’s travails – Presidential Aide

A presidential spokesperson has given an insight into President Muhammadu Buhari’s stance on the political travails of the Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki.

Mr Obaseki, who has been fighting a protracted political battle with Adams Oshiomhole, the national president of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was on Friday disqualified by the APC from contesting the forthcoming governorship primary of the party.

Mr Obaseki has just announced his resignation on Tuesday from the APC after he reportedly met with Mr Buhari in Abuja.

There have been speculations that he is planning to join the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Mr Buhari’s spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said the president made several unsuccessful attempts at settling the rifts between Mr Obaseki and Oshiomhole, before he (Buhari) finally decided to allow the “process to run its course”.

“One thing about the president is that he likes to be fair to everybody,” Mr Adesina said in a video interview he had on Facebook on Sunday with a UK-based Nigerian citizen, Ata Ikiddeh.

“So those who are complaining he has not done this, he has not done that, they don’t know what he has done.

“What he has done is to meet with the parties separately. And he has been doing this for more than a year since the crisis in Edo began. So, if the people are in entrenched positions and refuse to shift ground, what would the president do as a democrat? You allow the process to run its course.”

Mr Adesina said when Mr Buhari met recently, though separately, with the governor and the APC chairman, he must have told them to comply with the party rules and constitution, and to also “do things properly”.

“What people expect the president to do is to legislate things, to order Obaseki ‘No, step down’ or order Oshiomhole ‘No, give him the ticket’. That is not democracy. When you begin to order and legislate things like that you would be unfair to one party,” the presidential spokesperson said.

“But before Edo, there was Rivers, there was Zamfara and of course you know many other states were the governing party lost because of internal issues. What may not be apparent to the public is what the president did in all those states and he has done in Edo.”