By Ada Okafor
President Muhammadu Buhari has warned leaders and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to desist from playing negative politics and backstabbing to avoid the fate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The president, who is in the United Kingdom for medical check-up, in a statement by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, however failed to state his position on the status of the Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, in the party.
Said Buhari: “They failed in their 16 years in power and a failure as opposition.
“We are entitled to our own share of dissent and intra-party discord. These are common in all parties, left and right all over the world.
“But parties splintered by competing egos destine themselves to the worst possible fate.
“As the country prepares for the long run up to the 2023 presidential election, we all expect a robust debate on the issues that matter and what is going in the APC should be a reflection of this, not the infighting we are seeing.
“There must be no more distractions ahead of the convention to choose new leaders”.
According to the President, the APC must remain focused on developing the nation and spend less energy quarrelling in-house.
“We didn’t start on the note of arrogance of power, nor see government as a vehicle for self-aggrandizement, to be held at all costs, but a vehicle to bring development to all without discrimination -political, ethnic or regional.
“Given all that is at a stake, we can expect contests into offices as we are now faced with to be heated although candidates and their promoters for party offices are not so much debating policy differences but differences of management, personality, character, and suitability for the most important leadership roles in our country and therefore the continent.”
