In a renewed effort to put its house in order, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has slated a meeting of its senior members for today in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, with a view to closing ranks ahead of the 2019 elections.
The meeting, which is at the instance of the former chairman of the party and one time governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, is conceived to see if the deep seated animosity amongst its senior and prominent members could be addressed in collective interest.
In addition, the meeting, it was learnt would also address the issue of the development of South-west within the change agenda and see what progress has been made and how much more could still be made before the present term of the government winds down to a close.
Twice, attempts had been made to look at the state of the party in the zone as well as the development of the region within the collective of the federation.
The first was the meeting at theamEovernment House in Ibadan, which recorded about 50 per cent success, and the second, which held at the Government House, Abeokuta, Ogun State, but ended on a bitter note of rivalry.
The state of the party in the zone, however, deteriorated before and after the Ondo State governorship election, which was believed to have sharply factionalised the APC along two interests: The Bola Tinubu Group and the President Muhammadu Buhari camp.
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Unfortunately, the rivalry had taken a messier slant as majority of those believed to be siding with the president are former allies of Tinubu, all of whom rose to political reckoning through his means and support.
But whilst the accused have dismissed allegation of betrayal and backstabbing in the party and collective interest, nothing has shown that the house was one and the same, a development that could pave the way for a major political disaster in 2019.
It is against this backdrop, that Akande requested for a meeting of all the stakeholders from the governors to the minister and of course, the central character, Tinubu, to sit at a table and explore peaceful options of co-existence in collective interest.
Although there were feelers that Tinubu was not in the country as at yesterday afternoon, sources said he would eventually make it to the meeting as he had already confirmed attendance.
However this meeting turns out, observers are of the view that it would further reveal either the underbelly of the crisis trailing the party in the zone or dismiss reports of the deep animosity believed to exist amongst the characters in the party from the zone.
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