By Baron Ike
Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Alhassan who was invited by the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) over comments regarding her political allegiance ahead of the 2019 presidential elections has apologised to the party.
Alhassan had recently created a controversy in an interview where she pledged her unflinching loyalty to a chieftain of the party and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar rather than her boss, President Muhammadu Buhari come 2019
National Chairman (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun (left) and National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdulahi
She was summoned by the APC Thursday, September 14 in respect of her comment.
The minister arrived the national secretariat of the party at about 1:45pm, was ushered into the office of the National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun where discussions were held behind closed doors. She left at about 4 pm riding in an SUV marked DKA 536 AA and denied to talk to reporters on the essence of her meeting.
But the APC spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi said: “The party felt the minister could have expressed her views ‘within’ and not to the public, because it came as an embarrassment to the administration but there is no provision for sanctions and we can only just caution her going forward”, said a top source. However, confirming the essence of the meeting, spokesman of the party, Bolaji Abdullahi who saw the minister to her car said, “Yes, the party invited her and she has come.
“Since the issue of the comment she made came up, the party has not said anything regardless of what individuals may have told you because we are a party that recognized the right of her members to express their opinions or views. We also had an opportunity to discuss with the minister to understand what she said and in what context she said so before we know how to respond.
“So, when she came, we asked her to explain to us what truly transpired and in what context she said what she said and she did offer these explanations. Now, having offered her explanations, we acknowledged that as a member of this party, she is entitled to her opinion and she is entitled to her choice. However, as a senior member of this party, her statements represent an act of indiscretion because with the kind of position she occupies even within the party, she is a party leader in her own right, what she said was not what she was supposed to say at the time that she said it; that she ought to have exercised greater judgement than she did and she acknowledged that yes, maybe she ought not to have… maybe the timing was wrong and she apologised that if she had put the party in any difficult position, she apologised.
“I want you to take note of the fact that nobody is questioning her right to take the position she has taken. We have not come out to say, ‘why are you saying you are supporting this person?’ she has a right to her choice and to support whoever she wants to support afterall she is not saying she supports a member of another party but what we are saying is that with the position she occupies, she ought to have exercised greater sense of discretion and better judgment knowing that making that kind of statement would definitely create some other situations for the party, if not for the government.
Abdullahi said the APC did not discuss sacking Alhassan with her.
His words: “No, that did not come up. What we just said was that we understand the context in which she said what she said but it was an act of indiscretion for someone occupying the position she is occupying in the party to make that kind of statement. If this was 2018 and the people have filed their applications to say they are contesting and she now comes out and says she is supporting this person, how can that be an issue? But we are still in 2017. We are still far away. Atiku has not said he is contesting. He has not collected any form. He has not announced to anybody that he is contesting. So, that is what we mean by the timing. It is not that she had no right to say what she had said.”
Odigie-Oyegun had earlier said that, “The decision, whether our President will run for a second term, is a decision only President Buhari can make, and he will make it at the proper time. For now, he still has nearly two years of painful, strenuous reconstruction of the Nigerian economy and all the other promises he made both in anti-corruption and on security is still serious work in progress. At the proper time, he will decide, and at the proper time, the APC will decide and the public will know.”