Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has reiterated that he is not losing sleep over the breakaway Reformed-APC faction.
The former Edo governor says he has defeated powerful godfathers, stressing that “I will not miss my sleep because a lot of these guys cannot on a good day deliver their unit”.
Oshiomhole said this in reaction to a statement by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that he is licking his vomit after his ‘no loss of sleep’ comment.
The PDP had said the APC chairman was making moves to woo the members of R-APC back into the ruling party.
But speaking on Monday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Oshiomhole said: “You have seen me. Do I look like I’m losing sleep?”
The former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said he is willing to “negotiate and persuade” but does not deal with “permanent political mercenaries”.
Oshiomhole said: “No, I am not losing sleep. I am sleeping very well. I still maintain that I don’t see any man of honour, who with his eyes open left PDP on the account of their gross mismanagement, abuse of the treasury and all of the crime that the PDP committed, I don’t see them whatever their irritations.
“That cannot be a justification to return a house that all we need to do is to play back their own tape about what PDP represents and why they left.
“I still hold the view that you can’t vomit in the morning and convert it to lunch in the afternoon if you have honour. And that position still remains the same. Number two is that yes, I have made this point clear that we can distinguish the mercenaries from those who genuinely have complaints.
“Our business as party leaders is to try and manage, listen and find solutions to those who have verifiable complaintss. But those who are permanent mercenaries and are in this business for personal reasons, there is not much we can do about that and we are not going to change the core values of the party in order to retain them.
“So, let me reinstate, we remain committed and I have said so from the word go in my acceptance speech when I was elected that we acknowledge the fact that there are people with genuine complains. For such people, we are ready to listen. We are ready to act on the basis of justice, fairness, no arrogance and inclusion. I remain committed to those.
“However, on principle, I do not deal with political mercenaries, that remains my position. I will not miss my sleep because a lot of these guys cannot on a good day deliver their unit. And we have the records that tell us who won elections and where. And I am a tested fighter, I fought them in Edo from zero – zero and I overcame their most powerful godfathers. So, I know what I am talking about, I speak from experience and I will talk, negotiate and persuade but there are core principles that are not negotiable.”
