NO WAR WITH POI: THE CHAIRMAN’S DUTY IS TO THE PARTY, THE BALLOT IS FOR THE PEOPLE.

When ink is dipped in anger, truth often drowns. The recent piece _“Jarrett Tenebe and the Limits of Gutter Language”_ was a masterclass in provocation, but a poor attempt at persuasion. So let us respond, not with insults, but with clarity. Cool in manner, hot in substance.

First, the Party is Supreme. That is not a slogan for rallies. It is the spine of our survival. No leader, no matter how loved, stands above the APC. No ambition, no matter how popular, can trample party discipline and call it democracy. Our Distinguished State Chairman, Jarrett Tenebe, understands this burden. He carries it daily, under pressure, under fire, and without apology. To frame his firmness as “desperation” is to confuse duty with dictatorship.

Chairman Tenebe is not at war with Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. That lie must die here. Both men are sons of the same house. They may disagree on method, but they are not enemies of progress. The Chairman respects POI’s political mileage, his grassroots capital, and his decades of service to Edo people. What the Chairman will not do is hand the party’s steering wheel to sentiment and call it consensus. Leadership demands that someone holds the line when emotions run high. That is not arrogance. That is responsibility.

The writer argues that “the people have spoken” in Edo South. If that is true, then why the essays? Why the panic? If POI’s popularity is truly overwhelming, then let it speak at the only venue that matters: the field of delegates and the altar of the ballot. No Chairman can stop a movement rooted in the people. But no movement can bully the party into surrender with press statements. Democracy does not fear a test. It demands one.

It is ironic that an article condemning “gutter language” swims in the very mud it claims to hate. To call a sitting State Chairman “intoxicated by temporary power” and a “confused drummer” is not critique. It is contempt. You cannot demand statesmanship while deploying street language. If we truly seek peace, then both sides must disarm their pens before asking others to disarm their tongues.

On the matter of “suspicious results” allegedly sent to the NWC, the APC is not a WhatsApp group where allegations become verdicts. The party has organs, rules, and appeal panels. If any result was manufactured, bring the evidence to the table. But do not try the case in the court of public opinion and expect the party to kneel. That is not democracy. That is drama.

You are not outsiders. Pastor Ize-Iyamu is not an opponent to be retired by decree. He is a pillar whose bricks built parts of this house. The Chairman knows it. The leaders know it. The people know it. But pillars must also respect the roof. The roof is the Party.

So let us end the war of words. The people’s choice will not be buried by a chairman’s comment, and the party’s authority will not be erased by a faction’s fury. Chairman Jarrett Tenebe is for APC first, always. He is not against POI. He is for process. He is for order. He is for victory.

The message is simple and it burns with truth: Party is Supreme. People’s will is final. And no amount of polished grammar can rewrite those two laws of politics.