I am writing this article to correct some misconceptions about the APC in the Southeast and its consequences.
This is my personal opinion despite being aware that some people from this part of the country might not agree with me but they should also consider and have it in mind that what they consider as not good for the goose might be good for the gander and that’s life.
The same APC they are blackmailing is the same party that has been embraced in other parts of the country. This week’s defection of five PDP governors to the party is a serious pointer.
That APC did not win in Anambra does not mean that they cannot win in Lagos, Kano or Borno.
Since the merger that brought about this party, it has suffered lots of onslaughts and blackmails that it’s a Yoruba party, Hausa party or a Muslim party and the deportation brouhaha.
Peter Obi was exposed to have “deported” hundreds of other people prior to the Fashola “deportation” saga but it was the same Peter Obi who dubiously used it as a propaganda to blackmail APC and tarnish the image of the party in the south east in his desperation to deliver APGA at all cost in a dubious election that is still inconclusive after two weeks.
All these allegations although unfounded and deceitful is being embraced by a section of the populace and this is very dangerous when some people who call themselves leaders despite knowing the truth but prefer to use falsehood to achieve their aim leaving their followers to suffer in ignorance .
Presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe has predicted in his usual manner that APC will collapse before the full merger .Today, its more than five months since the merger and the party has waxed stronger and stronger.
Then some confused tribalistic minds came up with a theory that politicians from the east and west can never work together.
Well, some of them have not cared to learn from history on how Micheal Okpara who was a leader of the UPGA, an alliance of NCNC and remnants of imprisoned Awolowo led AG in the 1965 elections.
Some myopic minded individuals also hinted that there is no way that Buhari and Tinubu can work together or that Buhari cannot work with the Igbos.
Please be informed that both Buhari and Tinubu are just members of APC and both are wise men that know where this merger is heading to.
Recently, a former member of the presidential committee on the proposed national confab, Col. Nyiam revealed that Buhari has always preferred to work with Igbo military officers during his time in the military. Col. Nyiam as an outspoken person has known Buhari personally since the outbreak of the civil war.
Then recently, another school of thought with their spokesman in the person of Senator Jonathan Zwingina hinted that the Yoruba can never agree with the north.
He justified his position with the last horse trading accord of 2011 between Jonathan and Tinubu that helped Jonathan to win the southwest. It’s likely that Senator Zwingina will get the shock of his life.
Back to the Southeast, there is no positive justification to vote against the APC with regards to these cheap and unfounded speculations.
PDP has held firm here for 12 years and has nothing to show for it. It’s not a hidden thing.
After all in 1999, we had in the APP (later ANPP) the likes of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Arthur Nzeribe, Ogbonnaya Onu , Ifeanyi Araraume, George Moghalu, Evans Enwerem and host of others but all of them excluding Ogbonnaya Onu and George Moghalu decamped to the PDP .
The APP later metamorphosed into ANPP and later APC. These heavyweights could have been members of APC today if they have stayed back in ANPP with an example of Chief Ogbonnaya Onu and George Moghalu and their counterparts in Borno, Yobe and Zamfara.
They were not chased out of the party but for reasons best known to them, they preferred to be with the party in power.
The same was with the formation of AC, ACN and later APC .As a member of AC since 2006, later ACN and now in APC, I can give a small history of the Southeast participation in the party.
AC was formed by most national stakeholders who took part in the successful anti third term project led by Atiku. After the unsuccessful 2007 elections, many of the foundation members who could have stayed behind to further strengthen the party in the south east retreated to the PDP. They are the Vice presidential candidate, Senator Ben Obi, John Nwodo, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Dubem Onyia and hosts of former national house members like Greg Egu and others whom I cannot remember went back to the PDP with Atiku.
My argument is that lots of our Igbo brothers played major roles in the formation of these parties that later merged into APC but instead of staying to consolidate they left on their own accord to the ruling PDP.
I want to know at what point that ACN/ANPP became a southwest, northern or Muslim party when prominent Igbos played major roles in their formations but abandoned them for “greener pastures” called PDP.
They, together with their other compatriots spread all over the country went to PDP to either play national politics or to have a share of the “national cake.”
An Igbo proverb says that it’s when you marry two husbands that you know which one is the best.
PDP has never fielded any Igbo man as a presidential or vice presidential candidate but AC and ANPP had fielded Igbos as vice presidential candidates at various times in 2003, 2007 and 2011. So which formation really loves the Igbos more if we have to judge from this perspective?
So, it’s really shameful when someone comes to say that Igbos don’t have a stake in the APC formation that has respected our aspirations in the past.
One of my friends wrote that notwithstanding that Imo is APC, that PDP will win the presidential election there. I don’t want to argue but my argument is why some people are so much concerned about who wins in Imo state.
Will Jonathan win the general elections if he wins only in Imo and the entire southeast?
Also, remember that the northern states of Niger, Katsina, Gombe, Bauchi, Jigawa though “currently” PDP states are likely going to vote against Jonathan.
I keep on advising PDP supporters and reporters that they should not lose sleep about the east.
I am not trying to dispute your Jonathan’s landslide or moon slide in the east. You guys should worry about what happens in other zones too, because the south south/southeast and some north central states with their weak numerical voting strength cannot deliver Jonathan.
Ask yourselves these questions:
1- Will Jonathan”s victory in the southeast guarantee him total victory if the whole north west/north east and southwest with their superior numerical strength vote against him?
Go and check and compare the voting strength of current PDP controlled states ( 28 million plus including likely swing states of Niger, Katsina, Gombe, Bauchi ,Jigawa) and APC controlled states ( 35 million plus).
Note that I included the voting strength of those likely northern swing states to Jonathan despite the fact that they will vote against him.
2- What’s the voting strength in Imo State and the entire southeast compared to only one APC controlled state of Kano?
I hope that those myopic minds using the Anambra election to generalize the outcome of the 2015 elections will have a rethink.
Since the election, I have been bombarded with attacks here in Owerri . It seems that some people were just waiting for the outcome of the election to erroneously pronounce the death of APC in the entire southeast and Nigeria on the whole.
It beats my imagination on how some people can use the incident in Anambra to arrive to a conclusion.
I have always maintained my stand that the perception and acceptance of APC in the Southeast falls short of the perception and acceptance of the party in other parts of the country and at the end it might be the perception and acceptance of the party in other parts of the country that might be the deciding factor.
That the southeast will vote for “Ebele” ( chukwu) , but that will not save him.
That’s my personal opinion.
Last Tuesday, I was very busy and was not aware that the political landscape of this country has taken a new dimension.
I went to watch a local football match in the evening and again I was “mobbed” by friends of how brother ” Ebele” will win landslide and moonslide in Imo State and south east.
When I asked, they pointed out that I should ask the common man on the street.
When I pointed out that the common man on the street of Owerri and the common man on the street of Lagos, Ibadan Sokoto, Kano, Dutse etc might not share the same idea, they absolutely refused to understand.
It was when I reached home that I felt somehow vindicated when I heard the news that APC has gotten five PDP states without a fight.
The “common man” in Sokoto, Adamawa, Kwara, Rivers and Kano had spoken.
To my conclusion, many people have always had the view that all Nigerian politicians are the same despite their political affiliation but that should not make us to fold our arms and watch a handful of people hiding under the PDP to hold the nation hostage.
We should vote them out and replace them with other people so that this will help our economy and democracy to grow because anyone that goes their will strive to work hard having it mind that failure to do so means losing the next election.
It worked in Ghana, Kenya and lately Senegal and we hope to see this happen during our own days here on earth.
Osita Chiagorom
ositac@yahoo.com
drbiggie 