BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
The Director General of Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu has charged the All Progressives Grand Alliance to merge with the All Progressives Congress in order to assist the south east actualise the much talked about Igbo presidency in 2023.
Okechukwu said the two political parties have a long history of political understanding dating, even back to 2013 when a faction of APGA joined the merger of APC.
He harped on the intimacy which the Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano enjoyed with the APC-led Federal Government, and said, “And we cannot forget how in 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari more or less saved governor Wille Obiano from his traducers, hence his re-election.”
Okechukwu, a member of APC campaign council for the Anambra State governorship election noted that it was that background of cordial relationship that informed his recent counsel to APGA leaders to fuse into APC as a pragmatic step towards successful and seamless prosecution of the November 6 governorship election in the state.
“So, that suggestion was made from the prism of the pragmatic Zikist political model, which joins us with APGA. Pragmatism is the best strategy for Ndigbo to kill two birds with one stone, because if APGA fuses into APC that will gift APC with three states in the Southeast geopolitical zone – a milestone,” he pointed out.
The VON DG argued that with three strategic states of Southeast in APC’s kitty, that would be a halfway stroke to Ndigbo’s ambition of achieving a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2023.
“I implore you to kindly consider the fruit in APGA joining APC to win the Anambra governorship election. Other details would be cordially harmonized. My take is that if the two parties, APGA and APC, come together under one bloc, it would then be possible for us to weigh the two flag bearers, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and Senator Andy Uba, on the scale of which of them could better win the election in terms of acceptability, integrity, public service record, capacity and vision for good governance,” the VON DG stated.
While faulting the claim by Chinedu Obidigwe that APC was plotting a forceful takeover of Anambra State, he insisted that the feasibility of his suggestion could be seen from the political understanding between the All Peoples Party and Alliance for Democracy in 1999.
“We must recall that in 1999, based on strategic thinking, AD and APP were merged for the Presidential election. But, although the “powers that be” wanted Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), every stakeholder in APP and AD, and indeed all progressive Nigerians saw the political understanding as a win-win offer on the ballot. So, with the benefit of hindsight, I am seeing the same opportunity for APGA and APC in Anambra State.”
Recall that Obidigwe, the National Coordinator of APGA Media Warriors, had in a statement to journalists, criticised Okechukwu for asking APGA to integrate fully into APC and join the mainstream of Nigeria politics so as to help Igbo pick the Presidential seat in 2023.
But, Okechukwu told reporters in Abuja on Thursday, that APGA was missing the point by seeking to remain as a big fish in a small pond of regional politics that has only earned it just one state out of the entire federation.
He insisted that APGA can, apart from solving its intractable myriad of post-governorship primary litigations join its old ally, APC, to win the governorship, noting that insisting on doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different result is an impossibility.
He urged APGA leaders to give serious thoughts to his pragmatic suggestions, and noted that indeed the time had come for APGA to explore other avenues to achieve the collective purpose for Ndigbo by teaming up with APC.
“This tunnel vision of rigid partisanship has remained the bane of Southeast politics. Therefore, I am still calling on my friends in APGA to look up and count the stars. In 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari restored Governor Obiano’s security details on the APC governorship campaign ground. In 2019, Obiano led APGA to reciprocate the grand political gesture of understanding by Mr. President.
“Gentlemen, would it not make for a greater political impact and success, if APGA consummates what its leaders started right from 2014 by embracing APC in a closer embrace? They should show patriotism and respect for the campaign for Nigeria President of Igbo extraction by joining the mainstream, which APC’s victory in the governorship poll will enhance,” he contended.
