Lack Of Internal Democracy Bane Of APC Victory In Anambra . .... Okey Chukwuogo.

 

Lack Of Internal Democracy Bane Of APC Victory In Anambra . .... Okey Chukwuogo.

Last Sunday a meeting of some Stakeholders of the Anambra APC was called off by the Acting Chairman of the party. One of the conveners Arch Okey Chukwuogo spoke with our correspondent Nkiru Nwagbo.

Question; We learnt that there was a stakeholders meeting of the party which was stopped by the Acting party Chairman, what actually happened?

Answer; There was a stakeholders meeting that was summoned at Marble Arch hotel here in Awka and my understanding of the meeting is that it was called for us members of the All Progressive Congress APC who are not happy that our party lost in the gubernatorial election and so badly too.

So members to f the APC had to meet to chat a way forward and to decide on what to make our party vibrant again. Elections are still coming and you know that Anambra governorship election is a stand alone election.

There are still other elections such as the Senatoral, Federal House of Representatives and the state house of Assembly election. Naturally we expect the conduct of local government election some day and hopefully there would be that election and the APC would take part in those elections as a party and if we don't put our  arts  together, these elections will not favour our party in the state.

If need be, the leadership of the party should work out modalities for producing our candidates and the emergence of the leadership of the party.

Question; But we understand that the Acting Chairman Basil Ejidike stopped the meeting?

Answer; Yes the Caretaker Committee Chairman Basil Ejidike called the Management of the hotel and told them that he was not aware of such meeting in Anambra state .

Which ever way he did it he was able to get them to lock the hall against us  . They locked the hall even when the hall had been paid for. However majority of the people that came for the meeting gathered at the bar of the hotel and people like Ven Chris Orahekwe addressed them , Hon Nestor Okoro and myself addressed them .

We explained that the main reason for calling for the meeting is what I have already stated which is the way forward in the APC Anambra state so that we can achieve success in subsequent elections.We told them that we shall reschedule the meeting another day.

Question; The party list the governorship election and your candidate says he is going to tribunal are you people in support of this move?

Answer; You know that the legal system is available for everybody who wants justice and fair play.He has the right to go to court. Send Andy Uba has the right to go to the tribunal.

If he goes to the Election Petitions Tribunal, whatever they give him he takes. But on the other hand don't forget that there is a subsisting case at least one . The one that I am in tune with.

The case instituted by Chief George Muoghalu contesting that there was no primary election in the first instance and that Andy Uba is not the candidate of the APC and that the APC and it's candidate should be delisted from the INEC list of candidates and parties for the election.

There has not been any judgement on the matter. The last time there would have been a judgement but the lawyers of Andy Uba wrote a petition saying there would be crisis if the court delivers a judgement considering how close it is to the election time.

The government of Nigeria in there best of wisdom decided to that the judgement should  be deferred  and the judgement was kept in abeance.

We believe that very soon the judgement would be delivered and the judge earlier said they it would be delivered on or before December 20th this year.

So we expect that before December 20th the judgement would be delivered and if the judgement says that Andy Uba was not the candidate of the APC in the said election what will he be doing at the tribunal? Nothing.

Question; Do you think that the failure of the APC in that election was as a result of the fact that there was no validly conducted primary election?

Answer; It had a major role to play because people lost hope in the party and if you will recollect that before the primary election APC was already a household name which was why Send Andy Uba and his cohorts choose to write the results of Three hundred thousand and something people voted at the primary election.

Because the APC had good followership but unfortunately when he wrote that result immediately members of the party lost hope hope and a lot of them didn't even come out to cast their votes and that affected the chances of the party during the election.

Question; Do you think that the meeting at the Marble Arch hotel had the blessings and support of members?

Answer; That meeting is actually open for all stakeholders . What we were trying to do was to make Anambra APC viable again and to regenerate Anambra APC so that we can be counted among APC states in Nigeria and be part of the center. We were not selective in what we are doing and there is no card carrying member of the party that would come to the meeting and we ask him to go out. So it was not and cannot be a close seciute meeting where people are picked and chosen for a meeting the attendance on that day was massive and they came from the three senatoral Districts of the party and the twenty one local government areas of the party and also from their electoral wards.

So people should disabuse their minds about what the enemies of the party who appears to benefiting from crisis.

Question; Before the election we had litany of people defecting from PDP and APGA to APC were they defecting because of the party manifestoes? 

Answer; A lot of people joined the APC because they believed in the party . They believe that APC is doing good work for the country . However how they joined is a matter for another day .

Question; What do you think that can be done to revive the party?

Answer; The basic thing is inclusiveness in the decision making of the party .We are talking also about openness and transparency in the conduct of party primary elections and congresses. All members should be put in the picture and ensure transparency in all our dealings .

The party has all the prospects of rising higher and winning elections in Anambra state and that is what we want in our party. People should allow internal democracy to prevail in our party.

We do not want a situation where by primary elections and congresses are highjacked by some people and at the end we produce an unpopular candidate that would go for election and loose .

Question; But some people feel that you people are being sponsored by some cabal?

Answer; That is not true and I must state it clearly that no one approached us or talked to me or gave me money to organize that stakeholders meeting and we want to make it clear that some fifth columnists who do not want the progress of the APC in Anambra state are trying to throw spanners into the good works of the stakeholders and all they want is to continue to emasculate the party at every election and we are saying no to that .

We the members of the APC stakeholders forum gathered to say enough is enough and this would not happen again