New Telegraph

2023: APC will not zone Presidential ticket based on agitations –AkpanUdoedehe

Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Senator John AkpanUdoedehe, has been in the saddle in the last seven months. In this interview with JOHNCHUKS ONUANYIM, he spoke on the advantages of the ongoing membership Registration/Revalidation exercise of the party. He however posited that the Presidential ticket of the party in 2023 would not be zones based on agitation but on numerical strength of zones. Excerpts…

Could you give an update of the APC membership registration and revalidation exercise you started in the last two weeks?

The registration and revalidation is going very, very well. The response is amazing and we are so proud of our members on the ways they have conducted themselves. Before now, people used to bother leaders about photographs but in this case, the individuals are providing the photographs by themselves. They own the process just as we envisaged and we said it should be.

What are the challenges that you have as feedbacks from the field since the exercise started?

The challenges that we have is personality problem in some states, not all. 99.8 per cent of states are successful, only in a pocket of states we are having reports of personality problems. Some people believe that they did not nominate the ward chairmen and secretaries of the committees; it’s not the registration process that they are against. They are not disagreeing on the exercise; the little crisis you hear of is about egos of personalities. They are yet to internalize and believe that party and party politics is different from who they are, that they need to key in and believe in the system and the party. That is all. Outside these few things, the success of the registration has been tremendous, amazing and with unexpected outcome. We printed 12 million voters forms and as l speak to you now many states have exhausted their forms and we are dispatching 200 to each unit all over the federation.

Talking about some individuals having issues, how are you dealing with it?

That is why we created, in the wisdom of the chairman, Mai Mala Buni, the Registration Committee to interface with them. Remember last week, the Delta APC stakeholders came here and they resolved that they should dissolve the committee and set up another committee and the Caretaker Chairman in the state should go out and invite leaders to nominate people into the committee as secretaries and chairmen. That was the problem and l am about to sign a letter for the inauguration of a new committee.

What do you make of the argument of some persons that revalidation for somebody who had not left the party is wrong? According to them revalidation should be for somebody who left and came back…

They are only talking about revalidation; there are different words that we could have used. We could have used updating but they are not looking at that. For instance, l am challenging you to go to any ward chairman and ask him to give you a dues details of himself or any member. They don’t have it. By the Constitution of this party you have to pay your dues to maintain the party. Almost everybody is guilty of that apart from the bulk money and some individuals spending for the party and all sorts. There are members of this party who are supposed to contribute and own the party and nobody can challenge them. So, this exercise will give every member an opty portunity to own this party so that they can also challenge any issue as a financial member of the party. We want a situation where people own the party, not individuals and personalities. So, this process will give members the opportunity to tick their cards. Second, you can go and challenge any ward chairman to produce party register and you will be shocked what you will see. It is not there. By the time they finish, every party document would be at the ward office because we are going to fund the establishment of ward offices. People must be there physically for people to see that this is a party. Their views can never be louder the views of NEC that approved the exercise.

Outside Delta State that you mentioned, what is the party doing concerning, Rivers, Imo, Kwara and Zamfara States where there are crises?

We just heard of Kwara recently but l can tell you there are no problems in those areas. I have seen a picture of Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, registered in his ward and all that. Most of these people who are complaining, these chieftains, you have seen them, they have gone for their registration. Like l said, this party cannot because of the views of elders, start reacting negatively. These are people we respect as elder statesmen, even the President respects them. People are bound to have opinions, sometimes they give advice and it would not matter whether we take their advice or not. We are guided by the decision of the NEC and there is nothing we can do again. NEC has established the registration and there is no going back.

At the end of the registration and revalidation exercise what would be the expectation of APC?

We expect ownership of the par-ty by members of the party. It is a highly a progressive party, we expect that the party would be owned by everybody.

What is the target, in terms of the numerical strength you are expecting?

We actually underestimated it. At first we printed 12million forms and we have exceeded that. It is going to be more than what we had in 2019 in the ballot.

Would the registration be considered for 2023 Presidency in sharing of positions in the party?

You are not a politician but if you are a politician you will always look for where you can win. How are we going to win since President Muhammadu Buhari is not going to be on the ballot, where will be the best arrangement for our ticket at that particular point in time, that would be taking into consideration. That is how politics is run, you must not be sentimental because if you are not in APC we can’t come and dash you position. First, we will consider members who will contribute and there are a number of factors that would come into play in 2023 but l am not empowered to speak on that, that is not my mandate. There is a Caucus of the party, there is a Governors Forum of the party, they will sit down and consider a number of things but l am just talking as a politician. If you know that you are interested in a particular position, like in the South East for instance or in the South South, come out and join APC because nobody is going to give anybody ticket for free. If you think that we are going to dash or give you this ticket because we are afraid of your violence or afraid of your outburst or anything, that would not matter to us. For instance now, you might be very good in social media, the core North might not be very good, they keep quiet, but that doesn’t mean they would change their voting pattern. This is an example that l am giving you. Look at the outcome after #EndSARS protest, the bye elections did we lose? We won everywhere. It doesn’t matter how much noise people mak by using social media, even in America D o n a l d Trump o v e r used it but it d i d n o t save him.
So, what l am trying to tell you is that in politics a number of things are considered. Voting strength is very, very important in politics and we advise people to come to APC now. This is an opportunity because the last NEC has given this chance to every Nigerian, young and old, women and men to come in. The NEC has given waivers that if anybody joins the party now it would be as if the person started with it from the beginning. What else do you want, that is the finest generosity you can think of.

What is your reaction to the statement credited to the chairman of the APC Registration Committee in Akwa Ibom State, who said that the APC Presidential ticket has been zoned to the South South?

I, National Secretary of the party, reacting to personal opinion? l can’t do that. That was his personal opinion.

But the man said that the President is aware of the arrangement…

Well, he is from the North. He is not speaking on behalf of APC; he is just a chairman of a committee for registration exercise. So, he is not speaking on our behalf or maybe there is something he knows that we don’t know. We in the Caretaker Committee are yet to entertain that.

What assurance do you have from APC members concerning the process?

The process is that nobody should come with suspicion, don’t just see things and preempt that the matter has been concluded. Example, some of those who founded this party and those who actually hated this party, they are at the front of this party with bogus appointments. That is politics, it depends on who you are. So, politics is not an openended thing, it is dynamic. As a young man you don’t need to believe you are going to form young peoples party and that will give you power, no. The thinking that you are a young fellow and that young people in Nigeria will follow you not considering that they are children of most of these politicians and most of them depend on these politicians, is wrong. So, there is an opportunity now because in our constitution we have provision for the disabled, women and youths. So, whatever anybody is looking for in Sokoto is in so ko to. They should come in as this is an opportunity for them to be groomed for wherever they want to do, so that they don’t fight too much; the political system has been set, you cannot reset the wheel. It will take a longer time. The Yoruba people, who are the most enlightened group in Nigeria, were in opposition for many years, this is the first time that they are coming to national politics. So, whether you like it or not, Nigeria is still one until something happens. You still need the North, the Middlebelt, the Igbo, the Yoruba and others. So, coming together is a very important aspect of politics and l want to advise that we key into this party because this party is going nowhere. This is the party to beat and everyday most big people are coming at night to say ‘please keep a place for me,’ l am coming to join your party. The supposed opposition party will collapse like a pack of cards.

Read Previous

Mudashiru Obasa as Lagos Speaker, five years after

Read Next

Health insurance: We need N3 trn to cover Nigerians –NHIS

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *