Mike Odiakose
Barely 24 hours after the All Progressives Congress, APC, lost the Edo State governorship election, a founding member of the party and former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has described the ruling party as “dead.”
Addressing some journalists in Abuja, Senator Okorocha said respect for President Muhammadu Buhari is the only thing left in the APC. He attributed the problem in the party to the relegation of its founding members to the background by handlers of the APC.
The former Imo State governor stressed that the that the ruling party died the day the national leadership abandoned the progressive and democratic ideals on which it was founded.
“Permit me to give you the inside of APC, this word APC was formed by four major political parties that had governors, one was the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC,led by President Muhammadu Buhari, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, led by Ahmed Tinubu, All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, led by Ogbonnaya Onu and All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, led by me.
“Every other person fell into this structure. The People’s Democratic Party’s, PDP group came in and joined us. I gave the name APC. I designed that logo and that was the beginning of the party and we had an understanding.
“That is the party you call APC and unless we go back to where it all started, it can never see the light of the day and that was what brought President Buhari to office.
“You cannot rule out the role of these four-key people, then CPC had only one governor in Nasarawa, APGA had only one governor, ACN came with the chunk of the governors and ANPP had a few. We shared the first positions equally among these four parties.
“Now the founding fathers have been relegated to the background and people are coming with different interests making us play the same kind of politics that the PDP played.
“There is no more APC, what we have is respect for President Muhammadu Buhari, that is what is keeping us together. What we have is our respect for the person of President Buhari and we still believe that something can be done.
“That trust and respect is what we still call APC, outside that, respect for President Buhari and the trust and belief that he could wake up one day and correct all these injustices and make it fine.
“That is the only thing that is keeping the APC, if not that, I don’t think there is anything like APC because people are beginning to get fed up. Again, PDP is not even better, the party has its own challenges,” Okorocha said.
Nigerian Pilot