A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governorship candidate in Imo State, Uche Nwosu, has enjoined the party leaders and stakeholders to thread cautiously and desist from actions and utterances that may further inflame the current crisis in the party.
He advised that the founding fathers who were neglected and abandoned in the course of events should be brought back to a roundtable to discuss the issues in the party.
Nwosu who blamed the internal crisis rocking the party on the derailment of the Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), solicited the direct intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari in the peace efforts if it must succeed, adding that previous delegation of governors and Ministers didn’t yield results.
Lamenting the failure of the Buni’ committee, Nwosu said instead of it being committed to the task by reaching out to those who laboured to build the party, it pitched its tent with a selected few to grab party structure.
According to the APC chieftain, until those that formed the merger that gave birth to the APC like former Lagos State Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, pioneer National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, Rochas Okorocha, Ogbonnaya Onu, Chris Ngige, former Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, former Zamfara State governor, Abubakar Yari, among others are brought on a roundtable to discuss the future of the party, genuine peace and reconciliation will remain elusive.
In his words, Nwosu who spoke with selected journalists in Abuja, “the Acting Chairman Mai Mala Buni was the secretary of the party and I thought that as a secretary and a party man he should’ve known the problems of the party, he was there when the crisis started in the first place and remember the President brought them in to reconcile aggrieved factions of the party and to conduct the convention, he did not bring them to do any other job.
“Their mission was clearly stated, party reconciliation and convention, in the area of reconciliation, I must be very plain, the Committee failed woefully, no state has been reconciled, I am surprised, by now we should be talking about how we reconciled Imo, Rivers, Ogun, Anambra, Delta, Kano and Edo states but no reconciliation was done. On the issue of the assignment, they failed and that is why we have these problems now.
“On the issue of convention, you can see how we have been wobbling, today convention, tomorrow convention and nothing has been done. So for anybody coming tomorrow, as the Chairman of the party, he should understand the problems of the party, you don’t just administer drugs on a patient without knowing the sickness or the cause.
“So anyone taking over from this committee should first reconcile the different groups in the various states and from there we can move ahead”.
He added that, “first of all nobody is happy that a party we founded that by now we should be talking about our achievements and giving account of what the party has given to Nigerians, we are here fighting over who wants to have the structure of the party and all that. It is a very bad one indeed because the party was not built for people to grab structure, the party was built for us to impact the lives of Nigerians who voted us into power in 2015 and 2019.
“It will be so disappointing for Nigerians to be looking at us that we are busy grabbing party positions. But for me I have said it earlier on and I will also repeat it again that the founding fathers of the party must be called to seat on a roundtable and discuss the way forward for this party, the problem we have in this party today is that the real people that suffered and laboured for this party have been forgotten.
“You find out that the original members and founding fathers of the party are being neglected, being seen as if they don’t matter anymore because of the height the party has attained, that is the worst thing that a party can do, for me the party can still come back together and bring the founding members, people like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, President Muhammadu Buhari, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Ogbonnaya Onu, Chris Ngige, George Moghalu, Shettima, all these people should be called for a roundtable, it is very easy but I believe that this can’t be left in the hands of the governor’s alone”.
Nwosu however maintained that the party can still come out of the crisis stronger if President Muhammadu Buhari can intervene, “I think the President needs to come in, it is not the issue of delegating a governor or Minister, it has passed that stage.
“The President and our leader must call them together and look at them eyeball to eyeball and know their problems and not delegating anybody to meet with them and they will still be waiting to hear what the President has to say. I believe the President would take our advice and call everyone together and those that are bent on making trouble should warn them but I trust Mr, President to reconcile these issues”.
On the chances of the APC in the 2023 general elections, Nwosu said, “I believe the party will come out stronger but I still repeat that for the party to come out stronger, the leader of the party, who is like the father to all, should come out immediately and save the party, it is not the issue of delegating any Minister or governor.
“All the reconciliations that the President directed the governors and Ministers to undertake, no reconciliation was done anywhere, you can imagine that all the states that had problem when Adams Oshiomhole was Chairman no reconciliation has ever taken place, it is now left for the President to actually invite these states and say the governor is the leader of the party but you take this and you take this but a situation where the governor wants to have the entire structure or the other party having the entire structure cannot work, everything can’t be left in the hands of one person, that is democracy, everybody must be on board.
“I believe that the party must surmount these challenges by the Grace of God, I trust and I still believe that Mr. President will handle this matter and the party will come back stronger and we will go into the election and come out strong.
On power clamour for power shift to the South in the party, he said, “I have said it times without number that for justice, equity and peace, power must rotate among the zones of this country and remember the country was built on a tripod, the North, the West and the South East initially, the North had their turn, the West had their turn, the South-South had their turn, what is so difficult to give South East a chance,
“I believe that our party is a party built of equity and justice and I believe that Mr. President is a man who knows that there should be fair play in everything. I still believe that our brothers from other geopolitical zones will reason with us and let there be equity and justice, let’s give the South East a chance before you know the eight years is gone and it will be the turn of another zone and these agitatios everywhere will die naturally”.
Meanwhile, the former governorship candidate, said that he has forgiven those who ‘abducted’ him during the Outing Service in honour of his late mother Jamaimah Nwosu at St. Peter’s Anglican Church at Eziama-Obaire in Nkwerre Local Government Area of Imo State last year.
He said, “I have forgiven all those that abducted me and dehumanized me during the funeral service of my mother, the Bible taught us to forgive, just like Jesus Christ forgave those that crucified him, I have also forgiven them, but they should pray and ask God for forgiveness”.
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