The All Progressives Congress, APC in Anambra State has warned some key stakeholders of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in the Southeast region, to refrain from meddling in the internal affairs of the APC at the national level.
The spokesperson of the APC in Anambra State, Okelo Madukaife gave the warning following the suggestion by former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka for the position of the National Chairman of the APC to be zoned to the Southeast.
The Anambra APC is also against the recent visit to Aso Rock by former Senate President, Pius Anyim and former National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, to discuss inclusive governance.
Chidoka had in a piece he authored shared on his official facebook page, argued that the resignation of the APC Chairman presents an opportunity for the Party to “reaffirm its national credentials and depart from its inglorious past of naked nepotism and gross insensitivity to our national consensus by zoning the position of National Chairman to the Southeast.
“Mr. President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the time to rise above petty politics and renew the idea of Nigeria is now.
“A South East National Chairman for the APC would be a step in the right direction.”
But according to the Anambra APC Publicity Secretary. Madukaife, there is no justification for Chidoka, who maintained belief in a party that threw open the presidential position to all regions of the country, to begin now to talk about zoning.
“The attention of our dynamic chapter of our great party has been drawn to a piece written by a former Minister of Aviation, and member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mr.Osita Chidoka,suggesting that the position of National Chairman of APC should be zoned to the South East.
“While we put no strict barriers on cross-partisan suggestions ,where they connect national issues,there is no evidence that the matter at hand has anything to do with national issues and nothing shows that it has been bantered in the South East.
“We would suggest that Chidoka redirects his bright suggestions towards the rehabilitation of the PDP, his darling party which he says is allied with Labour Party (LP) in the varnishing hope to do APC in at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT).
“We have made similar suggestions to Sen. Plus Anyim and Mr.Olisa Metuh, who visited Aso Rock to ‘discuss inclusive good governance.
“The South East and Nigeria are raising their understanding that Nigeria is practising PARTISAN POLITIC, without INDEPENDENTS for now.
“Hence, PDP should not propose any zoning formulae for APC or suggest modes for ‘inclusive governance.
“Enough of staying home, yet trading in Otuocha markets, even before the National Assembly, repeals the proviso in Section 68 of the 1999 constitution to halt excessive movement from one platform to another.
“Let the use of rival political parties to test waters and supplant the South East also stop now,” he said.
Madukaife continued; “Regarding zoning and for the benefit of those who may be taken in by the sentiments thrown up by Chidoka, the position of the National Chairman is currently zoned to Northern Nigeria, while Presidency is zoned to the south.
“In the north,the position is micro-zoned to North Central in this constitutionally stable tenure.
“We are APC!
“We are not Chidoka’s PDP that said all parts of Nigeria should openly compete in primaries when it became the turn of the South East, so that a Fulani from the north would succeed another.
“It is not the style of APC in the South East to upset the zoning formulae established by the party, except where the need arises to correct a distortion. Doing so may interfere with the ingredients that offer stability to APC ,over and above political parties like PDP and others.”
The Anambra APC called on Chidoka to refrain from meddling in the APC affairs, insisting that the party is on the right course.
“We advise Chidoka and his ilk to pull back from this flying discourse that pertains, as he rightly identifies, to the internal affairs of our great party.
“Again, we would not like to be led by Chidoka nor his PDP in a public engagement on APC election figures in the South East until we discuss the PDP’s big fall in the same constituency.
“The APC figures and the facts behind them are already getting attention in the right internal quarters.
“We wish Chidoka well in the efforts to repair and rebuild or otherwise bury his battered and shattered PDP,” he concluded.
