The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje on Tuesday said the South East geopolitical zone lacks political unity.
Ganduje, who stated this at the APC National Headquarters in Abuja at a meeting with Anambra APC gubernatorial aspirants and other stakeholders, noted that the marginalization in the zone is caused by the people.
The APC National Chairman decried how a zone with five states should have four political parties governing it.
According to him, APC members in Anambra state and other South East APC are in rural electrification grid.
He opinionated that should APC win Anambra and other states in the zone, they would join the national grid politically.
The Chairman posited that there are enjoyment in the national grid, calling on the aspirants to see themselves as a family.
He added that there should be no litigation after the governorship primaries.
He said, “One time we had a meeting similar to this, but not as highly attended like this. I can remember in one of the hotels, many of you were there.
“Where I told your stakeholders, if we are to win a number of states in our party, all of you must be born again.
“Yes, all of you must be born again. And then, after a number of speeches, undertakings were made to build a strong synergy. We even launched in a few fronts, instantly.
“In order to keep the party alive, our intention was to let a lot of activities be taking place until this time and beyond.
“That is how to keep the party alive. Thank you for accommodating us when we commissioned the secretariat.
“I was there and I was able to meet many of you, especially the aspirants who were there.
“So, what we are saying, we need your cooperation. We, members of the National Working Committee, we are just catalysts. Catalysts are not part of the chemical reaction, but we are catalysts.
“We aid, we give an opening environment so that the election, the action will take proper shape.
“We are not fighting anybody among you. Only what we want is to have one of you that we can put forward.
“So, you know it’s not easy to get the government from any incumbent. It requires a lot of political calculation. And cooperation is one of them.
“And then we move into other political calculations, which we don’t need to talk about them now, because we have not reached the stage yet. So, please, we urge, we beg you. No litigation.
“No anti-party. No sitting on the fences. And no lukewarm attitude.
“Only what we require is your active participation. All of you will be gainers. All of you will be gainers if we have government in a number of states.
“You will be fixed to the national grid. As we have been saying, you are now a rural electrification, which is very weak link. So, help us to help you.
“You are all equal as far as we are concerned. You are all our children. All the aspirants.
‘So, please, don’t have any stereotype on any of our members concerning this contest. We are all for you. Once one of you emerges, we beg you support him.
“Please rally around him and become the foot soldiers, so that we win this election. We don’t want the Andy Uba episode.”
Speaking on the South East politics, he said, “We always say Southeast geopolitical zone is duly marginalized in some political issues.
“But looking at the issue closely, looking at the arithmetic of politics in Nigeria, we have five states, like we have been saying.
“A lot of pressure is going on, we have more states from Southeast, that is a fact, a fact that must be admitted by everybody. But having five states controlled by four political parties, look at the arithmetic.
“Five states controlled by four political parties. Where is the unity there? Where is the cooperation there? Where is the political investment there? We have a company, Limited Liability, and many shareholders of almost equal shareholding. Who is the alpha and omega of the Limited Liability Company? None.
“So you can see that the marginalization starts at home due to lack of synergy, due to lack of cooperation.
“Luckily enough now, we have two states for APC out of five, but still we want to pinch more, we want to get more.
“As we have been saying, if not because the military came in 1983, our son would have become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in NPN, Alex Ekwueme. He had good relationship.
“If we get more, then the Southeast has a political investment where things will happen like they happened before.
“I was in politics even at that time, he had a good relationship with Shagari. There was a high confidence in him that the military came.
“If they didn’t come, surely that could have been his way because Southeast had investment in the national politics.
“Apart from that, even the Speaker. Speaker of the House of Representatives at that time the Vice President, the Speaker of the National Assembly.
“At that time, nobody could say that the Southeast was marginalized. In fact, someone said, Ojukwu, come back home, in order to have complete reconciliation and that was possible.
“And that’s what took place. Next election, I think one of the states fell into NPN, in the Southeast.
“That formula is the blueprint we want to follow, if you give us a chance.
“I know it’s a hard fact. Sometimes they say nationally, people will abuse me. But we are used to abuse.
“Even when we are sleeping, some people abuse us. So that is not a big deal.”
The meeting was attended by the seven APC governorship ticket aspirants, the state party chairman and other party stakeholders.
