From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has revealed that activities towards the build-up to the 2019 general election will resume organising congresses latest September.
Speaking when he received an APC delegation from Niger State, yesterday, Oyegun also appealed to Nigerians to intensify prayers for the quick and full recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Updating the delegation on APC’s plans and programmes, Chief Oyegun said: “The party is going to have congresses this year. We only await the National Organising Secretary to conclude the planning and programme for these congresses. In two to three months, those arrangements will be over.”
Praying for the speedy and full recovery of the president, Oyegun stated that although the task placed on Buhari to rebuild the nation was difficult, the administration is already tackling the country’s several challenges and recording successes in different facets.
“The leadership of the party, in this case, the National Working Committee (NWC) has tried, to the best of its ability, to do the difficult process of welding together the party that was created out of three, four other parties. It has not been easy, as you know. But, we thank God that, by and large, it has been a significant success.
“It is a difficult task that we have all thrust on the president. We had to deal with a predecessor regime whose hallmark was corruption. A regime that lost all vision; that lost interest in developing our nation, given the kind of resources available.
“A regime that, instead of developing, wasted our national resources such that, as at the time we were taking over, there really was nothing. The economy had already collapsed. Salaries were not being paid. Public infrastructure had collapsed. Price of oil had also collapsed.
“So, the president had a very difficult situation to handle. It is not surprising the kind of pain a lot of our brothers and sisters are going through today. One will depend on people like you to help us pass the message to our people that this is just a passing phase, this is an evil that was created by predecessor regimes.
“The president and his team are working flat out to make sure that our economy is diversified and our nation no longer depends on oil only. I pray that God restores the president to complete health so that he can continue the mission.
“There is no magic to it. It is taking time, but, this country will never go back to the bad, old days where all we did was divide the money from oil. Today, I am very proud of the accomplishment of states like Kebbi, Jigawa, Zamfara and the rest of them, in agriculture. Today, Nigerian rice is becoming what we all eat. Tomorrow, by God’s grace, we will be able to export Nigerian rice to the rest of Africa and far beyond,” he assured.
Earlier, Chairman of Suleja Local Government Council, Abdullahi Shuaibu Maje who spoke on behalf of the delegation said the people of Niger State and indeed, Suleja community, have stood firm, have faith and voted for great party, the APC at all levels, since 2015.
Maje said the delegation resolved to pass a vote of confidence in the APC national chairman, on account of his leadership style and for managing the affairs of the party well.
“You led the greatest mega opposition party ever in the history of our country and the African continent to defeat a so-called biggest ruling party and the most corrupt in the annals of the history of Nigeria, the PDP, in the 2015 general election, which brought in the current government of change.
“We are proud of you and we are proud of our great party, the APC at all levels,” he noted.