Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Candidates under the aegis of Conference of 2019 South East All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Assembly Candidates, have hinged failure of the party in the zone on negative activities of party leaders in the zone.
Rising from a meeting in Abuja, at the weekend, the Conference also accused the party leaders of anti-party activities, and alleged that most of them did not only campaign for the opposition, but also negotiated with state governors to give 25 per cent votes to the party’s presidential candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a communique issued by the spokesperson, Jude Okpor and signed by Toochukwu Onyedibe and Confidence Chukwuedozie, coordinator and secretary, respectively, the Conference also noted with dissatisfaction, the outcome of the National Assembly leadership election, raising concern over imbalance in the composition of the new leadership.
“The Conference noted with dismay the negative activities of some leaders of the party in the zone, which contributed to the unimpressive performance of the party in the South East.
“Most of them are guilty of anti-party activities.
“They neglected the candidates of the party, campaigned for opposition party candidates and even went into unholy alliances with the state governors; to give our presidential candidate 25 per cent, forgetting that we have all it takes to win the election.
“We noted with dissatisfaction, the outcome of the National Assembly leadership election and raised concern of the imbalance on the composition of the new leadership.
“The Conference expresses optimism in the growth and improved performance of the party in the zone and urge all organs of the party on the need for proactive programmes and early preparation towards the next elections.
“For equity, fairness and growth of the party in the South East, the conference is appealing to president Buhari and the National Assembly leadership of the APC to urgently address the concern of the people of the South East; on inclusive governance, so as to promote national cohesion.
“We commend the party in setting up a committee on the Review of Anti-Party Activities during the last general election and urge the party leadership to implement fully, the report of the committee, especially as it concerns the South East zone.
“We believe that the committee would be unbiased in the discharge of its duties to restore party discipline and loyalty with a view to repositioning the party in the zone.”
A House of Representatives candidate, Vinmartin Obiora Ilo, who delivered a paper during the meeting, entitled: ‘Understanding politics and the Nigeria political environment; the South East perspective,’ listed some challenges facing the zone to include lack of leadership, greed, primordial sentiment, marginalisation, lack of sense of history, ethnic dislike and suspicion, infrastructural deficit, lack of strategy and constructive engagement.
He said: “The way forward for these challenges are unity of purpose, emergence of a new leadership, defined agenda and shared goals/objective, workable strategy for engaging the rest of Nigeria, political education and synergy of South East energies.”