- Says party ’lI win Edo governorship poll
The All Progressives Congress National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, has stated that the party is encouraging internal democracy to reduce factionalising in its fold.
Ganduje said the measure was also aimed at reducing tension in the ruling party.
He said this while receiving members of the Correspondents Chapel of Kano State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists led by Chairman, Aminu Garko, in his office in Abuja on Thursday.
“We always encourage internal democracy so that we reduce tension and factionalisation of the Party.
“Though you may have incidents here and there at the same time we have internal democracy.
“There is more understanding and there is more hope, especially when you are facing an election,” he said.
He said there was a need for synergy between party officials and political office holders.
“That is if you are talking about the governors, they have a close relationship between them and the party’s structure at the state level and the same thing at the national level.
“So, we normally invite our officials from the state level and give them some information; educate them on issues like internal democracy,” Ganduje said.
The former governor of Kano State said APC had established a Progressives Institute as an intellectual Wing of the party.
“On the issue of having an intellectual wing for the party, we established what we call the Progressives Institute.
“It is to analyse national issues so that they can get the attention of the government to become an agenda for the government,” he said.
Ganduje observed that political parties in developing countries like Nigeria were only normally active during electioneering campaigns, adding that it should be so.
This, he said, informed the decision of the APC to change the narrative and be active all-year-round.
“When we came in we said we must change the narrative. In our political party, the APC, as an institution, we want to be active throughout the year. That is why we directed our offices and chapters at the ward level to ensure that all our offices are renovated so as to be habitable and also become operational.
“That is only possible when they create activities that will be taking place at the party offices right from ward level to the Local Government level up to the state level,” he said.
Says party ’lI win Edo governorship poll
Ganduje also expressed optimism that the party will win the September 21 Edo governorship election.
He said political machinery has been put in place to pave the way for a landslide victory of the party’s candidate.
Ganduje said, “I believe our campaign is in high spirits, we are getting ready for that election and we believe we will be able to recover our state.
“This is because it was an APC state but because of internal bubbles, we lost it to PDP but we are sure we will recover that state.
“For Ondo state, it is already an APC state and when the former Governor died, he left a number of problems, but we were able to resolve those issues.
“We conducted primaries; we succeeded in getting the person that they want.”
He said that the party was also getting ready for the election, which comes up in November.
Ganduje said, “If we win Edo, we will be getting an additional state for the party. It will be 21 states out of 36.
“Next year, there will be Anambra, which has been a state governed by APGA for many years, but we have introduced a new scheme.
“The North, South East political zones are all claiming that they have been marginalised.
“The South East geopolitical zone is saying the same thing. But what we are telling them is that marginalisation has been created by them.
“How can you have five states ruled by four political parties? What will be your political bargain?”
He said that the party was working very hard to ensure that it gets more states from the zone, saying, ” We want to start with Anambra.
“Already, we have Ebonyi and Imo. Now we are encroaching into that zone to ensure that we capture most of the states.
“And if we get what we want, we capture all the states,” Ganduje said. (NAN)
