BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
As the All Progressives Congress prepares for its national convention, Concerned Stakeholders, also known as Rebirth APC, has warned that the ruling party cannot afford to elect someone who has a lot of baggage as its national chairman
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Point, leader of the group, Abubakar Usman Sadiq, said the APC has no reason to elect someone Nigerians perceive to be a ‘criminal’ as its national chairman because it negates the party’s ideology.
“APC cannot afford to elect someone who has baggage, has no administrative ability as a national chairman. We want a chairman who is a people manager, who has no baggage and is a proven administrator, not the one who will be running from pillar to post to save his name from allegations of corruption. There are many of such people with clean records in APC so why should we settle for people who have questions to answer even though they have not been convicted, Nigerians perceive them as criminals.”
Sadiq stated this while taking an overview look at their earlier request for a rebirth of the party which took them to the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.
He said, “Of course, the demands have not been met. We weren’t particularly expecting that the demands should be met. It was only important for us to point out the issues so that we awaken the consciousness of party members. Of course, the events have already been ongoing by the time we came to the party’s national secretariat with those demands and what we were particular about, we know that some processes had been put in place at that time we came to the national secretariat, what we were particular about and we know arrangements had not commenced on was the national convention but what was done at the Wards and Local Government congresses had already been done.
“Of course, it could have been easy for us to call for the cancelation of those congresses but that would take us way back and that was why we called that the mistakes of those congresses should not be repeated, particularly at the national convention. So we are still hopeful that the things we asked for particularly in the national convention will still be looked into and acted upon by the party hierarchy for the good of the party.”
He maintained that their demands were in tune with what many party members feared would happen at the congresses from the Wards, Local Governments to the States, saying, “In fact, as a matter of fact, the things we demanded are not out of place they are issues that will rather strengthen the party in the long run but we are still hopeful that the leadership of the party will without further hesitations look into our demands and implement them especially as we move towards the national convention.
“Of course, there is no genuine party member that is happy with the events that took place at the states’ congresses and this was exactly the reason why we have voiced out and the issues that we raised have vindicated us by the outcome of those state congresses. We wanted a situation where the issues that happened at the state congresses would not happen but our call was neglected and they happened.
“But of course, we are not surprised at the outcome; it was expected because we saw it coming. You know when we had the Wards and Local Governments congresses; they were much local so nobody would hear much about the mess. It is not that the issues did not come up at those congresses; the difference is that the state congresses exposed the issues more. They are not different, it’s only that the states’ congresses were bigger stages,” he argued.
He further warned that signs coming from the party leadership are creating more fears as the party gears up towards its national convention and called for a stop to the mistakes of the previous congresses to avert huge problems after the national convention.
“Now that we are entering the national convention without date yet, if we don’t put a stop to the mistakes of the past, we are even going to see more, hear more of what we saw in the last congresses and we the Concerned Stakeholders don’t want that to happen. It’s not about the national convention because everything starts from somewhere.
“If we lay a poor foundation from the national convention, then it means we are going to have a huge problem in future, that’s why it is very necessary that the party leadership corrects these anomalies before we go for the national convention. All we are asking is the rebirth of the party.”
The Rebirth APC convener insists that the only way out of the impending doom for the party is to return the party to the original owners who believed in the party slogans.
“Take the party back to the original owners which is the people, the grassroots the basis on which it was founded in 2013, not just the registered members but a lot of Nigerians who embraced the party as their own because they saw certain things in the party that made them believed in the party but unfortunately, those things have disappeared from the party.
“A party cannot set out deliberately to cheat some people, a party cannot set out deliberately to mete out injustice to some people just because you know you will set up a reconciliatory committee to come and reconcile the people
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They believed our slogan of justice, peace and unity are what we are going to follow through but that is not the case.
That has disappeared and that is why we are where we are now.”
He wondered why a political party would take a decision to cheat some people and in turn, set up a committee to reconcile the same people and noted that the speed with which the party national secretariat set up the reconciliatory committee shows that the leadership has already made up its mind to do what was done in the congresses.
“Talking about reconciliatory committee, I think the question we should be asking now should be, is the party ready for restitution? This is because, a party cannot set out deliberately to cheat some people, a party cannot set out deliberately to mete out injustice to some people just because you know you will set up a reconciliatory committee to come and reconcile the people.
“Of course, members of the party who love the party may accept the reconciliation but what about those who are assiduously working to dislodge the party. The fact remains that injustice is injustice and no matter what you are going to offer to people that were cheated, the injustice will surely playback at a point in time no matter what to hunt everybody.
“The purpose of the party should not only be to win elections, but it should also include good governance after winning elections and this cannot be achievable when a party in power has a major crack. We know the reconciliatory committee was set up to reconcile everybody so that we will not have issues going into the 2023 general elections so that we will go into the elections as one party but that should not be the main aim.
“We should be able to have people in a political party where at any point in time they are proud to say I belong to this party, I have a level playing ground to aspire to whatever position I want to in this party and not a political party where some people will be feeling deceived and cheated because some individuals have hijacked the party and processes of contesting for any position in the party.
“Reconciliation committee is good but then one should ask is it on the basis that those holding the party to ransom envisaged that they will create these crises, they have already known that what they were going to do at the congresses would not augur well with a lot of party members and so they set up the committee to go about reconciling aggrieved people. Things are not done like that.
“Naturally in every contest, there must winners and losers as a matter of fact, you don’t expect losers to be happy but there are people who will be contented that they contested in free and fair elections and lost not because they were cheated but because their opponents were better and they will take it to heart. But you set out from the beginning to cheat some people and at last set up a committee to reconcile the people. It may give a temporary solution but in the long run it’s still going to be a major problem,” he noted.
Sadiq cautioned that the Rebirth APC is not comfortable with the attendant crises in the party though the leaders are playing the Ostrich with the poaching of some people whose baggage has led this country to where we are now. He warned that the wind would blow nobody any good.
“We the concerned members of APC what we are looking for is a political party that is an institution not a gathering of hawks or a platform for winning elections. Of course, the ultimate goal of a political party is to win elections and be in power but there are a lot of other things that can be done and that’s why we are saying we don’t want our party, APC, to just become a platform for people to win elections and because of that you go and bring all sorts of people to the party.
“We want APC to remain a movement. Our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari for what he stands, would not have joined the APC if the calibre of politicians in the party now were in the party in 2013. APC must be returned to a party that will attract the best minds, intellectuals and people with integrity in the country because the best way one can greatly serve one’s country is by joining politics but you will have people who have what it takes to offer to our country to join politics when they see that it is dirty, and indeed, it is very dirty here in our country.
“We don’t want politics that is dirty. We want politics that is clean, free, fair, and seasoned with integrity so that people with sound minds and integrity who would not want to be associated with anything that is dirty will join our party and in the long run their coming into the party will put them in government or in a position where they will be able to impact the society and country.”
