Suleiman Anyalewechi, Aba
Ahead of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, national convention scheduled for 31 May, 2023 in Awka the Anambra State capital, chieftains of the party from Abia State have made a case for the ceding of the position of the national chairman to the state, noting that its survival amidst the threat posed by the resurgence of Labour Party, LP, in the political space of the country will depend much on the restructuring of the party’s leadership to make way for inclusiveness.
NewsCritic online reports that since the inception in May 2002, the leadership of APGA has been restricted to political actors from Anambra state except for the pioneer national Chairman Chief Chekwas Okorie, a development that has served to alienate people from other states and prevented the once promising political platform from occupying its rightful position within the country’s political equation.
A topnotch of the party in Abia and current member of the its Board of Trustees, BoT, who craved anonymity encapsulated the position of most chieftains of the party from the state when he decried the relegation of people from other states in the leadership of APGA, despite their huge contributions to its growth.
“In Abia we have prominent leaders and stakeholders like Chief Uchenna Okogbuo, the outgoing Deputy National Chairman South, Prof Greg Ibe, Chief Chikwe Udensi, Gen Ijioma (retd) and of course Sen Enyinnaya Abaribe, all of whom can lead the way to move the party back to its lost glory. The party has to make sure that its leadership is restructured to ensure that it benefits from the experience and contributions of senator Abaribe, former senate minority leader and for now the only senator-elect from APGA, “the BoT member noted.
Impeccable sources revealed that the agitations by the party’s Abia stakeholders is coming against the backdrop of insinuations that the national leader of the party and Anambra state governor Prof Chukwuma Soludo may have settled for the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, for the national chairmanship position. This is said not to be going down well with many party chieftains, not just from Abia but across the country who are of the opinion that it is high time opportunities were given to people from other states to lead the party.
Most of the aggrieved party chieftains believe that the inability of APGA to grow above its present one state level since its formation is majorly traceable to the unwillingness of its progenitors to liberalize the leadership structure, warning that APGA risks losing the modest gains it has made if there is no improvement in its leadership structure.
“We believe that this time we can surmount the problems. We have to put an end to this one-state tag or we should be prepared to bury APGA before 2027, the BoT member warned.