The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA), Sly Ezeokenwa, has said the party under his leadership will key into the OBIdient movement that is dominated by the Nigerian youth to expand the party (APGA)
Ezeokenwa stated this on Friday night while speaking on the State of Progressive Opposition in Nigeria during a live News programme on TVC monitored by our correspondent .
OBIdient movement is a youth vanguard that supports the presidential candidate of the Labour Party ( LP), Peter Obi, especially in his presidential bid.
Ezeokenwa during the TVC outing said under his leadership, APGA would mobilize youth across the country in a manner akin to the OBIdient movement to expand the party’s horizons.
He commended Obi’s outing in the February 25 elections, stating that Obi changed the country’s political tempo from the usual two-horse race to three.
He said the integrity Obi commanded in the 2023 elections stemmed from his achievements as governor on the platform of APGA in Anambra State.
Ezeokenwa said he inherited a robust and healthy APGA structure from the immediate past National Chairman of the party, Chief Victor Oye , whom he said bequeathed to the party a National Secretariat in Abuja and South-East zonal Secretariat in Awka, Anambra State.
He commended the Anambra State governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, for his giant steps in infrastructure development in the state, adding that APGA would leverage the Soludo template to also expand the party beyond the South-East.
He described as unnecessary the insinuations in some quarters that he would not be able to exert power on Soludo as the national chairman of APGA having served under him as a Commissioner.
Describing his relationship with Soludo as cordial, Ezeokenwa said APGA had no culture of exerting power on the government it put in power, unlike in other political parties where he said such practice was a common occurrence
He said the expectation of the party from Soludo was simple: to deliver democracy dividends to the people of the state according to his manifesto,which he averred that the governor was progressively doing.
On the feud between APGA and one Edozie Njoku, Ezeokenwa said no court in the land had ever mentioned Njoku as the National Chairman of APGA, challenging Njoku to name the venue where he was elected as the National Chairman of the party in a national convention of the party.
He said APGA had moved beyond the stage where people like Njoku would tie it down or distract it.
Stating that the May 31,2023 National Convention that produced him( Ezeokenwa) in Awka was monitored by no other person than
Festus Okoye of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), Ezeokenwa said in the spirit of inclusivity, the party would be willing to accommodate Njoku if he would show remorse.
On whether APGA would want to merge with the LP or any other political party to become more formidable, Ezeokenwa said the party had no such plan.
He commended President Bola Tinubu’s resolve on removing the albatross called petrol subsidy, but expressed concern about the implementation of non-subsidy regime.
