Elder statesman, Dr. Chike Obidigbo, has said that the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, has continued to behave like a spoilt child ever since the party was founded in 2002 by Chief Chekwas Okorie.
He noted that for the greater part of the party’s history, it has been embroiled in leadership crisis and structural instability.
In a statement he signed and made available to journalists, Obidigbo noted that the crisis is arising primarily from the greed and intolerance of successive leaderships of the party.
DAILY POST reports that that the party has gone through different stages of crisis since it was founded with the latest involving Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, Sly Ezeokenwa, who is favoured by the governor to lead the party and Chief Edozie Njoku, who is recognised by the court and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as the authentic chairman.
Obidigbo believes that a recent Instagram post by Lady Bianca Ojukwu, wife of former AGPA leader, Odumegwu Ojukwu, was an attempt to convey her concerns about the happenings in the party.
He said, “If my instincts guide me properly, I believe the elegant lady [Bianca Ojukwu] must have been appalled by what has been going on in the All Progressives Grand Alliance, where her husband is bestowed as the ultimate leader,” he said.
“Ever since APGA was founded in 2002, by Chief Chekwas Okorie and other well meaning individuals, including captains of industry, commerce, academics and politicians, the party has continued to behave like a spoilt child.
“For the greater part of APGA’s chequered history, leadership crisis and structural instability has been its main defining feature, arising primarily from the greed and intolerance of successive leadership.
“Whether it was Chief Victor Umeh, rising from his position as party’s national treasurer to mischievously supplant the founding chairman, Okorie, in the position of chairman, or the intrigues between the same Umeh and Maxi Okwu, APGA was always in the news for disputed leadership and audacious corruption.
“The story of crisis did not end with the conscription of Victor Ike Oye into the national chairmanship, because when he was suspended, Chief Nwabueze Okafor, who took over did not enjoy a cosy relationship with Chief Willie Obiano, before his sudden demise.
“Oye continued as Obiano’s preferred chairman until the 2019 national convention, when the expectation that the APGA chairman should come from outside Anambra State regained popular acclaim.
“That thinking led to the sudden change of venue from Owerri to Awka, which gave rise to another parallel national convention that produced two national chairmen in the persons of Chief Edozie Njoku and Chief Ike Oye.
“While Obiano threw the shawl of government support around Oye, the convention process and APGA constitution favoured Njoku, and both men went to court to begin another circus in search of judicial resolution.
“By July this year, both the courts and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were agreed that Edozie Njoku is and should be the national chairman of APGA.
“But, because the party now seems to have become jinxed by ill-advised imposition of candidates, rancour, endless disagreements, political wickedness, greed and ingratitude, the Anambra State governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, appears to favour the Ike Oye lineage, which has thrown up Sly Ezeokenwa.
“Thus giving oxygen to another leadership tussle in the party.
All these must have weighed heavily on the mind of the Queen Mother, [Bianca] who tends to be caught between and betwixt, nonplussed as to how to make reason prevail in the latest chicken fight for supremacy inside the APGA basket.
“Whatever be the case, the gladiators in APGA should reckon with the facts of history and demands of posterity to allow sanity reign in the party, which presents as the camel in the folklore.”
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