Why APGA can’t be a formidable party —-Obijiaku

By Kenneth Madueke

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) lacks necessary war chest, financial muscle , stable foundation and credible leadership to become a formidable political platform to reckon with in Nigeria.

A founding National officer of APGA, Engineer Chidozie Obijiaku, who stated this during an exclusive interview with the OPEN BUSINESS newspaper attributed these anomalies to why the little positive impact of the party has continued to wane by the day after the demise of Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, the  key member of APGA.

Obijiaku, also, an ex- Chief Secretary to the Biafran Warlord, regretted that more than 20 years after APGA’s formation as the last hope of Igbos, no conscious effort has been made by its largely selfish leadership to recruit and train members let alone come out with acceptable code of conduct.

According to him,  the avaricious business men- turned politicians that hijacked the party from inception, have not allowed it to function as a going concern like its competitors such as the People’s Democratic Party and lately the All Progressives Congress.

Expectedly, he continued, APGA has been embroiled in unnecessary and unending leadership tussles, moving from one court to another without any progress.

Obijiaku, a committed APGA Chieftain, stated that the judicial distractions, suspected to be overtly and covertly engineered by political opponents, have evidently prevented the party to enjoy modicum of internal democracy or open branches in different parts of the country let alone  boasting of 100 strong members nationwide.

This, he further said, explained why APGA has failed over the years to organise itself as a serious political party to take a shot at the nation’s Presidency or enter into any beneficial alliance to better its lot.

He regrettably noted that what APGA has  been turned into is a mere political vehicle for mostly greedy  candidates to sneak into specifically to harvest its resources and  specifically leverage on its attractive brand equity to win elections only to abandon it soon.

Once the elections are won , they cut relationship with the political platform that took them to their destinations, go outside APGA to shop for friends to run their affairs while relegating old party members to the background.

In the worse case scenario, they decamp to other parties of choice and severe link with APGA hence the party has remained  largely unable to stand firm even with its potential which, if well harnessed ,can make it strong and virile, he noted.

According to Obijiaku, from all indications, APGA is on the extinction lane which only can be salvaged by a credible leadership with lofty vision.

APGA is supposed to serve lgbo interest especially those things we could not get from the Federal Government, he added.

….. ‘BIANCA OJUKWU DESECRATED IGBO BY AGREEING TO SERVE AS MINISTER UNDER APC GOVERNMENT ‘

Obijiaku, the ex-Secretary of Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, has expressed his reservations on the decision of Mrs Bianca Ojukwu to accept the  offer as a junior Minister under the APC government.

He described the action as belittling, and a veiled desecration of her late husband, APGA as well as lgbo nation.

Till day, many admirers of Ojukwu and the wife he left behind  have not come to terms with the motivation behind Bianca’s decision to accept such obvious Greek gift, he said.

The ex- Chief Secretary, asked: what does Bianca really want in life to prompt such move? Is it name,  fame, money connection ? Her background from birth to marriage , as Nigerian ex- beauty queen and ex,-Ambassador to Paris, are eloquent testimonials for her.

[08/06, 22:42] Kenneth Madueke: Many of us believe that she underates herself and her unique position in lgbo land and that is really unfortunate, Obijiaku concluded.

……. PRESIDENT TINUBU AND LIVER TO FIGHT INSECURITY

On the worsening insecurity challenges in Nigeria, Engineer Obijiaku said that President Ahmed Tinubu does not have ‘the bucks’ to fight Boko Haram and other security issues.

According to the Anambra – born politician, it takes strong political will, foresight, wisdom and secured borders for anybody to successfully tackle the nation’s present multi- dimensional  security challenges.

He stated that the divisive tendencies in Nigeria caused by religion and tribe, lopsided concentration of key military institutions and formations, porous borders of the country and  unreadiness of the President to take hard political decisions against the North, sre his major handicaps.

He stated that Tinubu should be ready to replicate the military formations in other geo- political zones of the country or at least redeploy some  to avoid virtually keeping them in the Northern part of the country.

This  move,if implemented will minimize the risk of giving direct access to untrusted characters to the country’s armouries to share dangerous weapons to the unauthorized persons to hold us to ransom.

The economy of Nigeria should be urgently fixed by the federal government through the implementation of workable economic policies in order to cheapen costs of basic  infrastructure that aid the development of Small and medium enterprises , Agriculture entrepreneurs, facilitate trade and commerce, he said.

According to him, these initiatives would provide jobs for our teaming youthful population thereby reduce unabating wave of crimes that worsen the worrying insecurity cases .

The incessant reabsorption of the so- called repentant Boko Haram members should be revisited with a view to stopping the empowerment of wrong people as spies to our security agencies, Obijiaku advised.b