BY IKECHUKWU AGADA (9NEWS NIGERIA)
All is set to welcome Wike and his political family into APC barring any last minute change of plans, 9news Nigeria gathered.
It was gathered that there is unease in Wike’s camp since Atiku picked Okowa as his running mate, setting the tone for political wilderness for Wike.
Investigations revealed that Wike and his group are so sad over the development and is set to respond with mass defection to APC immediately following consultations and arrangements to make a bold statement.
Prince Kassim Afegbua until Monday a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and lately known as a fervent supporter of Governor Nyesom Wike’s presidential aspiration has dumped the party alleging a violation of the party’s zoning principle among other reasons.
Afegbua who was a spokesman of the Atiku Abubakar 2019 campaign, however, turned against him ahead of the 2023 election upon his claim that it was the turn of the South to fly the presidential ticket. Responding in a letter to his ward chairman, Abudu Idris on his decision to dump the PDP arising from the decision not to heed to zoning, Afegbua said: Let me use this medium to convey to you, my resignation from being a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Ward 5, Awuyemi, Okpella. My reason is borne out of my long held and well publicized position that it is the turn of the Southern part of Nigeria to produce the next president in line with the provisions of Article 7 of the party’s constitution. Since the party has jettisoned the provision and manipulated the convention by eliminating zoning, my aspiration as a member is impaired.
The same Party that eliminated zoning has all of a sudden, settled for a running mate from the South in person of Senator Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa. I would have thought that having eliminated zoning, the candidate would choose his vice from any part of the country; including the zones of the North. This reality presents a hypocritical emanation that can neither stand the true test of justice, fairness and equity nor prospective legal challenges.
For the above reasons only, I align myself with the considered standpoint of the APC Northern Governors who spoke so eloquently about the need to allow power to rotate to the South, in the true spirit of fairness, equity and justice.
The considered and patriotic position of the APC Northern Governors remains unassailable, and I wholeheartedly align myself with their position; taking into account the heterogenous configurations of Nigeria.
This is without any affiliation or involvement with the APC, whose hitherto uninspiring leadership I have been a vocal critic of, or any other political party. What the PDP power apparatchik has done was to supplant justice with injustice in its desperation to return to power. Power for power sake without recourse to the psyche of its members and the equitability of power acquisition and distribution, is an invitation to political instability.
In arriving at this decision, I have interrogated all the scenarios and situations, and come to the conclusion that a healthy and robust political engagement derives from justice, respect for internal rules and regulations, and adherence to constitutional provisions rather than manipulation of processes to suit the aspirations of a few. I will remain true to my conscience and be driven by my convictions. If it was about self, I would be comfortable to remain within the party and patronizingly readjust my sensibilities to praise worship the candidate.
But, by my orientation and background, I will be in constant conflict with my conscience if I ignore the therapy of balancing the political algorithms of a plural society that Nigeria has been.
In another pedestal, another die hard supporter of Wike, Elder Godsday Orubebe also resigned his membership of PDP in his ward in Delta State sighting lack of internal democracy in PDP.
The APC is set welcome Wike and his disciples any moment from now as they have extended olive branch to them.
The game will be clearer in the coming days as things unfolds.
9news Nigeria
