By Hamilton Nwosa(Head, The New Diplomat’s Business and data tracking desk)
Clearly affected by negative public feedback on its scorecard in office this far, elements within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are presently contemplating a very tough fight in the forthcoming 2023 polls.
And to put it in the best fighting position that it can muster, they are calling on party members to close ranks and engage in intense grassroots mobilisation for the party so as to have a guaranteed chance of retaining power after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
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According to the reasoning of these leaders, unlike in 2015 and 2019 when the party rode to power relatively on the persona of the incumbent president, who enjoys solid support in the North, this time around, there is widespread belief that several other factors, outside of the president’s vaunted credibility and support, would determine whether the ruling party would continue to be in charge of the reins of government at the centre and in the majority of states within the federation come 2023.
This much was underscored by the current Secretary of the APC Caretaker Committee, Senator John James Akpan Udo-edehe, when he told a visiting Coalition of the APC Support Groups, led by Mr. Frank Ossai, in Abuja that the various support groups of the party, should seriously make themselves relevant in grassroots politics.
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Other than Udo-edehe, not a few critical stakeholders of the party have been expressing concerns about the future of the party after Buhari would have served out his constitutional two-term limit by 2023.
Even the president expressed a similar concern in November 2019, where, at a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party in Abuja, he urged party leaders to work hard to ensure that the party survives beyond the end of his tenure in 2023.
According to him, history will not forgive the leaders if APC should collapse at the end of his administration.
He therefore told the leaders that they have a responsibility to make the party attractive to their constituents.
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“History will be fair to us if the APC remains strong and not only holds the centre but makes gains,” he had expressed.
But coming out more bluntly, Udo-edehe, on Wednesday affirmed that given the reality of politics as he knew it, almost nobody in APC would have an opportunity to hide under the integrity of Buhari to contest the 2023 general election.
“Owing to your contribution to the party, we will integrate and reconcile aggrieved members to ensure that they are part of the party system.
“In 2023, the personality of President Buhari will not be replicated. So, we need you and other support groups, we need to do something about it,” Udo-edehe added.
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Earlier, Ossai had lamented that some of his members that participated in the 2018 national convention, particularly those that contested elections, were sidelined in the system.
He, therefore, urged the party to reward his members by allowing them to play critical roles in the forthcoming Ondo State governorship election.
Ossai said: “One of the issues the Coalition of APC Support Groups have is the lack of rewarding system. Since 2015, we from the South-south and other geopolitical zones we know what it means to have APC as your surname.
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“We have members of our groups who were shot dead and some who lost members of their families in the 2015 and 2019 general elections. Till today, most of us have not been rewarded.”
Ossai equally urged the APC Caretaker Committee to give top priority to the imperative of reconciling all aggrieved members of the party.
