Senator representing Imo West at the Nigerian Senate, Rochas Okorocha, on Saturday said that the fortunes of the All Progressives Congress (APC) may disappear with President Muhammadu Buhari when he leaves office in 2023 if the party fails to address its internal problems.
Okorocha on Saturday in Kano: said “I have said this earlier, APC is a party that we hurriedly put together when we were governors because we felt that the government at that time was not living up to expectation and we wanted to make sure that we brought about change at that time.
The former Imo Governor who said that the party was built around the personality of President Buhari in 2015 for the purpose of winning the election, worries it might be difficult to sustain that in 2023.
“That is why we came together and formed the All Progressives Congress and we ensured that the party got power in 2015. That was how it was then and we achieved that.
“Right now, I think we should continue with the same pace that we started within 2015 election but that doesn’t seem to be the case. President Muhammadu Buhari gave character to APC.
“He brought his integrity to bear on the party. He made the party what it is in the northern part of the country and the masses of the North who saw him as a true leader, and we all rode on that to achieve that victory, but after the credibility of Buhari into this party, there seem to be no alternative in the same manner that will drive this party to 2023 victory.
“This is why I expressed my concern that if we are not very careful, APC might go with Buhari in 2023, and that will be a very unfortunate situation for the founding fathers of APC. The party needs to show purposeful leadership, show character.”
“A political party should be a group of people who share common political interests and beliefs. People who pursue a common goal or common objective for the good of the common man,” he said.
“That will be my understanding of a political party, but any political party that is full of internal crisis is no longer a political party in the real sense of the word.”
Okorocha said it’s important for the APC to unite all party members to work together and push for a common goal and ideology.
“This idea of crisis and commotion shows that the said party does not have a common ideology. If the ideology is one and you believe in one thing, there should not be reason for disagreement at that level. You might have a minor disagreement, but when it comes to the issue of do-or-die, it is no longer a political party.
“So, let us see what we can do in this country to redefine what we mean by internal democracy. This why people have options, this is why we don’t believe in one party system. We must have different political parties and identify the one that is in line with your vision, the one that is line with his political believe,” he said.
“So, until we have such a political party that is more like a family in their belief, then we are still growing our democracy. Talking about what is happening in Edo state, it is unfortunate but a true political party cannot work against itself.
“So, I want to advise them to reconcile and resolve their differences. The truth is that a party that is divided can never stand.”
