A fact that must be acknowledged and not dismissed is that APGA is in crisis, with the future uncertain, particularly if the current crisis is allowed to fester. I can also see the voice of Jacobs and the hands of Esau promoting the meltdown. Their goal(s) is simple: Destroy APGA for power grab. Anambra is APGA’s last bastion of hope. If Anambra falls, then it’s over for the party!

The enemies are leaving nothing to chance and will succeed if we continue to allow our hearts to dictate the thinking of our brains. Now is the time to wear our thinking caps, borrow some brains assuming we are now bereft of common sense. This is no time for zero sum gain or scorch earth politics.

The temporal setback we face can be arrested with the right approach. We can get the leaders, elders, and veterans of the party who can deploy all their tact and skills to save this roof from falling. Should they fail to save the situation, then they must take the blames knowing they didn’t invest enough time, task, and treasure to get the party on the right path. Otherwise, the party can emerge from its current challenges more resilient, stronger, better, and more victorious.

A couple of days ago, I stumbled on a very lengthy online press interview granted by Chief Chekwas Okorie to Daily Post. Chekwas was the founder and pioneer National Chairman of APGA who had left the party and later came back to become a cafeteria member. In the interview, he divulged things that ought to be held back as an elder in pursuit of peace. I don’t think Chief Chekwas in the said interview made the right and appropriate intervention. You do not come to settle a family dispute and end up becoming the problem.

You may win the war but didn’t win the peace. So, winning the peace is far much greater than winning the war. I wish to urge Chief Chekwas to lower his mic. This is not the time for finger wagging and doing the blame game but a time to sit down with all the disputants and begin a conversation that ought to have commenced many months back.

As progressives and democrats, we can speak out our chest but must be circumspect, knowing we must save the baby from the bath water.

If we have managed our affairs very well, we ought to have realised that APGA is a huge tent, one family, and the political arm of the Igbo struggle for relevance in Nigeria. Whatever our differences are, we must always remember our history and why APGA was birthed in the first instance. In this wise, it is given that when we disagree, we must disagree like one family and settle our differences like a family for what unites us are more than the things that divide us.

This is a time to show APGA unity. With all respect and admiration, I call on the leader of the party to do the needful by assembling a cream of credible party leaders with the moral force to reconcile the members. Here, I mean men and women that can be counted on the fingers. People who can sit down and think through the current crisis and come out with a process of respectful engagement that will achieve realistic objectives. We need to talk. We need a conversation with each other and not a conversation over our heads.

I am for political solutions to political problems. I detest it when politicians resort to the court to resolve what is clearly a political dispute. Politicians should be able to come to roundtable, present their issues and reach accord, concordance, consensus, and compromise. That’s why politics is about conflicts and conflict resolutions.

In these troubling and difficult times, continuity in leadership is important to achieve most of our domestic objectives still on the table. Anambra, in particular, needs a governor that will consolidate the gains so far made and work for the happiness of the people. Soludo stands out as one man with a clear understanding of the moment to lead this charge.

On the 20th of May 2024, I effectively ended my tour of duty as a transition chairman, a journey that commenced on the 3rd of August 2022. Within the period, we made sacrifices to make Anambra better. In two years, we accomplished what could not be delivered in eight years.

We delivered on our agenda despite the antics of solution deniers. Someone told me that he thought Oyeagu- Abagana was irredeemable, but I proved him wrong. I also thought at a time that Okpoko in Onitsha was a hopeless situation, but Soludo proved the bookmakers wrong. That’s the vision and power of one man.

We also faced opposition from some individuals in the community of clergies, traditional institutions, and the business communities. Some became angry solution deniers because the governor was providing life changing skills for jobless youths that were before now ready-made thugs, kidnappers, prostitutes and sometimes paid for hire assassins

The tax payer’s money was needed to fix the roads, provide clean portable water.

Email: totalpolitics@ymail.com

The Future Of Apga And Soludo’s Leadership Continuity By Clem Aguiyi