APC is not a mushroom party- Gov. Uzodinma
The Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, has said there is nothing wrong if the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress does not hold on February 26.
Uzodinma stated this while fielding questions from State House correspondents shortly after he visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday.
The Governor noted that although the party failed to sell its nomination forms for the National Working Committee offices on Monday does not guarantee that the convention will not hold as there are other means of electing party officers.
The ruling party had on January 19 released a pre-convention schedule and noted that it would begin the sale of forms on Monday, February 14. But as of the said day, the forms were not available.
Uzodinma, who was optimistic that the convention might still hold despite the delay, said, “Of course, that is the decision of the party, and there is nothing wrong even if it doesn’t hold, what is important is that we must have our convention. We have said it’s February 26, if for any reason tomorrow it is not doable in the party’s opinion we will move. But that does not mean that there is any intention to move.
“Don’t forget that the APC is not a mushroom party; the APC is a giant. It’s the largest party today in Africa, which is the party that other small parties should copy. The APC is already the party on the ground that owns the Federal Government of Nigeria and up to 21 state governments. So, the discretion on how and when to do their convention should be an internal party affair, and the APC is the one wearing the shoes; with credible leadership, they know when to move and when not to move.
“So, I think we should watch because, under the constitution of the APC, buying (of nomination) form is one thing. We have three modes that we can adopt to elect our officers; either by direct primary, by indirect primary or by consensus. What if the APC has adopted consensus and is not yet public knowledge? We don’t need again to begin to sell forms and do that zoning or no zoning.”
The governor added that rather than “worry about little issues,” Nigerians should focus on a workable democracy. He said he is confident that the ruling party would not disintegrate as claimed in several quarters.
