The APC urged aspirants
to play by the rules and explore internal party dispute resolution mechanisms,
instead of dragging the party to court at the slightest opportunity.
The All Progressives
Congress (APC) says it plans to use direct primaries for the
selection of its candidate for the 21 September Edo State governorship poll.
Duro Meseko, the APC
deputy national publicity secretary, said this when he spoke with journalists
on Tuesday in Abuja at the party’s national secretariat.
He said this was part of
resolutions at the end of the National Working Committee (NWC) consultative
meeting with Edo stakeholders.
He urged the stakeholders
to unite in trimming down the number of aspirants already in the race.
Mr Meseko urged aspirants
to play by the rules, advising them to explore internal party dispute
resolution mechanisms, instead of dragging the party to court at the slightest
opportunity.
“It was resolved that for
the smooth running of the party, all members should ensure strict compliance
with their financial obligations to the party in line with its constitution.
“The NWC also resolved
that for want of time, the e-registration for fresh members be conducted after
the primaries in order not to derail its smooth conduct.
“The stakeholders were
urged to promote unity within the ranks of the party in order to go into the
election as one family bound by progressive ideals and fully geared to reclaim
its mandate in Edo,” he said.
Earlier, Adams Oshiomole,
a former APC national chairman, said democracy based on popular participation
might be more difficult but could not be faulted.
This, he said, was
because it allowed for the building of consensus, conflict and resolution of
same with an understanding that the majority would have their way while the
minority had their say.
Mr Oshiohmole said the
APC was determined to reclaim the state in the September election.
“We are determined to
reclaim Edo. I used the word reclaim because Edo is ours. We lost it due to
several factors some of which were caused by some APC elements,” he said.
He said the party
stakeholders had initiated dialogue among the 29 aspirants with a view to
having a healthy competition.
He lauded Abdullahi
Ganduje, the imcumben APC national Chairman for his leadership role and prayed
that his effort would lead to victory in Edo.
Speaking, Mr Ganduje said
his immediate target was to increase the number of governors and lawmakers on
the party’s platform.
“To do that, we have to
work throughout the year, traditionally, especially in developing countries
political parties are very weak institutions. But we want to make APC a strong
institution.
“Therefore, according to
our programme, we are working throughout the year, not until when there are
elections, and after elections the party becomes dead,” he said.
“We have to improve on
our internal democracy, deepen and widen it,” the APC national chairman said.
He tasked party members
on need to understand the party manifesto, rules, regulations and philosophy.
“We need to move toward
having a party ideology so that we will not be an ordinary political
association whereby everybody can come in just to win the election,” he said.
Comments:
Leave a Reply