Nnamani to Ndigbo: Your marginalization will end when you join APC

The ruling All Progressives Congress APC has asked the people of the South East to join the party in order to overcome the issue of marginalization in the current dispensation. National Chairman of the party Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, gave the condition Thursday in Abuja during a reconciliation meeting to pacify the aggrieved aspirants in the recently conducted Anambra governorship primary.

This was as a former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani also stated that his people have no moral standing to complain of marginalization since they do not belong to the ruling party.

“I totally agree with him (Oyegun) especially on the issue of marginalization that you do not stay under the rain when it is pouring heavily and start crying because nobody will observe. Unless you go into the ruling party and make meaningful contributions, you will then have a moral standing to ask ‘why don’t we have this or that?, he declared. In July 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari had in an interview, expressed similar sentiments. Asked of his plans on inclusive governance, the president had said; “I hope you have a copy of the election results.

The constituents, for example, gave me 97% [of the vote] cannot in all honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me 5%.” However, at Thursday’s parley which was boycotted by one of the aspirants, Sen. Andy Uba, the party chairman noted that Anambra is an important state for the APC to win, describing it as “the gateway to the South-east.”

According to Chief Odigie-Oyegun; “It is important that we do everything we can, fair and square, to bring Anambra state into the fold of the progressives for a lot of reason. Until we manage to bring few states into the mainstream of progressive politics, we may not see the end of this continued cry of marginalization. “It is important that we work and work very hard to win Anambra being a critical state in the South-east. It is not going to be a small political struggle. We must work hard with unity of purpose to break through to the South-east in a major way to win Anambra. “We are in politics and we recognize that each and every one of those who aspired to the office of the Governor of Anambra state has a constituency.

Each has something very significant to contribute if we are to have hope of taking over the governor’s seat in Anambra from an incumbent. “It is very important, essential and vital that we manage to hammer together not just a patch work of peace or make-believe kind of camaraderie but a very serious unity of purpose between all those who aspired for that office to act as a serious guarantee that we are indeed also serious in winning the Anambra governorship seat.” Sen. Nnamani, while congratulating all the defeated aspirants, urged them to accept the outcome of the primary election and move on. “I spoke out of experience, observation and interest. We have people who have gone through the crucible of planning in Nigeria’s electoral planning.

The chairman talked about unity of purpose but I want to add that we need unity of action.” ‘We Need Buhari’s assistance to win Anambra’ Speaking on behalf of all the aspirants at the meeting, Engr. Bart Nwibe, urged the party and the Presidency to actively step into the matter, saying without the duo, APC might not be able to take over Anambra. “We are optimistic that we will do our very best. We are on ground and if we do the needful there is no reason we cannot win our state. We have a candidate who is a very young fellow and I am certain he will bring certain kind of freshness but I think our party and the presidency will have to step in to help us achieve this.” Aside the party’s cadidate, Tony Nwoye, aspirants at the meeting included George Moghalu, Madu Nonso, Bart Nwibe, Patrick Nwike, Chike Obidigbo, Johnbosco Onunkwo, and Uzoh Obinna. However, Andy Uba, Paul Chukwuma and Uchegbu Adaobi were absent. Vanguard