Why APC may not exist beyond 2023, says Okorocha

A former Imo State Governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha, on Saturday in Kano, says the All Progressives Congress may not exist beyond 2023 if nothing was urgently done to resolve the internal crisis rocking the party

Speaking against the backdrop of the protracted feud between the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomole and Governor Godwin Obasaki of Edo State, Okorocha, who spoke to reporters at Kano Government House, Kano on Saturday, warned against crisis within the ranks of the APC leadership, adding that the ruling party had begun to lose it.

“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. 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 a political party.

“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 expectations and we wanted to make sure that we brought about change at that time.

“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 seems 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,” he said.

On the closure of the nation’s border as part of measures to address growing insecurity, Okorocha advocated a more practical approach in enforcing the border closure policy by the federal government.

According to him, more proactive action needed to be taken to monitor the smuggling of goods from illegal borders in the bushes around neighbouring countries.

“This nation, for too long, has been a consuming nation and not a productive nation. This also has made our own problems more worrisome, because we are not economically independent. We depend on other countries for virtually everything that we eat and use and that is not good for our youths and the generation yet unborn,” he added.