Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma, has said that there was nothing wrong if the national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) doesn’t hold on February 26 as planned.
He disclosed this to State House correspondents on Tuesday after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He, however, expressed confidence that the convention will hold on the February 26.
According to him, APC is the largest party in Africa and its internal mechanism is different from other smaller parties.
Uzodinma stated that APC is already the party on the ground controlling the federal government and 21 state governments.
He noted that the discretion on how and when to do its convention should be an internal party affair.
He said, “so, I think we should just watch because, under the constitution of APC, buying form is one thing. We have three modes that we can adopt to elect our officers; either by direct primaries, by indirect primaries, or by consensus.
“What of if APC has adopted consensus and is not yet to the public knowledge? We don’t need again to begin to sell forms and do that zoning or not zoning.
“We are democratic enough to know when to shoot and when not to shoot. I think you should just bring your people who have not joined APC to join the party.
“Of course, that is the decision of the party and there is nothing wrong even if it (convention) doesn’t hold, what is important is that we must have our convention.
“We have said it’s 26th, if anything, for any reason tomorrow, it’s not doable in the opinion of the party, we will move. But that does not mean that there is any intention to move.
“We shouldn’t worry about little issues. I think our focus and attention should be towards having a workable democracy in Nigeria, like we have shown, supporting government policies and programmes and then being patriotic.
“Our democracy will do better if supported with the right attitude. You may not like my face, but the federal government is the federal government, the state government is the state government.
“We should be able to exhibit a sense of nationalism and patriotism. We should be able to support a government that is in power.
“Today, the President, even though produced by APC, is President of all the political parties in Nigeria and the government of all the political parties in Nigeria.
“This mentality of war, war, war, politics, and democracy is not about war, it’s about ideology and the ability to sell your policy and the people will buy into it.
“So, I’m confident that our party, contrary to the expectations in some quarters, will be stronger and stronger as we make progress.
“And of course, in the nearest future, I’m very confident that APC will still be in power because the programmes are the party, the manifesto of the party, the individuals in the party, majority of the political class in Nigeria understands that APC is the party to beat and that is why they are joining day by day.”
On his reasons for meeting with the president, the governor said he came to brief the president on security, governance and made some requests.
“In the same manner, I also used the opportunity to request Mr. President to consider locating a power generating facility in Nworie River.
“Where we have been able to empty all the flood control systems by balloon technology and the tide has gone up, and because of the sufficient water in the river now, we can use that river to generate electricity to serve the entire Owerri metropolis,” Uzodinma added.
