The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep Femi Gbajabiamila has said for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the progressive movement to survive in Nigeria, there must be a deliberate and effective system of leadership recruitment to identify and prepare people, especially the youth, to occupy the important offices of party and government.
Speaking at the 2021 Progressives Youth Conference of the APC in Abuja on Monday, Gbajabiamila said the party needed to identify competent people both at home and in the Diaspora and bring them on board to be “effective champions of progressivism in the country and in government.”
He said this was the practice all over the world, especially in countries where democracy had developed over the years.
The Speaker also said translating good manifestos into policies by political parties remained the foundation for achievements.
“Political party manifestos are a statement of vision and vision is the foundation of all achievements. For a nation such as ours to succeed, we must first define a common vision that will inspire us, bring us together, and provide the focus that allows us to persevere through the inevitable difficult times,” Gbajabiamila.
He noted further: “Political parties exist to mobilise public support to form a government and to superintend over the affairs of the state. To be successful in this regard, political parties must reflect in their membership, the broad spectrum of the society it seeks to govern.
As is the case with all other contractual documents, the commitments contained in the party manifesto are the basis upon which the party’s record in government will be measured and its leaders will be assessed both in real-time and in the judgment of history. As it has been throughout history, so also will it be for us in the All Progressives Congress (APC) as we too will answer for what we have done with our time in government.”
Gbajabiamila also said the most important factor that determined whether a political party in government would succeed in implementing its manifesto would be the process by which the party arrived at the manifesto in the first instance.