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By Nasir Kura
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state said Monday that the leadership style of national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is manifestly killing the party in many parts of the country.
Addressing State House correspondents after a close-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Okorocha said the loss of key states to the People Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general elections in the country was solely as a result of Oshiomhole’s leadership.
He said with what is happening at the APC headquarters in Abuja under Oshiomhole’s watch, the party risks a serious setback and possible doom in 2023.
“My fear now is that APC might have a serious set back in 2023 because the Oshiomhole’s led executive is actually turning APC into a regional minority party which shouldn’t be because of his mistakes. Right now in the whole of South East, we don’t have an APC governor.
“So, if there is any discussion in Nigeria now within the APC governors and President Muhammadu Buhari, there would be nobody from the South East. This is what the APC chairman has done in the South East,” he said.
He said Oshiomhole derives pleasure in imposing his will on the party, which made it impossible for the APC to have any elected political office holder in Imo state in the last general elections.
The governor said notwithstanding his problem with the APC chairman, he maintains a cordial relationship with the president.
“As a matter of fact, Buhari is a great man, he is a man of wisdom, a visionary leader. That is why you see some of us going along with him. It’s for what he has upstairs.
“He can see far, that is why he made that declaration in Imo state – ‘vote according to your conscience.’ It was in Imo state that he first use that word. So, my relationship with him is not affected in anyway,” he said.
On the leadership of the ninth National Assembly and possibility of having a repeat of the 2015 scenario, Okorocha said: “I have been watching carefully what is happening in the National Assembly, it’s a very interesting drama. But all I ask of them is that they should consider the South East in their calculations. This nation will not be properly balanced if South East is not carried along properly in the affairs of the National Assembly.
“Nobody seems to be talking about the South East, it looks like the South East doesn’t have a place anymore, that is wrong, politically speaking and that will not be good for APC. Because there is going to be a bigger APC after president Muhammadu Buhari must have left the seat.”
