APC will soon disintegrate - Ekweremadu

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has predicted that the newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC) will soon disintegrate and its members struggle to join the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Ekweremadu stated that despite the fanfare that heralded the registration of APC as a political party, the PDP has never for one day lost sleep over the development, stating instead that PDP was happy because it makes the issue of contending with multiple opposition political parties simpler for PDP to handle.

The Deputy Senate President spoke on Thursday on the sidelines during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on how to offer post graduate diploma and masters degree programmes in legislative studies, parliamentary administration and legislative drafting between the National Institute for Legislative Studies and the University of Benin at the National Assembly.

According to Ekweremadu, 'We are not worried about the APC, for us that makes the game more interesting. Before, we used to contend with several parties and now we just have only one party to contend with and it makes the matter much easier for us.

'You know in Nigerian politics, gang-up never works. So, they will split and they will still come back to us in PDP and we will welcome them.'

Ekweremadu also commented on the current political crisis in the ruling PDP and dismissed it as normal. He noted that with all big and complex political associations, the issue of misunderstanding was inevitable.

He stated that what was important for the party was the ability to mange those complex situations and then move on.

The lawmaker expressed optimism that PDP would sooner than later overcome the current political crisis and move ahead to win the presidential election come 2015.

'PDP is a big party and once you have a big party, you are going to have a complex situation. It is the ability to mange those complex situations that will determine how far you can go in the future. So, we are hopeful that we are going to surmount them and work as a team towards 2015.'

Ekweremadu was optimistic that once PDP concludes its national congress on August 31 and put in place a new National Working Committee (NWC), the party will be good to go for the 2015 general election.

Said Ekweremadu: 'Just like any other organisation, we have our challenges but for us they are not insurmountable, and the convention is part of the process of dealing with what we consider to be the challenges; I don't see anything as out of the ordinary.

'Once we put in place the new NWC, which we have to do by the end of this month, am very optimistic that PDP will again win the presidency in 2015.'

The Deputy Senate President, however, refrained from reacting to the recent comments credited to the former Education Minister, Only Ezekwesili, that lawmakers should function on part-time basis as a way of reducing the cost of governance in Nigeria given that the Federal Government has spent over N1 trillion on the National Assembly in the past eight years.

Ekweremadu instead talked on the progress of the National Assembly regarding the constitutional review exercise.

He said, 'As you are aware, the  House and the Senate have passed their versions of the current amendment of the constitution, and as the tradition and the law requires, we are going to set up a conference committee that comprises members of the Senate and members of the House and we are hoping that these committee will harmonise the position of the House and the Senate, in terms of what has been passed, and then we will have a single document representing the views of the Senate and the views of the House.'

Daily Independent