Unity In Delta APC As Panacea For Stability, Synergy And Victory In 2019

The poor performances of our great party in Delta State during the 2015 general elections must never repeat itself in 2019. Whatever the leaders and party faithfuls can do to purge and unite the party is of paramount importance at the moment.

Factionalisation will never help our party because it hinders full blast synergy that will enable us to take over Delta State. Therefore all aggrieved parties must come to the round table to discuss and end every misunderstanding so as to reposition our party for rapid growth in preparation for 2019 general elections.

The Prophet Jones Ode Erue, the Senator Okpozo, the Adolor Okotie-Eboh and other known and unknown factions must come to the round table to discuss and unit the party without further delay.

The South-South Zonal leadership and the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC should not take any disciplinary action against members of any faction. The right thing to do is to bring all aggrieved parties together for genuine final settlement.

As somebody who worked closely with the Prophet Jones Ode Erue State Executive Committee, I am privy to some of the scenarios and I believe strongly that the way things are right now; our national party leaders need to take some proactive steps to end all known agitations, reconcile and reposition the party for greater performance.

It was very shameful that our party could not win one local government in 2015. Election rigging or no election rigging we ought to be able to defend our votes in some LGAs to prove that we were fully ready for the elections. We have learnt our mistakes but the party must leave the hands of a few to a more larger and well centralised system where state executives must be seen to discharge their responsibilities with high sense of belonging.

It is not safe for our party in Delta State if the image of the party is built around a few persons to the exclusion of a larger stakeholders. I must say that the Prophet Jones Committee tried their best but their best may not be good enough for the chanllenges ahead of us.

I have laboured for our party as one who championed the media and political communication from December 19, 2014 till date and it is my fervent prayer that my labour and that of our leaders, chieftains and party faithfuls across the state must yield the desired result which is to take over Delta during the 2019 general elections.

In the light of the above, I humbly wish to recommend the following peace strategies for the kind consideration of our South-South and national leaders:

(1) That NWC should not sanction any member of any of the factions but rather reconcile all aggrieved parties into one united Delta APC political family.

(2) That all pending court actions should be terminated, both at Federal High Court and Court of Appeal in Abuja and elsewhere as a spring board for genuine reconciliation for our party to move forward.

(3) That in order to give credibility to the state Exco such that will be respected within the party and by the opposition, a new state congress should be considered in a free and fair elections to produce new state executive members.

(4) That the Prophet Jones Committee should be dissolved immediately, being the major cause of the factionalization so that NWC and SOUTH-SOUTH LEADERSHIP can work out details for a new congress where winners becomes accepted by all and sundry.

(5) That a vote of thanks in a communique should be issued to appreciate the efforts made so far by our amiable State Leader, Olorogun Otega Emerhor and the Prophet Jones Committee towards the growth of our party in the state.

The above recommendations can be re-worked and implemented with other strategies to avoid further legal battles, highly academic but very embarrassing frequent newspapers advertorials that has made the Delta State Chapter of our party a consistent laughing stock by the opposition and the general public. At a point the newspapers were reluctant to publish negative advertorials from Delta APC.

I want to end this appeal by commending the leadership qualities of our state leader, Olorogun Otega Emerhor who painstakingly overcame several storms to keep the party going. He will need to join our Zonal and national leaders to make peace, withdrawal all law suits and conduct a fresh election to produce new state executives.

Dr Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, is a Civil Rights Lawyer and Chieftain of Alll Progressives Congress in Delta State. He is also the Convener of Rescue Delta Media Group (RDMG) of APC Delta and full member of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).