Dr. Paul Okorie, a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State, says the clamour for good governance in the state may be a mirage unless APC is repositioned to put the ruling party on its toes.
Okorie stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abakaliki.
He said that APC, as the ruling party at the centre and largest opposition in Ebonyi, possessed the capacity to offer formidable and credible opposition to the Peoples Democratic Party-led government in the state.
According to him, opposition politics creates necessary checks and balances on the government in power.
Okorie said that it was only through effective, strong and formidable opposition that government in power could be kept on its toes and be forced to give good governance.
He regretted that the APC had not been visible in the state’s politics after its appearance in the 2019 general elections where it failed to clinch any position.
Okorie, a former APC governorship aspirant, appealed to APC stakeholders in the state to put the party’s loss behind them and chart a way forward.
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He harped on the need for the party to have a stronger synergy among its levels of leadership, noting that APC must offer itself as a better and credible alternative in the state.
“I am deeply worried about the situation of our party in Ebonyi. When you go for a battle and lost, especially a battle you ought not to have lost, you become disorganised and disillusioned.
“This is exactly what happened to our party. So, I am deeply worried that APC has been in limbo after its poor outing in the 2019 general elections. It was indeed an election that we shouldn’t have lost.
“It is quite unfortunate that up till now, we have not been able to find our bearing as a party and stand on our feet; I am very worried,” he said.
The APC chieftain said it was high time something was done by stakeholders to put the party in a good stead to provide checks and balances to the ruling party in the state.
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“When there are no checks and balances, for whatever reason, the rule of law will be endangered and the party in power will keep doing what it likes.
Okorie, a former Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transportation in the state, maintained that APC must reinvent itself in order to wrest power from PDP in 2023.
“Judging from the calibre of people in APC, we have that capacity to provide potent opposition to the ruling PDP government but the problem is that we are like a sheep without a shepherd,” he added.
On the clamour for a president of Igbo extraction in 2023, Okorie urged the Igbo to reach out to other zones, build political bridges and create necessary political alignments and realignment to realise the ambition.
He called on the Igbo political elite to purge themselves of egoism, primordial sentiment and unite to actualise the project.
He said Igbo deserved to produce the next president in 2023, adding that the zone had remained a major ethnic group yet to take a shot at the nation’s presidency. (NAN)
