Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, former national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, a former governor of Enugu State and currently, a member of the National Executive Committee and Board of Trustees of the party, in an interview with newsmen says the All Progressive Congress, APC, has never been a political party.
Answering questions on a myriad of issues going on in the country, especially with APC, Nwodo said those who are in PDP are very happy with what is happening in APC.
According to him, APC was never really a party. There were various political parties that came together to form APC.
“They have never merged into one party. Two, the President has not been a party man because when the President is involved in the party, most of the time when there is a crisis and the president steps in, everybody will sit up and he will be able to reconcile everybody.
“Look at Obaseki, Oshiomole and the National Working Committee of the APC went to the Villa. When they got to the Villa, they saw the Chief of Staff. When Obaseki went there, he saw the Chief of Staff. Where is the President? This is a party that lost elections in Rivers State, lost elections in Zamfara.
“They have been having this problem everywhere and losing election, so why can’t they get their acts together? But the more they don’t present candidates, the better for us. But in trying to address the problem, I believe that democracy has been slipping through our fingers and if we allow it to continue like this, we will just be enjoying dictatorship”.
Nwodo further said that democracy has rules and regulations which should be observed and because of the way it is being observed, both parties bring up wrong candidates and then Nigeria ends up with the wrong leaderships.
He suggested that if Nigeria does internal democracy and organize transparent primaries, each party will come out with credible candidates and Nigeria will end up electing quality leaders in a free and fair election but we practise godfatherism.
Furthermore, Nwodo said “We use all sorts of considerations to present our candidates and these candidates are not representing the party because they were not selected by the party and then, they go to general election and the security agencies and INEC will connive and write results for whomever they like. We cannot produce first-class leadership using these kinds of methods. So, until we do things right, we cannot expect correct answers. Let there be revolution that will enable us produce quality leaders for the country”.
