Indications emerged on Tuesday that the national convention of the All Progressives Congress,APC earlier scheduled to hold Saturday 26 may suffer setback as Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, said there is nothing wrong if the Convention fails to hold
He added that the failure of the party to sell nomination forms for the National Working Committee offices on Monday does not threaten the February 26 convention and the inner workings of the party because there are other means of electing party officers.
Uzodinma said this while fielding questions from State House correspondents on Tuesday shortly after visiting the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
On Monday, it was reported that the APC failed to begin the sale of forms on Monday, February 14, as contained in its pre-convention schedule released on January 19.
Our correspondent, who was at the party’s National Secretariat, confirmed that aspirants who came from all over the country were asked to return later as forms were not available.
Asked if the convention might still hold despite the delays, Uzodinma said, “Of course, that is the decision of the party, and there is nothing wrong even if it doesn’t hold, what is important is that we must have our convention. We have said it’s February 26, if for any reason tomorrow it is not doable in the opinion of the party, we will move. But that does not mean that there is any intention to move.
“Don’t forget that the APC is not a mushroom party; the APC is a giant. It’s the largest party today in Africa and that is the party that other small parties should copy. The APC is already the party on the ground that owns the Federal Government of Nigeria and up to 21 state governments. So, the discretion on how and when to do their convention should be an internal party affair, and the APC is the one wearing the shoes; with credible leadership, they know when to move and when not to move.
“So, I think we should watch because, under the constitution of the APC, buying (of nomination) form is one thing. We have three modes that we can adopt to elect our officers; either by direct primary, by indirect primary or by consensus. What if the APC has adopted consensus and is not yet public knowledge? We don’t need again to begin to sell forms and do that zoning or no zoning.”
The governor said rather than “worry about little issues,” Nigerians should channel their focus towards a workable democracy. He expressed confidence that the party would not disintegrate as claimed in several quarters.
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