USAfricaPOLITICS: APGA repositioning for 2019 elections as Oye and Maku take charge.

USAfricaPOLITICS: APGA repositioning for 2019 elections as Oye and Maku take charge.

  By Obinwa Nnaji (Executive Editor of USAfrica for Nigeria and west Africa)

Special to USAfricaonline.com,  and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow USAfrica at Facebook.com/USAfricaChido , Facebook.com/USAfrica247 and Twitter.com/Chido247

For three days, about 100 executive members of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), drawn from the 36 States of the country and Federal Capital Territory FCT converged in Abuja in July 2015, for the first ever retreat of the party since the  change of guards in the APGA hierarchy, barely a month ago after its inauguration.

  The National Chairman Dr. Victor Ikechukwu Oye said it will afford members opportunity for frank appraisal of the journey so far, what heights would they envisage APGA to attain? What are the merits of such assemblage in terms of their individual contribution at the Retreat for the propagation of the ideals of the party and also what roles have been played individually or corporately in the growth and development of the party?

  Dr Oye urged the galaxy of representatives  at the Retreat which included members of the National Working Committee, Six Zonal and 36 State branch Chairmen to be frank as ever and provide sincere answers to these burning questions. Applauding APGA for taking the lead, the National Chairman commended the party saying thus: ‘This is the first time any registered political party in Nigeria is staging a retreat for this category of party executive members.

  His opening and welcome address was illuminating as it highlighted the essence of the retreat which would among other things build the desired harmony and synergies for the advancement of the cause of the party.

## The brainstorming, sharing of convivialities and breaking into working groups in addition to incisive lectures by academics and top party officials, were all meant to change the face of APGA from a Regional Party to a more acceptable National Party as the top brass of the party left the Retreat Hall agreeing to work very hard and without rancour to reposition the party to enable it play its deserved role in Nigeria’s democratic firmament.

  As they went into close sessions, the salient words of the National Chairman became the binding voice as his in depth presentation became adopted and was the lever of the Retreat. Nothing could best express the mood at the retreat than those soothing assurances that ‘The era of division and infighting in our party is gone for ever. We are in a new era, where love will prevail and hatred banished, resourcefulness and had work will be richly rewarded, party discipline entrenched as a creed, and constant interaction and capacity building sustained as ethos.

  ‘We are, therefore, challenged at this Retreat to eschew bickering, malignant and tendentious outbursts, bad blood, festering and nagging. We must see one another as Brother and Sister’s keepers, ever ready to put the past behind us and look forward to a more promising future. We must come up with strategies on how to sustain and surpass the successes we achieved in the past 13 years and see how we can deploy our talents and even, resources to the development of the party.’

  Perhaps more than ever are the three-prong approach of the new executive of the party which includes Mr Labaran Maku, Nigeria’s former Minister of Information and the APGA 2015 governorship candidate in Nasarawa State, now the APGA National Secretary, the issue of a revalidation of new Membership Cards and new part Registers.

The National Chairman displayed to the excitement of the delegates copies of the Cards and the New Registers.  He admonished every card member of the party to re-register with just a N100. Members are also to renew their membership dues monthly as that was the surest methodology to keep their party afloat so that the party could meet its numerous responsibilities. The party has printed about a million cards and hopes to generate funds from the issuance of the cards to party members across the country. The party now also has in its kitty a million Membership Registers which would be coordinated by party State Chairmen. A note of warning of severe punishment and disciplinary measures awaited anyone that would defraud the party in the exercise which is commencing almost immediately.

  Once a party is solvent, it would build its structures and be answerable to the people and not the whims and caprices of individuals. There is a major leap in relocating the party headquarters to a more befitting edifice that will epitomise the real APGA, not in the obscure decrepit office that now houses the party’s National Secretariat.

  Dr Oye was upbeat and disclosed that a gigantic Six-storey structure is on the card, capable of providing adequate offices including Guest Houses for members of APGA visiting Abuja instead of going to hotels to pay exorbitant hotel bills for accommodation. In between applause, he said a member of party an Architect has volunteered to do the architectural deigns free of charge including producing a master piece of sculptural engraved work of the real symbol of APGA -the Cock.

  APGA is also working on an effective and comprehensive Data Base that would be installed at the headquarters. The IT organisation handling this major IT networking is executing this lofty project with the Guarantee Trust Bank. When completed, all information on APGA would at the touch of the bottom, become easily accessible by all including party members world wide.

  Said Dr Oye: ‘ We are building a very strong portal about APGA and the online platform with Nigerians in Diaspora- the USA, UK and South Africa, to name a few. We are in touch with our members in the 51 States in the US and our desire is for APGA to become a global brand.’

He is optimistic that the party’s Governorship Candidate, Mr Labaran Maku, now pursuing his case the Governorship Election Tribunal in Nasarawa, would eventually be declared winner of the last elections in that state. He was also hopeful that APGA Governorship Candidate for Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, would also be declared winner at the tribunal in Umuahia.

  The National Chairman expressed the party’s sincere appreciation to the National Leader and Chairman Board of Trustees (BOT), Anambra State Governor Chief Willie Obiano (Akpokuedike), for his support for APGA.

  The party was also doing tremendously well in Kogi and Bayelsa Sates and members were warming up to the Governorship elections coming up on October 21 and December this year. Ditto, Edo State, with assurances given that Edo North had witnessed massive defection of politicians from the ruling party of APC to APGA, a positive development that APGA’s Cock was going to crow in Edo State soonest in subsequent elections especially the Local Government Elections slated about early next year in Edo State.

  Indeed, the new face APGA which has like minds from all over the country and also with astute politician Barrister Ifeatu Obi-Okoye as the party’s Chief Spokesperson National Publicity Secretary with the helmsmen of the duo of frontline journalists Dr Victor Oye as National Chairman and Mr Labaran Maku as National Secretary, a new dawn seems to have broken for APGA. They have an uphill task to show a difference and present an alternative to Nigerian electorate and international community, that herein lies the emergent Nigeria party waiting on the wings to take over power come 2019.

@Chido247 

USAfrica:: Buhari’s rejection of Rolls-Royce ride in London, Obasanjo and lessons of history. By Chido Nwangwu.  https://usafricaonline.com/2015/05/24/buharis-rejection-of-rolls-royce-ride-in-london-obasanjo-and-lessons-of-history-by-chido-nwangwu/

Forthcoming 2015 BOOK: In this engaging, uniquely insightful and first PERSON reportage book, MANDELA & ACHEBE: Footprints of Greatness, about two GLOBAL icons and towering PERSONS of African descent whose exemplary lives

 and friendship HOLD lessons for humanity and Africans, USAfrica Founder Chido Nwangwu takes a measure of their works and CONSEQUENCE to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.”

He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being CLOSE to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown UNIVERSITY in Providence, Rhode Island.“I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that HISTORIC Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief EXECUTIVE of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when PRESIDENT BILL Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and CAME to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes  Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia 
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  •Dr. Chido Nwangwu, moderator of the Achebe Colloquium (GOVERNANCE, SECURITY, and PEACE in Africa) December 7-8, 2012 at Brown UNIVERSITY in Rhode Island and former ADVISER on Africa business/issues to the Mayor of Houston, is the Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfrica multimedia networks since 1992, first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the INTERNET USAfricaonline.com; CLASSmagazine, AchebeBooks.com, the USAfrica-powered e-groups of AfricanChristians, Nigeria360 and the largest pictorial events megasite on the African diaspora www.PhotoWorks.TV . He was recently profiled by the CNN International for his pioneering works on multimedia/news/public policy projects for Africans and Americans.   E-MAIL: Chido247@Gmail.com