Former senator representing Edo North in the National Assembly, Dr. Domingo Alaba John Obende, thinks the All Progressives Congress (APC) lost the last Edo State governorship poll due to misplaced emotions and events. He told David Onimisi Lawani in an exclusive interview that the only way the party can take back its glory is to sit up and do the right thing. Excerpts:
Your party, the APC, is cur- rently faced with challenges at all levels – local, state and national – leading to loss of some electoral space. How did you peo- ple get to this point?
Every political party that manages peo- ple is poised to be faced with multiple challenges, especially if that party con- trols the central government where lead- ership and control becomes the main focus of some leaders or individuals who think they are relevant enough to call the shots.
Actually, it is in realization of the fracture from LGAs to state and national levels that has prompted the Interim Manage- ment Committee (IMC), in its wisdom, to bring about the forthcoming registra- tion exercise in other to bring everybody together so as to have a robust party that everyone can refer to as his or her own.
What are the visible and practi- cable efforts being made to put the party back on its progressive track?
The forthcoming registration exercise, I believe, if not manipulated, will bring everybody on board. That, to me, is a visible and practical step and efforts taken by the chairman and the IMC team to bring the party back on a progressive track that the APC is known for. I want to sincerely encourage our youths, women and men of value who have the capacity to lead and be led to take advantage of this window of op- portunity to be part-owners of this great party as this will greatly unbundle genuine leadership in this our great country.
The South-South is most affected, as the party has lost all the states to the opposition. How does the leadership of the party take back the glory?
Mismanagement of emotions and events led to our losing the South-South region, but I think it is temporary, because the APC is still very strong in the region, given the fact that strong stakeholders, ministers, legislators that are capable of reviving the party, are in the region.
Edo State, the only APC-controlled state (in the South-South), has been lost to the opposition as portrayed in the September 19th, 2020 elec- tion. The aftermath of this was the mass exodus of some of its mem- bers to the opposition party. Will this not affect the fortunes of the party in subsequent elections even as the 2023 presidential election is approaching?
May I remind you that what brought vic- tory to the governor has to do with the fact that our house (APC) was divided; and a house divided against itself cannot stand, hence the loss. I can, however, assure you that after the registration exercise, wounds would have been healed and people would have blended together, especially now that our leader and father, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, a former governor of Edo State and first National Chairman of APC has as- sumed the leadership of South-South.
We will see it as a point of challenge in ensuring that the APC in Edo becomes great once again. With all the permutations thereof, I think by the grace of God we shall triumph in the 2023 presidential election.
What is the way forward?
With all that I have reeled out, if properly carried out, there will be a way forward to being a stronger and better political party again.
In your home base, some elements are clamouring for your exclusion from the party. How do you feel as a member and chieftain of the party?
I don’t know the group or persons glam- ouring for my exclusion from the party, and for what reason? I know for a fact that no normal person uses his head to walk if he must get to his destination. Is a political party’s decision taken in a beer parlour or gossip bush radio? No.
When a member of a political party is perceived to have offended, such mem- ber will be queried and a disciplinary committee set up, and if found guilty, a recommendation will be made to the ap- propriate organs of the party from his ward, not from a faceless paid character, to be clamouring for my exclusion from the party.
The last time I checked, in the last quarter of last year after the governorship election, I was the one who paid the rent of the Akoko-Edo local government APC’s party headquarters. That is what I call commitment to the party I trust and I believe in.
