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…Inaugurates zonal coordinating governors to rebrand ruling party
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has admitted that the ruling party and other political parties in the country do not currently have identity to project the party’s manifesto.
Ganduje made the claim while inaugurating six members of the APC Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) to coordinate the activities of the party in the six geopolitical zones of the country at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.
The zonal coordinators include; South East, Hope Uzodinma governor of Imo state, North Central, AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, Governor Kwara state, North East, Mai Mal-Buni, Governor Yobe state, South West, Babagide Sanwo-Olu, Governor Lagos state, South South, Bassey Otu, Governor Cross River state, North West, Uba Sani, Governor Kaduna state.
Speaking before the inauguration, the former governor of Kano state argued that the lack of identity by the APC and political parties has been responsible for Nigerian politicians jumping from one party to the other.
He stressed that lack of identity was the reason the national leadership of the ruling party established Progressive Institute to train members on the guidelines and regulations of the party on the manifesto, objectives and constitution.
He said: “First of all, we said business would not be as usual because a political party is an institution and as an institution is an organisation with an identity. When we said business would not be as usual, we said usually, especially in emerging country’s political parties are just for election and after election they become dormant.
“We want to change the narrative, we want our political party to be active throughout the year. Therefore, all our offices must be physically operational, all our offices must be functionally operational. Right from the local government to the state levels, there must be activities throughout.
“But this cannot happen by chance. There must be some concerted efforts, we need to have a precise number of our party membership, not only given the number, but the demographic properties of our membership in terms of age, sex, profession, and location, because sometimes in politics, you need to target a particular segment of the society and you cannot do that through trial by error.
“You must have the records, the data so that you can target using technology, you can make your campaign easy. You can even project your success, to take your state considering the parameters of politics, the eventualities of politics in particular geopolitical zone. All this cannot be done off hand. We need data, just so we need education.
“That is why we are coming up with the Progressive Institute, so that we educate our members on the guidelines and regulations of political parties, on our manifesto, on our objectives and on our constitution.
“We need to educate our members, we need to have our own political party identity, because we must know where we are heading to. That is why it is easy for a politician to cross from one party to another just like that, because they like identity.
“So APC must have an identity. And that one must be related with our manifesto, political party must be able to assess the executive so that we can advise so that we can put ministers, so that they know that what they are doing with relation with the manifesto.
“So that they know what they are doing within the time frame not business as usual. Political parties institution is interested in what they are doing, because they are two way traffic,” he noted.
In his acceptance speech on behalf of other zonal coordinators, Governor Uzodinma assured the leadership of his party that they will not disappoint in the responsibility assigned to them.
The terms of reference for the governors include; to coordinate the zones to always identify and participate more on the activities of the party. Initiate periodic interface between the governors of the zones with the leadership of the party.
Liase with the party to commence immediate process of genuine reconciliation of aggrieved party members in the geopolitical zone. Mobilize governor’s of the zones to effectively and physically participate in party activities in the zone.
Consult with governors and resolves some issues that will further enhance the progress and unity of the party. Assists the party on resource mobilisation in serving the party and to participate in any other activity that may be assigned by the party.
