The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Victor Umeh, on Tuesday said the party decided to adopt President Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate in the 2015 general election because there is no politician of Igbo extraction contesting for the same position and it would be a waste of time aligning with the All Progressives Congress.
Chief Umeh disclosed this at the inaugural lecture to mark the inauguration of the executive committee of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Enugu.
He spoke on the topic “Towards a successful 2015 election: The role of the opposition,”
It will be recalled that APGA announced in August that it will not be fielding a presidential candidate in the coming presidential election and that it would support President Jonathan of the PDP.
“We have been lampooned and condemned because we are supporting President Jonathan – let me tell you quite frankly, until we lead our people on the right track we are wasting our time,” he said.
“Today there is no Igbo contesting for president in the APC, so why align with APC?
“Jonathan has shown respect for the Igbos even if he has challenges running the affairs of the country, most of which are man-made. APGA has no apologies for supporting President Jonathan – what we offer is constructive criticism.”
The APGA chairman denied the charge that his party is an appendage of PDP, saying that it “is a distinct political party which cannot be an appendage of another political party.”
He also contended that not being in power at the centre does not say APGA should be antagonistic to the government at the centre.
“The term opposition is misleading – in Nigeria we assume that once you are not in government you must be opposing government,” he said.
“You must not oppose government all the time if you are not in government. In developed countries (opposition parties) means those who are not in government but are interested in government.”
He accused the APC of practising what he calls “blind opposition.”
He added: “There are those who believe that not being in government but being objectively critical will help the government to serve the people better, and there are those who believe that for not being part of government, anything the government does is bad.”
Comments