The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, says Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, will dump the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ngige, a former governor of Anambra state, made this comment while speaking with journalists in Awka, the Anambra state capital.
The minister who said Obiano will dump APGA immediately after his tenure, maintained that he was sure of the move, as he knows Obiano to be a pragmatist and a realist.
His words: “When he finishes serving, he will come. I’m sure. He is a pragmatist, he is a realist. I have tried to let him know that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is good, but it’s a regional party. You can’t use a regional party to go and do election and fight. People have abandoned the idea of regional parties. That’s why AD, AC decided that after many years of staying at the periphery of Federal Government, they decided to coalesce with LPP; CPC and rebel faction of APGA, led by Rochas Okorocha and formed APC.
“So, regional parties are not in vogue and the governor knows. Even his predecessor, Peter Obi, when he was using APGA to canvass and do other things, it dawned on him that he cannot be playing in the region with a regional party. He can’t come to national with a regional party and that is why he unceremoniously defected. In fact, they started the defection you are seeing today. Obi is part of the early defectors.
“So, he joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but Obiano is a progressive. Any day he will do it, we will sit with him and arrange it in such a way that the Igbo will go into a party that will reckon with them and that party is APC.”
Reacting to the statement of the Labour Minister, C. Don Adinuba, the Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, said nothing will make Governor Obiano leave APGA.
The Anambra State Commissioner said both APC and PDP have failed Nigerians as they had nothing tangible to offer.
His words: “Governor Obiano is what the great Zik of Africa would refer to as the “beautiful bride” wooed by every confident suitor. He is wanted by all the parties because of his record and brand of politics devoid of bitterness and primordial cleavages.
“But, he is not going anywhere. He is an APGA man, through and through. He is strongly backing a candidate who all Nigerians expect to win the presidential election,” explained Ngige.
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