APC : C’River Central Communique on Zoning, Sacrifices and why no Senatorial District is more Important than another

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On Saturday, March 5th, members of the All Progressives Congress, APC from Central Senatorial District of Cross River State met and issued a communique with some striking points. The 9-point communique highlighted several issues but all centered on two issues – the strength of the party in the senatorial district and the zoning of governorship ticket of the party in 2023.

Firstly, it should be noted that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, there’s no division or faction in the APC as of today. The party is one and under the leadership of the Governor. Members however, are allowed to discuss and advance different positions even if some may not be pleasing to the leader or party executives.

Now the main issues.

On the issue of zoning, the central APC’s no-zoning position was a direct contrast to the position of the Governor who has openly in different fora declared his support for the zoning of the governorship ticket to the Southern Senatorial district in 2023.

This issue is a delicate one that needs to be handled with care. That the central APC waited for the bye-elections to come up before issuing such communique was strategic. The failure of Cross River South APC leaders to deliver the Akpabuyo State Assembly seat to the party gave them (central) more impetus to advance their no-zoning argument for the governorship ticket.

The South had a great opportunity to make a strong statement and claim for the governorship ticket like the PDP Southern leaders did with winning of the Akpabuyo State Assembly seat but didn’t take it. The fact that most APC governorship aspirants are from the local government, much more was expected of them.

Howbeit, losing the Akpabuyo State Assembly bye-election is not enough reason to assume that if APC field a candidate from the South the party will fail the Governorship election like some people who are supporting central anti-zoning agenda are insinuating, even though, winning the election would have strengthened the zoning argument to Southern Senatorial district.

The defeat was a huge loss to the APC family and not Akpabuyo or Cross River South. It’s unfair for anybody to judge the chances of the party should it produce governorship candidate from the South just on the outcome of the by-election.

For some party members to sound like they’re happy with the fact that the party lost because it gives them reason to advance their no-zoning campaign is somewhat divisive and gives room for suspicion of possible sabotage.

For those who were in the APC before the Governor joined, this is a known strategy by some cabal in APC. In 2018, when APC lost the Obudu state assembly by-election, the cabal used it against the senatorial district in it quest for the Governorship ticket to go to central just as they’re using the Akpabuyo State Assembly against the South today.

While it’s easy for them to use outcome of State Assembly by-elections to rate others, when the Ikom II state assembly member died in 2018, the entire central APC could not put themselves together to present a candidate for the by-election. Also, during the Yakur II (part of Central Senatorial District) rerun in 2016, APC lost the election to the PDP.

Losing by-elections or rerun elections is not exclusive to any senatorial district as all three have lost. In fact, before 2019, Central lost two but still produced the Governorship candidate of the party.

As earlier stated, while it would have been fantastic for the Southern APC to win the Akpabuyo State Assembly seat to send a strong message, the strategy by some people to use the party’s poor performances in by+elections from others places to score cheap political point is uninspiring, to say the least.

Similarly, the communique emphasized that Cross River central is the ‘heartbeat’ and political headquarters of the APC in the state who have produced leaders that have made the highest sacrifices for the APC.

Well, this claim is debatable. While it’s true that APC have some big names from the central senatorial district who have made great sacrifices, leaders from other Senatorial districts have done as much as anyone else if not more.

For instance, before now, it was a Leader from the North, Mr. Odey Ochicha who took APC to all the 196 wards in State. Also, before the triumphant entry of Sen. John Owan-Enoh into the APC in 2017, the financial burden of the party was on Goddy Jedy-Agba, OFR and Late Rt. Hon. Paul Adah. They bankrolled most of the party’s activities including payment of rent and staff.

When Sen. Owan-Enoh joined and started investing massively too, these leaders and others across the Senatorial districts were funding the party collectively. The only federal appointee who was remitting a percentage of his earnings to the party throughout his time was Mr. Ochicha.

Even if one was to accept the argument that place central as the “owners” of APC in the state, that should be then when the senatorial district had the only APC Senator and Minister. In fact, it’s an open secret that the Senatorial district has enjoyed federal government patronage in terms of appointments and projects more than any in the state.

Against the role of play, the Senatorial district got the party’s governorship ticket in 2019, too. And with all these ‘return on investment’, APC’s poor performances in the last general elections in the state was by-product of the crisis in the party caused by the central leaders. Unfortunately, they’re quick to give themselves credit for everything good in the party without taking blame for the misfortunes they caused the party.

For peace and unity in the party, central should stop the entitlement mentality. They should stop undermining other senatorial districts or contributions of other leaders to building APC by continually portraying them as weak and them as powerhouse. Currently, nature has given the North the bragging rights being the only Senatorial district with a Governor, Minister and two House of Representatives members. Yet, nobody from North has come out to claim to “own” the party as such, should get everything that comes to the party.

Every Senatorial district is important, competitive and relevant to the success of the party in 2023. No one is less important. Winning elections should be the paramount thing because when the party wins, there will be enough to go round.

Also, the Governor at this point should not and must not dismiss the voices from the central with the wave of hand. It’s very important that he begins to engage strategic leaders across the Senatorial districts on the zoning of the governorship ticket and other key positions.

It’s good enough that the tone of the central communique was not too confrontational even though it tried to portray other Senatorial district as weakling. From a different perspective, the communique could mean a call for negotiation and dialogue. The Governor needs to act swiftly by opening negotiations with leaders across board ahead of 2023.

Going by the new electoral law, party primaries will be coming up in just five months time from now therefore, there’s no time to delay. Negotiations, dialoque and strageic synergy should start now. No Senatorial district will win election in isolation. South, Central and North are all dependent on one another especially for the governorship election.

 

 

Inyali Peter writes from Abuja