I have read somewhere the excerpt of the TV interview granted by the APC spokesperson, Felix Morka, where he was asked if APC will grant Governor Aiyedatiwa an automatic ticket in the next gubernatorial election. I was stunned by this political jobber’s response when he started ranting. He claimed that APC is a democratic and progressive party. I have been searching in the encyclopedia for a reference to his statement, and I have yet to find it.
How progressive should APC be when it was the former governor, the late Akeredolu, who single-handedly decided on who would be the ticket holder for what office in Ondo State? Where was Morka when party stalwarts gathered at the DOME and Aketi was saying that if Tinubu was the party national leader who decided on who gets what in Lagos, himself as the governor of the state had the right to decide what went on in Ondo State?
I guess Morka wasn’t reading his ‘Bible’ very well to talk about APC being democratic or progressive in its ways and manners of doing things. Even Engineer Adetimehin can never lay claim to the fact that he’s leading a progressive party. It’s all about who you know, and on whose good books you belong.
Death, as the final arbiter, should send a cautionary message to the living unless the living doesn’t want to learn. We can easily remember the theater that went on in the last days of Akeredolu on earth. A Democratic or Progressive party should have known that the best thing to do was for the late Akeredolu to hand over power to his deputy. Instead, what did we see? The so-called cabal rendered the state without a leader for almost nine months.
Just imagine, the so-called elders who should’ve for once-in-a-lifetime established themselves by calling a spade, a spade, and asked the late Akeredolu to hand over power were busy parading the corridors of power with their grey hair and called on President Tinubu to intervene. Their call to the president was to make him an emperor. He fell for it by summoning all the party elected officials in the state to Abuja, like a school headmaster who asked the pupils to report in his or her office
How progressive will a party be when all the governor’s appointees, the cabinet members, who should have been on the mountain praying for the good health of their dying principal gathered together with treachery mindsets and passed a vote of confidence on their oga? So, Felix can lay claim to the progressiveness of his party.
Where was this Felix when the Ondo State legislative arm of government abandoned their check and balance roles? Instead of prevailing on the cabals in the Akeredolu government to do the needful, they came up with a frivolous accusation of impeachment against the deputy governor to prevent him from conducting his constitutional and statutory duties.
It’s very clear from the onset that APC is a party of circumstance that came to dislodge the arrogance in the PDP. Unfortunately, instead of the political dealers taking advantage of the opportunity and directing Nigerians to the right path, they’re even worse in terms of true leadership and good governance. It’s all about who can steal the most and won’t get caught or when caught, just use part of the stolen money to settle people.
The truth of the matter is that there’s no more Akeredolu cabal to decide who runs for governor in the forthcoming election. If the party likes Aiyedatiwa, give him the automatic ticket. That’s what a progressive party should do. However, the party leadership at the national level seems to have a hidden agenda. We’re watching with keen interest.
APC has the opportunity to establish itself as a progressive party, but so far, we haven’t seen that. Even the choice of Felix Morka as the spokesperson of the party is questionable. So, how dare he talk about APC, being progressive and/or democratic?
Chief Odomode Adeyemi LaCrown, PhD is the National Coordinator, Ondo State Renaissance Group, USA Chapter
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