The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have been called upon to insist that internal democracy is entrenched and aspirants test their popularity at an open contest to determine who flies the party’s flags in the 2023 general elections.
An aspirant vying for the Bonny Constituency seat in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Onimi Kabaka Brown, who made this call in an interview with Kristina Reports on Wednesday, April 20, 2022 in Bonny, Rivers State.
He was reacting to the outcome of a leadership meeting where pre-primaries for the Bonny Constituency position in the Rivers State House of Assembly and the Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives were held to produce candidates for the party.
Reports have it that the meeting was marred by a fiasco as some members of the APC in Bonny who stormed the venue of the meeting protested against the process but were later calmed by the leader of the party in Bonny, George Tolofari.
Though the party has denied the occurrence of any crisis during the meeting, some party faithful, who confided in Kristina Reports, insist that all was not well within the party in Bonny LGA.
Kabaka Brown explained that the cause of the fiasco was an alleged predetermined plan to foist particular aspirants on party faithful, recognition of some aspirants who did not comply with the party’s laid down consultation procedure, and the decision of the party leadership in Bonny LGA to go ahead with the pre-primaries even when some aspirants have staged a walkout.
“First of all, the APC leadership in Bonny were aware of only four aspirants for the House of Assembly officially because we have laid down procedures about how aspirants will go about their business.”
“You first of all, consult the leader who is George Tolofari; after consulting George Tolofari, then you will now write a letter to the leadership of the party at the LGA level telling them of your intention with two hands.”
“After writing that letter to the leaders, you will now go to expanded stakeholders that comprises of the party chairman, leadership, board chairman, women leader, that is expanded stakeholders; you have to consult those people too but it is only just four aspirants that went through this process for the Assembly, and these four aspirants are myself, Dabota Godswill-Jumbo, Ene Longjohn, and Ibibam Green.”
He stated that these were the only four people that officially notified the party leadership and caucus, stressing that it was a embarrassing surprise when two others were admitted as aspirants, asserting that the inculpation of these individuals was a ploy to weaken the position of the four aspirants.
“But to our greatest surprise that Sunday morning they brought in two candidates from nowhere, that even the leader of the party was not aware of. Those candidates were slipped into that list to weaken our position because already it was a predetermined arrangement.”
“Those two candidates were alien to the party leadership as none of the leaders were aware that these guys were contesting because the leadership were not consulted but because they have a game plan they brought in two people that had nothing at stake.”
“That was why immediately they went there they said they declined their ambition, they stepped aside because they know they have nothing to offer. It was all meant to back up the position they have taken to impose a skewed arrangement they have already put in place to favour a particular candidate. So, you can see that the process already from that Sunday meeting started on a flaw note, the process was flawed already by bringing in aspirants that were alien to the party leadership.”
Onimi Kabaka Brown also disclaimed the claim by the APC Bonny LGA chapter in its press statement that aspirants were given three minutes each to address the delegates and walked out when it was clear they were losing, saying “it is not correct”.
“The press statement by the party contradicts itself; they are contradicting themselves. what happened there was not harmonization but imposition. During the three minutes that was given to me to address the house, I raised some concerns about inclusiveness to enable us throw up a popular candidate to win the election come 2023.”
“The fortune of the party to win the election was of great concern to me and I buttressed it to the leadership. Those were genuine concerns, not personal. It was clear that my concerns fell on deaf ears because they already had a predetermined plan and bent on going ahead with it. That was when we walked out, we were not even there when the voting started.”
Mr. Kabaka Brown also punched holes into the claim by the APC Bonny LGA Leader that some aspirants approached him privately, asking him to adopt them as candidates, pointing out that “as politicians, there is nothing wrong in lobbying because lobbying is part of it. It is because I see him as my boss and as my leader”.
“Is anything wrong in me requesting that my boss endorses me? There is nothing wrong in that to me. It’s a statement that’s not necessary because lobbying is part of politics. As a politician, I have a right to lobby my leader to endorse me but I wouldn’t want to join issues with him because I still see him as my leader in the LGA. Did Ene not lobby him? Did Dabota not lobby him? We all lobbied you, so why is my own an issue?”
On the position of the APC constitution, the House of Assembly aspirant maintained that “the constitution of the party is very clear; the party constitution, as amended, states that all ward excos are automatic delegates in House of Assembly primaries,” clarifying that “these ward excos are 27 in number you cannot just handpick secretaries and chairmen to come and represent the interests of 27 persons. It’s not done”.
“I personally asked for inclusiveness – women leaders, youth leaders, vice chairmen. I didn’t ask for too much. I didn’t say all the 27 excos should be there but the way it is now we will have to stand by the constitution of the party. This rule does not apply for consensus arrangement. It doesn’t and the new consensus arrangement between the party is very clear.”
“Like at the national level, when we had our National Convention, Almakura bought form, Adamu bought but when the party finally agreed on stepping down – in line with the new Electoral Act you must officially write that you are stepping down. There will be no rancour, all parties will agree. That is what we call consensus.”
He declared that his interest was for the party to entrench internal democracy and produce a candidate that can win the election for the party, insisting that “not necessarily me, but a candidate that can win the election for us,” adding that, “the issue has been brought before the leadership of the party at the State and we believe in their capacity to address the issue properly”.
Yes, for peace to reign and the true democracy to prevail let the delegates decide.