A former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has proffered solution to the crisis rocking the All Progressive Congress over its National Convention, saying that President Muhammadu Buhari should be allowed to pick the persons that will hold sensitive positions in the party.
Okorocha, who made this known while addressing newsmen in Abuja, added that the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, should also be allowed to pick sensitive positions.
So also should other parties that came together to form the APC, including those who recently joined, be allowed to have a say in the leadership of the party.
He explained that the only way for the party to come out of the crisis over its convention is to go back to the basics when the party was formed and distribute the available offices to the parties involved in the formation.
He said that reverting to how APC distributed offices when it was formed will solve all crises rocking the political party.
Okorocha said: “Our party is a great party.
“APC is a great party.
“What is wrong with our party is that we have forgotten how we all started.
“We should not make the mistake of PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) of old and I think that will be corrected with the party’s Convention.
“What we need to do is to go back to the basics so that we carry the culture of unity.
“Defeating a sitting government, that is not a small victory.
“There were four political parties that formed APC.
“CPC (Congress for Progressive Change) led by the former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, who is now the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu came with ACN (Action Congress of Nigeria), Governor Abdulaziz Yari, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and former Governor of Ebonyi State, Ogbonaya Onu, who is now Minister of Science and Technology, and Rochas Okorocha, leading the APGA (All Progressives Grand Alliance).
“Our initial position was that all positions would be shared among these four parties and DPP that came with few members, and after the merger, the new PDP joined.
“Now, the wisest thing for all of us to do is to go back to the founding basis and distribute the political positions as we did it that time and there will be no rancour and it will be very peaceful.
“The father of the party now is President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Buhari should be given that respect to pick the person that will hold a sensitive position in the party as Chairman, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu should always be made to produce some key positions in the party and the other parties should also be made to have positions and when this is done, there will be no problem in APC.
“But if we go into election at this time and of course it will open a pandora of litigation because where 1,000 people buy nominations form, APC can make an income of N2 billion on sale of forms and after that, APC can spend N3 billion on litigation activities.
“So the wise thing to do is to call the founding fathers of the party and give them key positions and carry everyone along, including the new people that joined the party.”
