S’East, S’South Crucial to APC’s 2019 Plan, Says Oyegun

PDP to Oyegun Propaganda, blame game will fail you

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has said the party is not leaving anything to chance in its quest to secure significant in-road in the South-east and South-south zones of the country as part of its re-election bid in 2019.

He said taking control of the South east and South-south geopolitical zones, both of which are presently Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) strongholds, will be crucial to the party’s victory.

Oyegun stated this yesterday while inaugurating a fourmember strategic committee to investigate why the APC lost out at the just concluded Anambra State gubernatorial election.

He charged the committee to carry out a forensic analysis to ascertain what may have led the party’s defeat at the Anambra State governorship contest in which its candidate, Tony Nwoye, was beaten to a second position by the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Oyegun said: “The South-east and the South-south would be crucial and critical for our victory in 2019. Not from the point of view of numbers of votes because we are fairly confident, having gone through our initial planning that the APC would carry the day in 2019.

“But for us, it is critical that the South east and South-south both geographical zones which have contributed immensely to the survival of this country must fully be represented in what is going to be a truly national government of the APC in 2019,” he said.

Oyegun who expressed disappointment at

the poor showing of his party during the Anambra State election, said the committee is expected to provide answers as to why APC’s scored much lower votes that was expected during the election.

“So we will learn from the experience in this particular case of the result of the Anambra State election, in which l must personally confess that l was disappointed in terms of votes that we got at that election. I expected a much better result than that. It has become necessary therefore drawing from that at this early stage to examine why - the reasons why the votes that the APC scored were much lower than we expected.

“Today, we are inaugurating a strategic committee and the mandate is for you, Chief Niyi Adebayo and your team to do a forensic examination of what could have gone wrong; why did we not do well as we expected; what were the factors that contributed to our low score.

“We did much better compare to the 2015, no question about that but in all fairness, given the work we put in and given the reactions of the public and the rest of it there was no question at all that we ought to have done a lot better. So, the question today is why?

“It is important that we are using Anambra State as a trigger. The terms of reference was drafted and appropriately worded to give you the scope to look at the possibilities of (God forbid) a repetition of what happened in Anambra in other state in the South-east,” he said.

Regarding the plans of the party for the 2019 general election, Oyegun said the APC has started early to strategise in order to ensure that it secures a handsome win at the next general election in the two zones.

“We want to strategise early; we want to plan early; we want to be confident that after we have done our field work and the reward from the field work is commensurate with the efforts that we have put in. I want to be partisan here, we want a situation where we will win handsomely in the South-east.

“I mentioned the Southeast when l stated that the circumstances are slightly different but we are going to have the same type of strategic team for the South-south. The issues are different, the environment is different, the circumstances are different

but it is necessary also that we build the South-south into the national power framework that we expect to emerge in 2019,” Oyegun added.

Meanwhile, the PDP has asked Oyegun to address relevant issues of governance and stop his resort to excuses and shifting of blame over the failure and inherent confusion in the APC-led federal government.

The opposition party slammed the APC chairman for attempting to exonerate the APC of blames over the embarrassing list of board members of federal parastatatals which contained names of deceased persons, adding that his excuses has further confirmed PDP’s position that APC and its federal government are completely disorganised and ill-equipped to govern.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement yesterday said Oyegun’s case is that of a leader who has no answer for the incompetence and misrule of his party.

It noted that Oyegun’s reaction further exposed the confusion in the APC government and the reason all sectors of the nation’s economy are in shambles under the APC government.

“Is it not ridiculous, cowardly and a clear show of disorganisation in the government for the APC National Chairman to try to exonerate his party from the failures and incompetence of a government which the party formed?

“Oyegun’s comments amount to a vote of no confidence on the Presidency, but there is no way he can exonerate the APC, which he leads, from the failures of its own government.

“The APC chairman must therefore shed his penchant for excuses and address burning issues of misrule of the APC government.

In the statement, PDP said instead of facing issues agitating the minds of Nigerians, the APC national chairman is busy passing the buck while also attempting, just like the Presidency, to claim credit for projects initiated and executed by the PDP.

“We challenge the APC national chairman to address the issue of collapsing economy with its attendant eight million job losses and countless business closures which has caused hardship on families across the country, all due to bad policies and incompetence of the APC government.

“Nigerians are still waiting for the APC chairman to address the issue of the biting fuel crisis also caused by the inept APC government.

“What has Oyegun to say about the now exposed corruption in the APC-led federal government, including sharp practices in hidden oil subsidy payouts, illegal lifting of crude worth trillions of naira to service APC interests and the unabated depletion of Nigerians foreign financial instruments by his party’s government?

“Nigerians are still waiting for the APC chairman to address the issue of aloofness and insensitivity of the APC federal government to the incessant killings of Nigerians in many parts of country by marauders, in addition to exposed diversion of funds meant for the insurgency related matters by APC interests.

“The nation is also waiting for the APC national chairman to come up with explanations on the failure of his government to fulfill its campaign promises and why the fight against corruption has been lopsided with APC members who were publicly indicted of corruption now openly enjoying government cover.

“Our advice to the APC therefore is that they should spare Nigerians their excuses. They should also spare us their lies and fake promises as the citizens will never allow themselves to be deceived again as was the case in 2015,” PDP said.