NEWSPRESS RELEASE: BY SOUTH EAST/IGBO APC PROGRESSIVES ROUNDTABLE (SIAPRO) MAKING A LEGITIMATE CASE FOR SOUTH EAST/IGBO APC PROGRESSIVES
We have seen the zoning arrangement for presiding officers and portfolios for the 10th National Assembly as prescribed by our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Even if we have any misgivings over that, as true party men and women, we accept it in total loyalty and respect for party supremacy. We know that the party will do what is right for the party and the nation in its wisdom.
However, we make bold to say that South East/Igbo APC Progressives are not unduly bothered about National Assembly leadership positions.
South East/Igbo APC Progressives know and acknowledge the type of politics our people of the South East have played since 2015 and many of us have been very brave, bold and vocal in calling it out since 2015 for which many of us have paid a heavy price, individually and collectively including with their lives for some of us.
Yet we remained and remain undaunted and undeterred in the collective pursuit and promotion of truth, defence of the party and promoting peace, unity and progres in our dear nation, Nigeria.
Without prevarication, South East/Igbo APC progressives are very concerned about how South East/Igbo APC progressive foot soldiers who have given their all at the risk of their lives, properties and livelihoods would be treated going forward. We all know how we have been treated in the last 8 years. Yet we endured and kept believing and fighting out of patriotism and conviction.
We saw how the last Presidential Campaign Council was constituted. Yet we kept believing, giving even more, against all odds, for the love of the country and the APC, including contributing in no small way to the victory of our great party and HE Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the last election.
We have been watching how certain lists have been flying around recently, and we have quietly observed the composition and make-up of those lists as far as South East/Igbo APC Progressives are concerned.
We have also been reading how some of our fellow progressives essentially lump Igbos into the same basket of IPOB and obidients without as much as showing sensitivity for South East/Igbo APC Progressives who defied all odds, villification and attacks from their kinsmen, yet kept believing and fighting for the good of Nigeria, the party and the progressive cause.
It is a trite Igbo saying that ‘the taste of excreta is known from the smell of fart’. We sincerely hope that what we have been seeing and are seeing is not how it is going to be.
We can not pretend that we do not know or see what is going on and we can not continue to keep quiet. As leaders and a collective of bona-fide South East/Igbo APC Progressives, we are duty bound to speak up, especially for those of us who may not be able to speak for themselves.
It would be double jeopardy if our compatriots, fellow progressives and leaders across the divides fail to not only acknowledge the huge sacrifices made by South East/Igbo APC Progressives but actually speak up, support and fight for them.
That is the true test of comradeship and progressivism. If we truly believe in the one Nigeria mantra, the time is now for other progressives nationwide and our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) to acknowledge and stand up for our compatriot South East Igbo Progressives beyond mere rhetorics.
If we truly desire and mean it that we seek deeper integration of Igbos and the South East into the APC and back into the mainstream of the Nigerian national and political life, then deliberate and sincere action need to be taken to ensure that South East/Igbo APC Progressives who have been in the trenches since 2015 are not left behind once again.
We make bold to say that they have been and remain our go-to men and women in and from the South East. The time has come to put words into action and we dare say that it has to go beyond tokenism. We, South East/Igbo APC Progressives, ask this as a matter of right, having paid our dues like others and even more.
Nothing less than that would be good, fair and just enough.
God Bless APC.
God Bless Nigeria.
1. Dr Uche Diala
Director General
2. Mr. Emmanuel Molokwu
National Secretary
3. Mr. Charles Kaye Okoye
National Publicity Secretary
South East/Igbo APC Progressives Roundtable (SIAPRO)
siapromail@gmail.com
Cc
1. His Excellency
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
President-Elect Federal Republic of Nigeria
2. His Excellency
Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu
National Chairman
All Progressives Congress (APC)
3. All South East APC Governors & Governors Elect
4. All South East APC National Officers
9th May, 2023