Former governor of Cross River State and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Clement Ebri, has declared that the upcoming congresses of the the party would either make or mar it
Ebri who in an interview, faulted the recent consensus arrangements of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the APC warned that it will abridge the political space, just as it would cause imposition of candidates.
Secretary of the APC National Caretaker and Exra Ordinary Convention Planning Committee, John AkpanUdoedehe, had noted in a staement that the party would settle for a consensus candidate in its congresses and primaries, including the 2023 Presidential candidate
The position of the Caretaker Committee has however attracted criticisms from party members.
Ebri, in his reaction said “it will precipitate a crisis of monumental proportions. No organ of the party has the power to abridge the political space.
“Note that the President did say only recently that a group of people cannot sit somewhere and decide zoning without mass participation. In the same manner no individual nor groups of persons have the right to opt for consensus without the inputs of the party membership. Party members must have a sense of ownership around the party Constitution. It is patently wrong for the party’s future to be determined and/ or defined by just one organ.
“Consensus can also lead to a rash of promissory notes that end up keeping the beneficiary perpetually at the point of a spear owing to his or her inability to implement the terms agreed upon , to the letter.”
Speaking further, he said, “Consensus is not a bad idea in choosing candidates if managed properly, but it can also provide an avenue for a handful of privileged politicians to manufacture consent and call it party supremacy. The bane of our politics has always been our inability to provide for free and fair electoral contest. At the party level I believe that all that is required is for political parties to organize free, fair and transparent congresses, primaries or conventions. I am yet to see an aspirant who lost a free and fair election question the outcome.
“So, for me I believe it is safer for parties to come to terms with perfecting internal democracy rather than shelter behind consensus to perpetrate more evil.
Every aspirant is a potential political athlete and so he or she must be allowed to test his or her popularity rather than remain in a holding pattern that sounds more like a lottery than a competition ground for our best. We must resolve to always put our best foot forward. As the ruling party, the APC must not shy away from parading its best
