Igbo can’t be President by playing opposition, says Uzodimma

Urges APC faithful to revalidate membership
Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, has said that the South East cannot achieve its dream of producing the President by playing opposition politics.

He stated this yesterday while flagging off the All Progressives Congress membership registration and revalidation exercise in Owerri.

The governor said: “We cannot achieve our dream of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction by remaining outside the mainstream national politics. Even more importantly, we cannot get the justice we seek from the federation by playing opposition politics.

“Fortunately, we can reverse the narrative now. The starting point is from this party registration exercise. I, therefore, challenge all of us here to prove our mettle as leaders by ensuring that in our respective wards, we register at least 70 per cent of the population as APC members.”

Uzodimma appealed to APC members in the South East to take advantage to revalidation exercise.

His words: “I consider it a privilege that Imo State is hosting the official flag-off of the registration and revalidation exercise of our great party, the APC, for the South East.

“The registration and revalidation exercise was actually kick-started at the national level on Saturday in Katsina by President Buhari, who is also the leader of the party. That clearly underscores the importance our great party attaches to the exercise.”

According to him, the numerical strength of each state or zone will go a long way in determining the bargaining strength of the area.

“However, the membership strength of each state or zone can be proportionally measured to determine which is more APC than the other. The relevant question at the end of this exercise will be, what is the percentage of the South East population that is APC. Make no mistakes about it, it is our membership strength that will define our bargaining power in the forthcoming general elections.

“Democracy is about dialogue and not violence. Dialogue is about deft negotiations. Maximum results can only be attained in such a dialogue by the prudent deployment of all the democratic and diplomatic arsenals at our command. And numbers are known to be one of the greatest assets in democratic negotiations,” he added.