Onu: How APC’s Emergence Triggered Revolt in PDP

One of the national leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the former national chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has said the current crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could be linked to the political revolution brought about by the opposition party.

Onu, who spoke in a interview with journalists in Abuja at the weekend, said the strategic positioning of the APC as a credible alternative to the ruling party had emboldened those with voices of dissent within PDP to stand up against the party's leadership, insisting on remedying such rights.

"The situation in PDP clearly shows that the party ought to really reexamine itself, understanding that it is the ruling party with certain obligations to the nation. Yes, disagreements may come  but do not forget that what is happening in PDP now would never have happened if there has not  been APC," he said.

Onu, whose former party, the ANPP, played an important role in helping to create what seemed an upset in the polity with the merger of opposition parties of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and ANPP, said the existence of the APC gave impetus to the now legendary defiance by the seven New PDP governors and their allies.

He said though there had been disagreements within the ranks of the political parties, PDP not being an exception, but that such dissenting voices had been suppressed due to lack of equally credible and influential alternative party which could absorb them.

"What is happening to the PDP would not have happened it there was no party like the APC. Because the aggrieved members of PDP  have been emboldened by the fact that they have an alternative platform which is equally influential like the PDP with about 11 governors.

"They have always had disagreements but because there was no alternative platform that people can easily go to, at that time, people who felt unhappy decided to stay off.

"However, now there is an alternative and for the first time in the history of the fourth republic, there is an opposition party controlling 11 states. The party now has representations in all the six geopolitical zones of the country.

So, because of the coming of APC, those who are not happy with what is happening in the ruling party can now be more assertive and be able to speak out concerning their rights and if those rights are not respected, they know they can go somewhere else," he said.

On the suggestion that the crisis in the PDP may have long been plotted by the actors in concert with the APC, Onu said such insinuation could not be true, adding that APC was not interested in what was happening in PDP or whether it would be an advantage to the party.

According to him, whatever relationship that existed between the PDP governors and their counterpart in the APC could be traced to Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF).

He said the governors usually met regularly under the auspices of the NGF even before the polarisation of the body and it was not out of place if they engaged in political discussions of the future of the country.

The former governor of the old Imo State described the crisis in Rivers State as very disturbing, adding that the recent action of the police by blocking Governor Chibuike Amaechi from entering Government House was nothing  but an embarrassment to the country.

"Because there is NGF, we expect that when these governors meet, they are bound to discuss and strategise over the politics in the country and this may account for the apparent understanding between APC governors and the dissident PDP governors.

"What happened in Port Harcourt  in respect of the police action to prevent Amaechi from entering the Government House is an embarrassment to the country. It is a very disturbing development, there is no reason for stopping the governors from entering the government house no matter what the purpose was," he added.