Success Nwanedo
A former Senator representing Rivers South-East district, Senator Magnus Abe, has said that he does not have to be friends with the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi to be qualified as a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Abe, who spoke on Arise Television on Tuesday, maintained that though he and Amaechi were not friends, it is important to manage their diverse interests constructively.
According to him, “There is no requirement that I have to be a friend of Rotimi Amaechi before I can be a member of the APC.
“If it were so, a lot of people who are members of the party across the country who are not friends with other members would have been forced to leave.
“This is not a social club or an association of friends, it is a political party, in which diverse interests and ambitions will have to be managed constructively, according to the rules. I think that if we can focus on that and leave a lot of personal animosity and hatred that we exhibit within the party, I believe that we can make better progress.”
Abe disclosed that the accusation against him of synergizing with Governor Nyesom Wike is an attempt to undermine the capabilities of some of them in the Rivers APC.
He revealed that “This has been the message that he (Amaechi) is trying to send and I believe that Nigerians understand that politics in a democracy is by numbers.
“We have the numbers within the APC to make our point visible and affect the direction of any voting exercise that takes place in this state.
“The problem that we have across various chapters of this party is caused by internal strive within the party, is it caused by anybody outside? The problem is caused by the exclusion of key members of the party and thousands of other members of the party in the state.”
Speaking further, the former lawmaker also accused the leadership of the APC of the current crisis in the party.
He said, “A lot of the APC leaders, due to its position as the ruling party, are disconnected and the problem plaguing the party seeps into the polity.
“We must realise that the APC is a party and its usefulness lies in the ability to win elections. The thinking of some of them is that President Muhammadu Buhari has 11 million votes and we cannot afford to take these voters for granted. We must conduct ourselves in a manner that will engender trust in the mind of the electorate.
“The APC is dragging itself in too many directions due to many subplots which have led to disunity. There will be diversity of interests but there is no common purpose amongst the stakeholders.”
