Youths from different political blocs of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Oyo State Chapter, have appealed to the leaders and elders in the party, both state and national levels, to put the interest of the party first and ensure all hands are on deck, if the party is to achieve victory in the 2023 polls.
The youths, under the aegis of OyoAPCInterestFirst, said the crisis that has trailed the controversial state congress of October 30 has indeed exposed the challenges the party is facing.
Arising from a stakeholders forum which held in Ibadan recently, the group, through a communique issued and signed by a Co-Convener, Aponmade Ahmed Adewale, noted that top of the challenges is the division caused by the quest for power by various tendencies and blocs within the party.
In the communique, the group disclosed that the state congress held on the 30th of October exposed the challenges facing the party, showcased through the division caused by the quest for power by various tendencies and blocs within the party, which, though not alien to politics, is inimical to the progress of the APC at the state level and the national levels.
The communique reads in part: “The lessons from 2019 seem to have been forgotten by party stalwarts, chieftains and faithful. We lost our position as the party in government because of differences that could have been settled, if we truly had the interest of the party at heart. We lost the ability to resolve and this cascaded into a painful loss in no small measure at the last election.
“Life gives us many chances, these chances are opportunities to create a better future by taking the right decisions. Today, Oyo APC has gotten another chance to predict it’s own future. The future of our party will only be assured if we put the interest of the party first. Only If we put #OyoAPCInterestFirst.”
The youths declared that they belong to various tendencies and blocs which all come together under the big umbrella of the APC, as without the APC there would be no platform for the tendencies and blocs to operate, affirming that it had become expedient to save the soul of the party, if any of the blocs would survive.
The communique says the Oyo APC Interest First is a movement that had risen out of the need to bring all party members together for the love of the party as members must see beyond individual interests or blocs or tendencies and personalise the burden of the party to ensure differences are put aside, even when the option is not an easy pill to swallow, calling on members to embrace togetherness and brotherhood for the greater good and interest of the Oyo APC.
According to the communique: “#OyoAPCInterestFirst is officially Commissioned as a movement today, we must wear it as a badge of honor. We must wear it as an armor. We must carry it as a shield to protect the interest of our party. Above and beyond for the greater good of the APC. Therefore we call on our party leaders both at the national and state to put the interest of the party first and all hands must be on deck for the victory of our great party come 2023 and above.”
The group noted, in the communique, that the interest of the the party is sacrosanct and non-negotiable.
Dominica Nwabufo
