EZEKIEL NWOKOYE
Those who followed Soludo’s campaign trail would remember how he constantly mooted his desire to transmute the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) into a Cooperative Society that will be beneficial to that woman who sells pepper in a local village market or that young vulcanizer on a sidewalk at the city centre.
What this means is that at the core of Soludo’s political ideology is a belief that socioeconomic development of society must be mainstreamed as good politics than primitive tokenism or prebends that benefit just a few. In a more practical term, most political parties as constituted today have become vehicles for frittering away public resources into few private hands. To this extent, Nigerians would readily respond “Share the money” when you chant the name of any political party.
In APGA, for instance, there existed a time in the pre-Soludo era when some members of the party’s Board of Trustees earned between 10 to 20 million Naira monthly from government for doing nothing. Some others were given big projects that have remained undone many years after. A few of these former BOT members are today in other Parties pontificating about being “betrayed” simply because there is a new sheriff in town that has ended their daylight robbery against the people.
Some of these BOT members cared less about the quality of Public infrastructure, the deteriorating conditions of major urban roads in Onitsha, Awka, Nnewi and Ekwulobia. They cared less about the deprecating livelihoods of Okpoko people, the death of public amenities and the mediocre state of schools and health centres.
Today, Soludo keeps asking the current leadership of the Party to either focus on actualizing the motto of the Party – “be your brother’s and sister’s keeper”, focus on strengthening the weakest links – or risk a total collapse of the entire system. Soludo says APGA must be that people’s party where no one is left behind.
This is the arduous task before the young and vibrant new APGA leadership and they must show strong commitment to playing this politics of development, and be ready to point the people to the dangers of the old order, where a few political appointees and BOT members affluently lived in denial. It is very important that these few individuals driven by stomach infrastructure begin to understand that the true essence of party politics is to ensure the greater good for the greater number of people in Society.
– Ezekiel NWOKOYE writes from Awka, Anambra State