Emmanuel Enuekwu is the Vice Chairman South-east region of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). In this short interview with BODE OLAGOKE, he speaks on why some south-east politicians are now embracing APC, among other issues
What is your recent meeting at APC national secretariat all about?
We of the South -east extraction just finished a meeting with the national leadership of the APC. The national chairman Chief John Odigie Oyegun briefed the stakeholders on the continuing registration exercise that would soon start in the South-east. The leadership of party wants to democratize the process so that nobody will complain of not being registered.
So, what is the criteria for choosing those that attended the meeting?
Stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress from South East met with the National Working Committee members at the party’s National Headquarters, in preparation for membership registration in the zone.
They were led to the meeting by the me, APC National Vice Chairman South-east and among those that attended the meeting were: former minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, Senator Nkechi Nwaogu, Hon. Iheanacho Obioma, Chief Ikechi Emenike and others.
About 41 persons attended the meeting with the following distribution. Ebonyi State, 10 members, Enugu State 7, Anambra State 8, Abia State 10 and Imo State 6 members.
What is responsible for sudden registration?
There are some rumuor in some quarters that there are plots to make sure that some people that have political ambition wants to use the exercise to shutout others from being members of the party. You know that because of the quality leadership of President Buhari, every south easterners is angling to be a member of the APC and so, a lot of people that moved from different political parties into APC have not had the opportunity of being registered. Therefore the party felt it necessary that these big wigs are properly registered so that they can be part of the party as we approach the next general election. You are aware that in the south-east that in some quarters, some people believe that the APC is not strong in the south east. But what we have to say is that they should exercise some patient as the result of subsequent elections from the south-east will convince them of what we are made of.
Do you have some set of people you are targeting for this exercise?
You must be aware that we have done this registration before and so, it is not a fresh registration. We are continuing with the exercise and so, we are not targeting any particular number. We will register people that were not registered before. We might not finish the exercise this time, but we will leave the exercise open. But we will not be doing the e-registration now.
The national chairman made it categorical that the exercise is open to all and that if anybody complains of not being registered at the ward level or at the state where he is supposed to be registered, such a person will be registered at the national level. We have also set up a monitoring committee to move round to collate complaints. There is also an appeal committee because we want to make sure that nobody is left out of this exercise. We will make sure that everybody, no matter how small will be properly registered.
It seems the coming of former governor of Abia state,Chief Orji Kalu into APC is still generating issues, what is your reaction to this?
Before Orji Kalu joined APC, Jim Nwobodo had joined the APC and we have had others coming into the party. There is no uproar about his coming, instead, people are jubilation over that.
The problem with the south easterners before the election was that they felt that the PDP was the proper party for the Igbo man which they came to realize lately was not true because they were disappointed.
The PDP was in power for 16 years and the Enugu/Onitsha road was not done, the Enugu Port Harcourt road was not done, the second Niger Bridge was not done. There was no major project the south easterners could feel that made them say PDP is their party. When they realized this, they are how saying that Buhari who has been in power for a little over one year has paid contractors to start doing something about the Enugu Onitsha road, the Enugu/Port Harcourt road and has started doing something on the second Niger Bridge within one year. They are now asking, who is fooling who. Their eyes are now open and they can now see clearly. That is why they are now moving into APC. Politics is about making sure that the welfare of the people is bettered.