ACN not a Yoruba party, says Ngige

From Chuks Collins, Awka

FORMER governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige, has debunked insinuation in some quarters that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) is a Yoruba party, saying its foundation and membership cuts across the country.

While dismissing speculation that he was planning to decamp to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ngige who was recently elected Senator for Anambra Central district on the platform of ACN, described the party as one of the future.

Speaking in a live television programme in Onitsha, Ngige said that as a founding member of the ACN, he would not contemplate leaving a party he founded, adding that[b] the problem with many politicians is lack of patience to build their political parties.
[/b]
"I am not crossing over to PDP because ACN is a party that has a bright future. It we do not form the Federal Government today, we will form it the next time. The important thing is that the party has moved from controlling only one state to controlling six and was able to make inroads in many others."

He promised to liaise with progressive senators to achieve many things for the people, including free education to the Nigerian children up to JSS3, expressing regret that people have been paying lip service to giving Nigerian children their right to free and qualitative education.

The senator-elect promised to present a bill that would make it mandatory for every state to have an airport, just as he would fight to ensure that every geo-political zone has equal number of states.

He said there was no justification for one zone to have seven states and about 240 local governments, while the South East should have five and about 95 local governments, noting that those with far less number of states and local governments were losing so much financial resources.

EzeUche_:

If he has to comment like that, that means that the perception of ACN is a Yoruba Party.

bashr4:

its the yorubas that started calling it a yoruba party and thats what is stalling their progress in other regions just like how apga have been tagged and igbo party and CPC northern party , they dont see us going about calling PDP an igbo party because it was founded by the igbos.

bashr4:

its the yorubas that started calling it a yoruba party and thats what is stalling their progress in other regions just like how apga have been tagged and igbo party and CPC northern party , they dont see us going about calling PDP an igbo party because it was founded by the igbos.

zstranger:

You are a mo/r/on

Pray tell, who founded PDP?

Mention the illustrious Igbo man, good enough, and capable enough to found a credible well organized national party?

FYI, PDP was founded mostly by the Northerners. The manifesto was written 'SOLELY' by an illustrious Yoruba son. The biggest financier of PDP are northerners. Just because they make you PDP chairman at one time or the other in no way make PDP an Igbo party. If at all anything, it is an Hausa party.

What a m/o/r/o/n.

The only igbo parties that are doing fairly well are PPA and APGA, which are nothing more than secondary school asscociations

zstranger:

^^^

At least, we agree that the PDP was not founded by incompetent Ndigbo.

oyb:

wetin

in 2007, they would have called ac/acn a lagos party


in 2011, they are calling acn a sw party

in 2015, what will they be saying  

dont  worry, broom coming soon to  state near you  

zstranger:

You are a mo/r/on

Pray tell, who founded PDP?

Mention the illustrious Igbo man, good enough, and capable enough to found a credible, well organized national party?

FYI, PDP was founded mostly by the Northerners. The manifesto was written 'SOLELY' by an illustrious Yoruba son. The biggest financier of PDP are northerners. Just because they make you PDP chairman at one time or the other in no way make PDP an Igbo party. If at all anything, it is an Hausa party.

What a m/o/r/o/n.

The only igbo parties that are doing fairly well are PPA and APGA, which are nothing more than secondary school asscociations

The biggest political machinery that heralded the creation of PDP was the Shehu yar'adua movement which metamorphosed into the PDM under the control of Atiku. The PDM was effectively demolished by OBJ when it was getting out of control.

Peoples Democratic Party came into being on the 19th August, 1998. It was formed by a group called G.34 Committee headed by Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the Vice-President of Nigeria in the Second Republic.

zstranger:

You are a mo/r/on

Pray tell, who founded PDP?

Mention the illustrious Igbo man, good enough, and capable enough to found a credible, well organized national party?

FYI, PDP was founded mostly by the Northerners. The manifesto was written 'SOLELY' by an illustrious Yoruba son. The biggest financier of PDP are northerners. Just because they make you PDP chairman at one time or the other in no way make PDP an Igbo party. If at all anything, it is an Hausa party.

What a m/o/r/o/n.

The only igbo parties that are doing fairly well are PPA and APGA, which are nothing more than secondary school asscociations

The biggest political machinery that heralded the creation of PDP was the Shehu yar'adua movement which metamorphosed into the PDM under the control of Atiku. The PDM was effectively demolished by OBJ when it was getting out of control.

The history of Nigeria’s current democratic dispensation will not be complete without the mention of Dr. Alex Ekwueme. The seasoned architect and multidisciplinary degree holder was founder and Chairman of the Institute of Civil Society, an organisation that gave birth to the G34. The history to G34 and the formation of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party is all well known.

So much has been said about Ekwueme and the issue of rotational presidency in Nigeria. For the avoidance of doubt, it was Ekwueme’s minority report recommendation at the 1994/1995 National Constitutional Conference that led to the emergence of the now widely accepted six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

You were one of the leaders of G-34 that fought for return of democracy. Is the group dead?

Lar: G 34 is still very strong. It is still there. You see there again there are issues that make you feel bad when you recall all that happened.

For instance, I feel guilty for a man like Dr. Alex Ekwueme who was the national chairman of G 34, I was his deputy, he was also the interim National Chairman of PDP but yet we did not support him we did not give him this position (presidential ticket).

Many people thought he could have been given the position but because of this peculiar Yoruba position of June 12, this had to be abandoned. G34 is still there. Dr. Alex Ekwueme is still there, he is a very god man, wonderful gentleman, I like him. With the benefit of hindsight, we feel sorry that we did not support him to become president.

Beaf:

Exactly. Right here on NL, there are bigots like Gbawe, Eko Ile, Ekt_bear etc that very aggressively push ACN as an ethnic party, even to the point of disgusting bigotry.
The founders of the party actively claim it is a Yoruba party and act out such claims by making ethnically bigoted statements against other sections of the country (eg Tinubu's notorious "drunken fisherman" with "capsized canoes" coming to land to seek votes quip). Unsurprisingly, other sections of the country are beginning to percieve ACN as a fascist party that must be excluded from their territories like a dominating cancer.

Precisely.

Eziachi:

Even before Ngige said it, I had always said that those calling ACN a Yoruba party are just ignorant. Just because they have strong base in the SW doesn't make them so and I am sure if not for rigging they would have registered a firm presence in places like Akwa Ibom, Adamawa, Benue, Imo and Rivers state.

Even by body language, Yoruba parties often comes with two alphbets names and not three like ACN.  Yorubas on Nairaland are even the worse enemies of ACN being called a Yoruba party based on their "We & Them" attitude when it come to ACN.

If they they fail to rig Rochas out in Imo he has the money and presence to do great things like Tinubu did with APGA in Igboland, something that was expected of Peter Obi, but he turned out to be a political love-addict, but its likely that Rochas will return back to PDP.
You have to respect Ngige for standing alone, rather going back to those that once wanted to kill him but only time will tell if he will keep to his word.

seanet02:

Why do you enjoy playing Politics with double standards- you said Tinubu called gej i drunken fisherman Did he just said? Was it not that clueless ediot that was calling his betters Rascals? case of double standards you are known for.

Gbawe:


Indeed. Most do not appreciate  , because of poor political sophistication, that there is a lot of "lost in translation" interpretation over what men like Tinubu and Ngige do and say. Ultimately , the end justifies the means . Tinubu is justified today . I think we will see , in future, that Ngige has the personality , exposure and  germane outlook , pertinent to National politics, to shape SE political ideology positively .

Beaf:

Let Tinubu live with the consequences, if a man slights you directly, you do not slight his ethnicity or section in return. There were enough signals even for the blind, but Tinubu persisted; if he wishes to practice fascist politics, then he must be prepared for the fallout.

Were there issues between SS and SW before Tinubu's statements? There were none, he invented tensions for his own shortsighted purposes; well, the consequences are here. Let the Ngige's continue denying the obvious, we can only be patient, because they will unfailingly return to the roots that nurture them.

No to fascism and ethnic bigotry.

Chyz*:

Pretty bold words,especially from someone who has never spoken so gallantly about Ngige before his joining ACN. It's clear that people are only good in your(yorubas) eyes if they conform to your ways/entities.Funny.

Beaf:

More for the zstranger's and other "creators" of history.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201102132521814

http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5256&Itemid=0

J12:

Interesting. . So why did the party win all contested electoral positions in the south west?

J12:

Interesting. . So why did the party win all contested electoral positions in the south west?