NATIONAL chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA) Victor Umeh, has said that since names of ministerial nominees by President Jonathan were made public, a lot of APGA faithful had been calling and sending text messages expressing disappointment.

The APGA Chairman also spoke on the Boko Haram threat to security saying Nigeria stands the risk of being branded a terrorist nation, urging the federal government to toe the path of caution by employing dialogue and psychological therapy to diffuse the issue.

Umeh, who spoke to The Guardian in an exclusive interview in his office, Abuja, said: “We ran for the various seats except the presidency because we did not have a presidential candidate, so we supported Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. We left what he would do for APGA to his discretion. As to whether APGA is satisfied as a political party, I will tell you that since this screening exercise began, our party members have been calling me and sending all sorts of text messages expressing disappointment. It (nomination of ministers) is an issue party faithful feel very strongly about, but there is nothing we can do about that because it was a support that was given unconditionally.”

The APGA chairman remarked that quite unlike what befell the Alliance for Democracy, (AD) in 2003, APGA came out of the 2011 elections enlarging its coasts instead of shrinking in size, recalling how newsmen inundated him with questions suggesting that APGA had shot itself in the foot by supporting a rival party’s candidate.

On concerns raised by some notable party men that the President should have compensated the party with a ministerial nominee for the Southeast geopolitical zone or Anambra State, Umeh said that in an ideal situation where federal character is upheld to the letter, state governments not controlled by the ruling party ought to recommend persons to be appointed into the federal cabinet.

“What is the key really is whether we have people in the federal executive council or not, those chosen should see Nigeria as one constituency. They should do everything in their power to meet the enormous challenges facing the country,” he said.

According to him, in the event of failure to perform, APGA will stand very strongly to say that the government has failed this country.


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