Emeka Ojukwu, son of late Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu, says he was driven to join the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, by his belief that his home South-east region must belong in national governance and the political decision-making process of Nigeria.
Mr. Ojukwu said this when he was formally received into the APC by the party’s leadership, led by its National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun.
With Mr. Odigie-Oyegun at the event at the APC national secretariat were the Deputy National Chairman (South) Segun Oni, National Vice Chairman (South-East), Emma Eneukwu, National Auditor George Moghalu, and Chief of Staff to the chairman, Edwin Ikhinmwin.
Mr. Ojukwu earlier declared for the APC from the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Awka at a rally ahead of the November 18 Anambra governorship election.
“I decided to lead by example. I have been talking about this for a while and I decided it was time to take the step forward,” he said on Wednesday.
“It is a challenge, there are some people that will not be happy about that. But you have to be bold, take a step and let people understand where you are coming from and why you are doing what you are doing,” he said.
“APC has been seen in our part of the country as the ‘other’ and I believe we are now showing that the APC is a party that can contend equally with any other party in the South East and do just as well.
“We now know that Igbo people are part of the APC, the APC are part of Igbo and Igbo are valued part of the Nigerian nation.”
“We hit around the 25 per cent mark in terms of votes in the Anambra election, which is not bad given where we are coming from. I think in the future, we are going to do a lot better.”
“Let me say this about my father: we shouldn’t take our history and our past to be shackles that hold us in one place. Rather they should be stepping stones and building blocks to get us moving towards the future.
“When my father came back from exile, he had the option to join an ethnic-based party but he chose to move to the centre and there was a reason for that.
“You need to be at the table where decisions are being made. If you are not there, you will always get the short end of the stick, you will be marginalized. That is the message I want to help to propagate.
“This is a much bigger party than the one I came from, so I put myself at your service to help us achieve our dreams. For me, anyway that I can help to push this message forward, I am ready,” he told the party leaders.
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