Chekwas Okorie: APC, PDP Will Not Give Presidential Ticket to South-east in 2023

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Former national chairman of the defunct United Progressive Party (UPP) and now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Chekwas Okorie, has said that neither APC nor the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is likely to give Igbos their presidential ticket in the 2023 election.

Okorie, who was the pioneer national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), said his former party is the last resort for any Igbo politicians seeking to contest presidential elections next year.

He made the assertion on the occasion of the public presentation of his book, ‘APGA and the Igbo Question’ in Abuja.

Speaking to journalists on the prospects of a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction, Okorie said: “There is an opportunity for APGA to still serve its intended purpose. It is only APGA that gave the Igbos presidential candidate 20 years ago and it is still APGA that can give Igboman the presidential ticket for 2023 election. I have said time without number that neither the APC nor the PDP will give an Igbo man a presidential ticket. This is a power tussle and no one gives power on the milk of human kindness.”

Okorie said that for the Igbos to make real impact in the next presidential election in 2023, the Ohanaeze leadership, “may need to go to Governor Charles Soludo and sit down with him and say this is the only party we have and we want to present our own candidate and we want support it to win the presidential election.”

On regrets leaving APGA, Okorie said that the party was not just formed as a political party but was intended to be a movement, platform for engagement with the rest of the country.

He said that he tried everything humanly possible to resolve the crisis in APGA when it began, using lobbying and persuasion of various people for intervention but that the efforts failed.

In addition, Okorie said that he tried to highlight the tragedy that ndi-Igbo had suffered from APGA’s misfortune in one of the chapters in the book.

Okorie said that he founded UPP with the same of APGA but that it was unfortunate that UPP did not live up to expectations of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and it was deregistered.

He also explained his adventure into the APC, saying he felt tired of opposition politics and decided to taste the other side.

He said though he was not all that disappointed with APC but that Nigerians were not satisfied with the party’s performance.

On whether he may consider going back to APGA, Okorie said: “APGA being my child, I still have that passion and that was why I added the last chapter in my book, a new vista take off, showing the way forward for APGA.”

“Yes, it is a possibility if certain conditions are met but these are being discussed. The idea is that even if I decide to return to APGA, it would be to take it back as a platform for negotiations, reconciliation and engagement. That is the part of the condition of which I will go, because no group, no section can do it on its own. Nigeria is so big, negotiated engagement is the best way to go.

“If APGA gets its act right, I am not in the party now, there is no reason an Igbo man should fly its presidential flag. The Igbo man doesn’t need to beg the APC or PDP for tickets,” he said.

Okorie said that APGA already has a recognised structure even if not we’ll spread out but we still have eight months within which to campaign and make the party reclaim its pride of place in the country.

“The right thing to do now is to go back and rejuvenate APGA, get a presidential candidate, at the end of the day, there are pre-election and post-election alliances. So APGA should be able to have an open mind and be able to engage,” he said.

On the relevance of Ndi-Igbo in today’s political engagement in Nigeria, he said that Igbos have a sizable population in almost every part of the country. You don’t have such a population and remain irrelevant,” he said.

Okorie described the book as a product of his 46 years involvement in Igbo rights crusade, human rights and political activism from 1976 to 2022.