By Our Correspondent
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu has underscored the need for unity in Abia State Chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), saying it was the only panacea towards winning future elections.
Kalu made the emphasis at a meeting with the members of Abia State APC Stakeholders Forum in Abuja on Monday night.
He called for forgiveness and reconciliation amongst the aggrieved members of the party, urging them to work together in the interest of the party, the state and the nation at large.
Acknowledging that APC is the ruling party at national level, Kalu stressed that such should be replicated in the State to consolidate on the gains of the party at the center.
He said: “In us lies the capacity to reconcile for unity and peace. The expectation of those who are angry is that we reach out them in all humility. Some will be easy, some will be difficult but that they are difficult doesn’t make them evil people. It means that we have to go the extra mile to win them back.
“As you go home ask yourself, who among us is missing? Our responsibility is to go and look for that one soul, identify the one soul, identify the problem and then set agenda on how to achieve it. In that agenda, we put a timeline.
“There’s nothing more important to this political party now than unity, unity and unity. The only way people will feel united is when we give them a sense of belonging. It’s when we honor them and make them to understand they have value to bring to the party. So, if I do my part and you do your part, there’s still the missing link, our job is not complete.
Our job will be complete when we move as a formidable block, as a formidable force to build our party. So, everyone is important.
“We have a lot to do. In the course of this deliberation, we are going to have an appraisal of how we fared. When we say political party, it’s not an ice cream party, it’s the aggregation of likeminds who come together with the purpose of building one another, our community, our nation in line with common policies.
“It’s high time we started looking at quality, capacity, integrity, transparency, accountability not gender or brother, etc. The most important thing is that at the end of the day, the constituents will enjoy good governance.
“We should start early, so we don’t get it wrong. It’s time to identify those who can play roles now and give them assignments. The role of the political parties is not just for campaigns, it’s to influence policies. Both at the federal and state level.
“We have not come to realize that we can come as a team and lobby for a particular policy that we want Abia to benefit from. We only wait for election, and you end up wasting four years when we can come as a formidable team and lobby the presidency, even the governor, though he’s not from our party.”
Kalu also proposed that all suspended stakeholders of the party in the State be recalled immediately in the spirit of peace, unity and reconciliation.
“Today we should raise a resolution as the stakeholders of this party to recall everyone suspended. We don’t want to know the reason for such suspension. We want all hands to be on deck. We should be proud of the value we are going to bring as individuals and also recognize the value the other person is bringing.
“People like Senator Orji Kalu is a leader. Chief Ikechi Emenike is a leader. Hon. Nkiru is a leader by virtue of her office. Pls, don’t tell me to come and fight Nkiru. Chief Nwamkpa is a leader. Let’s bring the system that will bring everybody together. There’s no faction in this party.
