The Founder of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and current Chairman Board of Trustees, Chief Chekwas Okorie, on Wednesday stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has made genuine efforts to reinvigorate the economy, but these efforts have yet to yield tangible results.
Okorie called for patience and advised against the planned protest, urging leaders to counsel their people and stop them from participating.
He expressed confidence that Igbos would not participate in the protest and encouraged other ethnic groups to do the same.
Okorie also advised the government to be more sensitive to the people’s yearnings and to rein in their extravagant lifestyle, which he described as provocative, according to Blueprint.
He expressed optimism about APGA’s future, stating that with the hand of fellowship extended by Edozie Njoku, the party would become attractive again and recover its lost fortunes.
Okorie who called for patience on the part of the people, said, “the protest must not be allowed to happen and advised for more time to see the efforts materialise.
The APGA chieftain who spoke at a press briefing on Wednesday in Abuja while accepting his appointment as APGA Chairman, said he was 90 per cent sure no son or daughter of Igboland would take part in the protest urging leaders of other ethnic groups to counsel their people in the manner Ohanaeze did and stop them from taking part in the protest.
While advising the youth, Okorie said: “Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder; Nigeria has so many flashpoints as a result of the hardship that everybody agrees is everywhere, and it’s also clear that there is no way you can come out from a messed up polity without taking hard decisions and those hard decisions are likely to hurt in the interim.
“So my advice is we should not go the way of protest. The leadership is fully aware. I have seen some genuine measures of this administration to make things better. We should not allow this protest to happen. We must advise ourselves that let’s give this government more time and see whether things will change.
“Since the government came to power, it is now we are seeing the real harvest season and that is the one that is coming between now and end of the year and then we see the extent the agricultural policies would get some staple food to the table and then some of the measures.
“There was a time the naira fell so badly and some prophets predicted that the naira would hit N4000 to the dollar at a given time, but it has not happened like that. There is some bit of stability, even at N1,500 which is still high but it didn’t spiral as predicted. So some people are working very hard.
“Then to the leadership, they must be more sensitive to the yearnings of the people; And they must be more open. Their extravagant lifestyle is more provocative in a situation like this. They must rein in their taste for vulgarity because when you preach to the hungry man to give government a chance, the government officials are not encouraging that hungry man to be able to give them a chance. So I expect the preside to call an inhouse meeting.
“These people are not prepared to live life that will encourage others to make sacrifices. They living as if they live in a different world and we live in another and you see, a hungry man is an angry man, an angry man is irrational and an irrational man can be violent and you cannot rule out the fact that there are people of means who feel that they have been left out of power that are pushing and encouraging this protest to happen but if it happens it would be an ill wind that blows no one no good including the sponsors and those in government.
“I can tell you some of us who operate beyond the realms of political parties because I’m one of those major stakeholders in Igboland, The Ohanaeze who see today, I was part of its formation in 1976, I’m the only 1976 Ohanaeze that is still alive today so when I make certain statements I have listening ear because by the grace of God, I have also acquired certain moral authority.
“So we have spoken to our people not to be part of this protest and I’m 90 percent sure that you cannot see any Igbo son that take part in the protest because we know that at the end of the day, some people would be used as scapegoats. I believe my counterparts in Yorubaland should be doing the same, those in the north should be doing the same, in that way we will be able to counsel our people but it is not something that you can give an order, they will challenge you and you cannot beat them.”
On expanding the party’s frontiers, the newly appointed Board of Trustees Chairman, Okorie stated that “with the hand of fellowship Edozie Njoku extended to everybody, irrespective of where they belonged in the course of the struggle, APGA will become attractive again, and it would not be long for APGA to recover its lost fortunes and move ahead.”
