•Sly Ezeokewa
The National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Sly Ezeokenwa, has said that the party will not field a presidential candidate in 2027, as part of the party’s tradition and in demonstration of its total support for the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He dismissed speculations by some opposition politicians that Prof Charles Soludo’s courtesy visit to the president was ostensibly to lobby the president for reciprocal support during the November 8 gubernatorial election in Anambra State, reports The Guardian.
Ezeokenwa, who made the disclosures during a press conference in Abuja yesterday, regretted that the members of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State used the recent by-election in the state to foment trouble and weave false narratives about the Soludo administration.
He stated: “Let me begin by stating that this press conference has been necessitated by the persistent falsehoods, deliberate misinformation, and baseless allegations being circulated in the media by the supporters and cronies of the APC Senatorial candidate for the recently conducted Anambra South Senatorial by-election, Mr Azuka Okwuosa.
“This, of course, includes Mr. Nicholas Ukachukwu, the APC Governorship candidate for the November 8, 2025 Anambra Gubernatorial election, who despite the infamous role he played in attempting to subvert the will of the people at the said election, as well as several electoral infractions he committed, has volunteered himself as the chief purveyor of falsehood, all in the bid to discredit the excellent work of INEC officials and security agencies in ensuring the credibility of the said by-election.”
The APGA national chairman said that ordinarily, the party would have dismissed the spurious claims with a wave of the hand and rather focused on its people-oriented governance in Anambra State, noting, however, that responding to the baseless allegations and blatant misrepresentation was necessary to set the record straight.
“This press conference is aimed solely to provide a factual counter-narrative and ensure that the truth is documented for posterity,” he stated, stressing that the August 16 by-election has been adjudged as a watershed in the quest for transparent and credible elections in the country.
“The successful conduct of the by-elections has yet again marked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as an important pillar of our democracy and further demonstrated the institution’s commitment to upholding democratic principles and the will of the Nigerian people,” he asserted.
On the relationship between Governor Soludo and President Tinubu, Ezeokenwa said both leaders have never hidden their admiration for each other, adding that even the president has continuously alluded to the long-time friendship that has existed between him and Professor Soludo.
He contended that Governor Soludo’s support and, by extension, APGA’s decision to back President Tinubu’s re-election do not proceed from a quid pro quo consideration, remarking that it flows from tradition and as a mark of the mutual understanding between the president and the governor.
While revealing that he was not privy to the discussions between Soludo and President Tinubu when the former visited the latter, the APGA boss maintained that the Anambra chief executive has never hidden his call for progressives to align and work together.
Explaining Soludo’s support for Tinubu, Ezeokenwa explained that the Anambra governor has been vocal about his admiration for the courage that Mr President has demonstrated in engendering very necessary and crucial reforms of the economy, especially from day one when the president removed the subsidy.
His words: “And so, these and many more issues are, for me, what I may consider pivotal in discussing the relationship between our party and Mr. President’s party.
“And this call, for me, is ideologically based, that we cannot continue to have the proliferation of political parties professing similar ideologies when these political parties can actually come together in some sort of either strong partnership or loose coalition, especially when the ultimate goal is to advance progressive ideals or progressivism, which we profess.
“APGA as a political party is the foremost progressive party in Nigeria. From 1999 till date, under the present dispensation, we were the first to be registered with the word ‘progressive.’ And, of course, before you have started having the All Progressive Congress, the Young Progressive Party, and all manner of progressives.
“Mr. Governor (Soludo) believes that the mainstay of every political party must be the ideologies that that particular political party professes. And, if you look at the manifestos of most of these political parties, you will see that they are virtually the same. Either you are left of the centre or right of the centre. It’s that simple.”
