South East marginalization will end if… – APC chairman, Ganduje

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, has suggested that the perceived marginalization of the Igbo people can be attributed to the fact that the five South-East states are governed by different political parties, rather than being united under a single party.

Speaking on Thursday while receiving the leadership of the Kano State Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), led by its Chairman, Aminu Garko, Ganduje emphasized that the ruling APC is determined to change this dynamic.

He highlighted the party’s intent to capture more South-East states, beginning with Anambra, which is currently governed by the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).

“The North, South-East political zones are all claiming that they have been marginalised. The South-East geopolitical zone is saying the same thing. But what we are telling them is that the marginalisation has been created by them.

“How can you have five states ruled by four political parties? What will be your political bargain?” Ganduje queried.

He said the APC was working very hard to ensure that it spread its tentacles beyond Imo and Ebonyi states, by winning more of the South-East states.

“Next year, there will be Anambra, which has been a state governed by APGA for many years, but we have introduced a new scheme. We want to start with Anambra. Already, we have Ebonyi and Imo. Now, we are encroaching into that zone to ensure that we capture most of the states. And if we get what we want, we capture all the states,” Ganduje said.

He also boasted that victory was sure for the APC in the September 21 Edo State governorship election as well as the November 16 Ondo State poll.

Ganduje said, “I believe our campaign is in high spirits; we are getting ready for that (Edo) election and we believe we will be able to recover our state.

“This is because it was an APC state, but because of internal bubbles, we lost it to the PDP, but we are sure we will recover that state.

“For Ondo State, it’s already an APC state, and when the former governor died, he left a number of problems, but we were able to resolve those issues.

“We conducted primaries, we succeeded in getting the person that they want.

“If we win Edo, we will be getting an additional state for the party. It will be 21 states out of 36.”