2023: After Osinbajo, Another APC Stalwart Warns Party Faces Imminent Defeat

By James Orji

Tony Okocha, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in Rivers state has predicted that the woeful performance of the party could hinder it from winning the 2023 presidential election.

Okocha told the Leadership newspaper in an interview that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has performed below expectations of Nigerians since coming to power in 2015.

The APC chieftain’s comment comes on the heels of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s comment that it will be difficult for the APC to win election once Buhari leaves power.

Osinbajo told some APC youths on Monday that President Buhari’s popularity has been winning election for the party, adding that once the president is no longer in the picture the party will struggle to win.

The vice president said “today, the APC can win elections, why not, we have a very popular President who can control significant votes, we have partners everywhere.

“Whereas, in the coming years, when we do not have such a political leader who is as popular as the President, you are going to need to do the hard work. We can’t assume that the votes will all come in.”

Okocha, who is the former chief of staff to Rivers State Government House, said Nigerians are not happy with the

President Buhari-led federal government, following its inability to live up to its promises to the citizens as well as uphold the ruling party’s change mantra.

He said “APC came to power in 2015 with a whole lot of promises to Nigeria. In fact, it was on the mantra of change that the APC came to government. What was the change all about?

“Change was an ideology, a philosophy, a coinage that APC had to adopt because the period of the leadership of PDP in Nigeria was seen as a period when Nigerians and Nigeria backslid in virtually all ramifications; the economy was down, corruption was at its peak, infrastructures were not just there and so forth and so on.

“So, APC came with that mantra of change. As a founding member of the party in the state, our concern was how to reduce the spate of corruption that was eating deep into the nation. We also boasted that we were going to revamp the economy, that what used to be a minus would be a plus in APC government.

“Looking back, six years gone, I can’t pick anything that one can hold to say yes, this is the change we promised to bring. Poverty is everywhere. Nigerians can barely feed, the roads are terrible, the hospitals are still not there. In fact, we promised that our country will be a medical tourist centre, but our President still travels overseas when he is sick,” the APC chieftain said.