Former National Chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), and now member of the Board of Trustees (BoT), of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Sam Nkire, has urged Igbo in Lagos to vote for the APC and all its candidates in Lagos State on Saturday.
Nkire, in a telephone conversation with Daily Sun correspondent yesterday advised his kinsmen in Lagos State to vote the party, pointing out that, “that is where the political trend is going now in Nigeria,” adding that, “without mincing words, that is where our benefits are.”
The APC BoT member, who recalled that, “we Igbo are itinerary businessmen and women,” said, “and thus, we should seek peace with our host communities” advising that, “we should always play their politics because it would benefit us at the end of the day.”
While opposing the idea of imposing particular political parties on anybody, Nkire said: “As a democrat myself, I know that democracy is a matter of choice.” He, however, urged the Igbo community across the nation and even abroad to “always exercise good judgement to be part of the community where they live.”
Speaking further, the APC chieftain stated the need to be friendly with and not to be hostile to the host communities where the Igbo find themselves just as he advised host communities to integrate their fellow Nigerians from other parts of the country especially from the eastern part of the country, whom he said were travelers in search of good things of life through legitimate means.
“Igbo in Lagos are part of Lagos and should play Lagos politics. It is not advisable to do anything that could aggravate our insecurity. And the host community should see them as part of that community and therefore, accommodate and integrate them by giving them slots in political offices like local government chairmanship, House of Assembly, both at the state and national levels as well as commissionership slots,” Nkire advised.
According to him, Igbo community in Lagos has a huge population that could not be ignored and would always want to utilise their population to seek for political relevance but advised that, “Igbo should not join the wrong team because today, Nigeria is going the way of the APC and Igbo community should join the winning team.”
The APC BoT member regretted that wrong politicking had robbed the Igbo Senate president and Speaker of the House of Representatives, by putting all their eggs in a wrong basket, enthusing however that, “we still have time to amend by joining the main stream politics in Nigeria.”
His words: “Buhari is going to reposition the country and we should be part of it. Why should we be part of the fading Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)? In the next four years, if Buhari does well, I am afraid if the Igbo would not be held responsible for being part of the rot and bad deeds of the past 16 years. As a member of the APC’s BoT, and one of you, I cannot misadvise you,” Nkire submitted.
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