'The imbalance is suffocating' - Reno fires APC, says National Chairman must come from Southeast

Reno Omokri, a senior special assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan believes the ruling All Progressives Congress missed a good opportuniy to extend its goodwill to the southeastern part of Nigeria after it announced Senator Abdullahi Adamu replacement at the helm of affairs of the party.

Senator Abdullahi who had been the National Chairman of the party since 2021 resigned over the weekend after he emerged he wasn't in support of a Bola Tinubu's presidency.

Deputy National Chairman (North) of the party, Senator Abubakar Kyari has now emerged as the party’s National Chairman.

This was announced after a National Working Committee (NWC) meeting in Abuja on Monday.

Briefing reporters after the NWC meeting, Kyari formally announced the resignation of Adamu and Senator Iyiola Omisore as the party’s National Chairman and National Secretary respectively.

Kyari further said that in line with the constitution of the party, the Deputy National Secretary, Festus Fuanter, will serve as the acting National Secretary of the APC.

“As members of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), we are here to address you to the happenings and recent developments regarding the party.

However, reacting to the emergence of Kyari as Chairman, Mr Omokri opines the party missed an opportunity to extend an olive branch to the eastern region who he says feel marginalised and out of touch with national politics.

He made this known in a statement.

"The APC missed a golden opportunity to reduce the tension in the Southeast and bring that geopolitical zone into the mainstream by failing to replace their National Chairman with someone from the Southeast. Part of why there is so much unrest in the Southeast is because they feel underrepresented in the national power structure."

"The President is from the Southwest. His vice is from the Northeast. The Senate President is from the South-South, while the Speaker of the House of Representatives is from the Northwest. The Chief Justice of Nigeria is from the Southwest, whereas the President of the Court of Appeal is from the North-central."

"Where does that leave the Southeast? Completely naked politically at the federal level. The imbalance is suffocating. No zine will accept what the Southeast is expected to accept, and the APC ought to have used this vacancy to placate the Southeast and prove to them that Buhari's 'dot in a circle' philosophy went away with him."

"What a missed opportunity! So what if the Igbos did not vote for Tinubu. Are we still practicing Buhari's 96% versus 5% formula? The APC is reacting to the #NigerianElections2023, when they should be planning for the next elections."