2015: 36 APC Scribes Meet In Lagos

Kazeem Ugbodaga

Ahead 2015 elections, Publicity Secretaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 36 states of the federation met in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, on Tuesday to brainstorm on how to tackle the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in their various states.

At the meeting held at the Sojourner, Ikeja, Lagos, the APC publicity secretaries agreed that it was time they worked together to break the dominance of the PDP at the centre in next year’s polls.

Chairman, APC, Lagos State, Chief Henry Ajomale, charged the party’s image makers to be courageous and be willing to serve if they wanted the party to progress as they were the engine of the APC.

“You must point out the ills of the PDP in your various states. They are dirts of the earth. Whatever they have been doing since 1999 has brought us backward, they lie that the economy is moving forward, when it is not. Our economy depends on only one source-Abuja. The PDP are rogues,” he said.

For those who had left the party, Ajomale said their departure was good for the party as they were not true loyalists, saying that their departure was good riddance to bad rubbish.

“You are here to defend the party. If not because of the interest for the party, you won’t come here. 2015 will be our year and Nigeria must change and we must serve as the vehicle to make the change possible,” he stated.

National Publicity Secretary, APC, Alhaji Lai Muhammed said in repositioning APC for change, the publicity secretaries needed to have seamless dissemination of information as they were to tell the world what the party is.

Muhammed, represented by the Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos on Information and Strategy, Lateef Raji, lamented that for 15 years, the PDP could not take the nation to the desired destination as they had no manifesto for the people.

“To be successful in this job, we must be more versed than others and must carry out research about our environment. Take advantage of the internet. We have everything it takes to make a change.

“You are the gateway through which information gets out to the public. We need to sensitise our members about happenings at the national level. Draw out a road map on how you disseminate information. You must continue to expose the weaknesses of PDP. We must be swift in refuting spurious allegations against our party,” he said.

Publicity Secretary, APC, Lagos State, Mr Joe Igbokwe stated that the meeting offered all the opportunity to re-energise their strength and renew focus to break from the stranglehold of corrupt, inept and clueless government.

“It takes a lot of efforts and determination to break the stranglehold of corrupt party and government that has looted the common patrimony of Nigerians for the past 15 years. It will take a lot of sacrifice to unseat a party that has made corruption its cornerstone in a poverty-ridden country. APC is determined to do this and we all must play a central role in this struggle,” he stated.

Igbokwe added that to win this battle, there was the need to build the synergy needed to strengthen each state chapter of APC; tap from each other’s resources and experiences, assist each other in doing their work in their respective states, form a coalition that would create easier access to information and dissemination as well as assist the National Publicity office in propagating the party in the various states.

“We need to confront the PDP which constantly changes facts to fit into their lies, instead of changing their blatant lies to fit into facts and reality. We need to propagate our party as the viable alternative to the irredeemable PDP misrule.

“I want us to leave here today with a working paper on how to strengthen our party for the challenges of 2015 through our works as the spokespersons of the party in our respective states,” Igbokwe said.