By Nahum Sule, Jalingo
Chief David Kente, a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Taraba State has advised Gov. Agbu Kefas of to unify both the old members of the party and the newly defected ones in the state.
Kente gave the advice while addressing newsmen in Jalingo on Monday.
While recognizing the governor as the leader of the party, Kente urged him to fasten up the process of assimilation as well as to carry all members along.
“We have witnessed massive defections from other political parties into the APC and the APC still has relative peace.
“We still have relative peace among ourselves and people coming in.
“In the coming days we expect those who have just come in and have taken over structures to be very kind and should make it all inclusive so that both the former and the new members can coexist peacefully with each other.
“Otherwise, there will be implosion, Implosion is worst than explosion. When you have an implosion, you are having a crisis within and it can be very damaging and can be catastrophic.
“So my candid advice is that those who have come in to join us in our party should quickly fasten up the processes of assimilation so that we can go into the next election as one group,” he stated.
Chief Kente also warned some members of the party who were allegedly fanning the embers of disunity and conflict to desist forthwith, adding that they were ready to deal with such members using appropriate party mechanism.
“We are part of the people who protested against APC and part of the people who participated in forming the government.
Unfortunately, the government did not involve most of those who sacrificed and did anti party to go with them.
” I think the situation is not too bad. There is still room for improvement and reconciliation. Our hope is we should all put our heads together and work as a team. Unless we work as a team we are going to have a lot of issues.
“For now, the relationship is cordial although there are very few wicked ones among us who are fanning the embers of conflict and disunity and I hope the political leaders will not succumb to those gymics for their gymic is to devide us and take advantage of the situation.
“For instance, we have a situation where some politicians are feeling threatened so much that they are now fanning the embers of disunity so that some people can drop and they can have advantage.
” The assurance we are giving ourselves is that we can attain that without necessarily fanning the embers of disunity and conflict. We can achieve that through democratic process.
The problem we are having in Taraba currently is that some few individuals who have virtually nothing to show in their many year in politics are the ones going round to dislodge people that God has helped by putting them in places of authority.
“I think politics should be played with decorum because if you are not able to perform and your brother has performed, you can say kudos to him, we should be able to thank God for bringing those whose impact is felt in the state. There are politicians who have impact accross the state while some have not and are in the process of having positive impact.
“We want to encourage those who want to have positive impact to fasten up the process of having impact. For those who don’t have and are not willing to have and are fanning the embers of disunity and conflict should desist. We will deal with them appropriately, he warned.
Chief Kente also assured the party members of internal cohesion and support to one another as it prepares to go into 2027 election.
He warned against the adoption of displacement of old members, pointing out that such acts were capable of igniting crisis and disunity among members of the APC family in the state.
” We are all set for the 2027 elections because the processes are going to start.
The governor and his members have all defected into our party and the formal ceremony would hold any time from now, though he is already a card carrying member of the APC and he attended the last NEC of the APC and by this, he is a full member and leader of the APC in the state.
“He has a lot of work to do in the process of assimilation. He should have it at the bottom of his mind that 60 percent of APC worked for him to become the governor of the state so the people he is meeting on ground are already his people and if I were him, I will galvanize the relationship and forge ahead rather than coming up with the programme of displacement.
“Any attempt to displace members, a lot of people are willing to oppose, are ready to go to court and are ready to defend their interest.
“As you are aware, we are from the same local government area with the governor and all through my life what interest me was to produce a governor from the southern Taraba especially from my place Wukari.
“He been a governor is like me been a governor. Under normal circumstances, we shouldn’t have people agitating to become governor from and just file behind him to have an easy sail. However, we have some elements with dissentting voices from here and there because everybody seems not to have been carried along.
” And my candid advice is that those issues should be addressed so that we can approach another round of election as one united people and I must be honest that once we are not being carried along, you will see the number of people that will vie for various positions without considering wether he is their younger brother or junior brother.
“As I am talking, two members from one family are vying for House of Representatives from Wukari, members of the same family vying for senate and state assembly and that is very common in our area.here.
Even though, we are advocates of decorum we want to act as a team and to work in common but if it doesn’t go that way, a lot of people are waiting to run for governorship especially from Wukari and we will give the incumbent a chase for his money.
” But if he can rally everybody around, I can assure you that he can get an easy sail.
“My aspiration for governorship is even growing stronger and stronger and as you may recall, the current National Chairman of APC said that the next primary election will be open primaries as there is no automatic ticket for any aspirant.
” Therefore it is better we work together and get a consensus candidate as the process is about to commence,” Kente said.
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Chief Kente commended President Bola Tinubu for his giant stride especially through economic stability as well as the success recorded in recent times in the area of security.
According to him, the president is doing his best especially in the area of security.
The recent escalations are part of response and reactions to the actions of the federal government.
