Ahead of the 2027 general elections, Anambra State Governor and national leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has said that the party is open to an alliance with any of the nation’s political parties that truly professes progressive ideology.
Soludo said this on Friday in Abuja at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of APGA, insisting the party is the foremost progressive movement in Nigeria.
There are indications that there have been discussions, especially with the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in 2023 election to team up with the Senator Musa Kwankwaso led New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) to dislodge the ruling APC in 2027.
Soludo, a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor also said that having received the validation from the courts, with the penultimate Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling, the party is poised to reach for greater heights.
He urged other progressive-minded political parties in the country to join hands with APGA to move the country forward as APGA was poised to unite with other progressive parties to work for a progressive country.
“APGA remains ready to extend a hand of fellowship to any party that professes true progressive ideology in order to join hands to rebuild Nigeria. For me, more than anything, it is for us to say to the world that APGA is alive, APGA is strong, APGA is rising. That is why we have come together to send that message today.
“As the first political party in Nigeria registered as a progressive, the All Progressive Grand Alliance registered in 2002. Every other party that has progressive also in their name, they all came much, much, much later. We are the foremost.
“We believe in Nigeria, in fairness, equity. We believe in true federalism. We believe in leaving no one behind. True progressivism. And that movement remains alive. That movement is strong. That movement will grow stronger. And we are poised more than ever now. Now that the court has finally cleared all this noise and rumble here and there, we can now also run together,” he said.
Speaking earlier, National Chairman of the party, Barrister Sylvester Ezeokenwa, said APGA is transforming into a new party with an agenda to infuse discipline and youth inclusiveness.
He also formally announced that the party had granted amnesty to genuine members who worked on the wrong side when the party was enmeshed in crisis.
Ezeokenwa said the amnesty did not cover non-card-carrying individuals who paraded as members to cause havoc to the party during the crisis.
He said that apart from the digitalization of membership register, the party had commenced setting up of skill acquisition centres through the newly inaugurated APGA Foundation.
Leaders of the party that attended the event were Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Biance Ojukwu, wife of the pioneer National Leader of APGA, late Odumegwu Ojukwu; former Minority leader in the National Assembly and Senator representing Abia North, Chief Enyinnaya Abaribe and Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Onyekachukwu Ibezi, among others.
