The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has assured Akwa Ibom State Governor Umo Eno and his supporters who followed him from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) that they won’t regret their decision to be part of the governing party.
He said the leader of the party, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, specifically asked him to inform the Governor that the APC will be home to him, and that no one will humiliate him or question his place in the party fold.
Senator Shettima spoke on Saturday in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, where he represented the President at the Grand Reception of Governor Umo Eno into the APC fold held at Godswill Akpabio International Stadium.
Addressing the mammoth crowd of APC supporters who thronged the venue of the grand reception, the Vice President described his boss, President Tinubu, as a bridge-builder and deep-rooted democrat who sacrificed his resources to sustain the struggle to defend the nation’s democracy.
“When the All Progressives Congress was conceived, the odds were stacked against us. But we endured. We overcame. We emerged not just as a political platform, but as a movement driven by fidelity to principles. And at the very heart of those principles stands a man whose name defines political tenacity and statesmanship, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.
“Few figures in our national history have given as much and demanded so little in return. Long before the drumbeats of democracy returned to Nigeria, he offered his resources to sustain the struggle. When the wind of vindictiveness sought to isolate Lagos when he was Governor, he stood alone and turned isolation into innovation,” he stated.
Recalling the role President Tinubu played in sustaining democracy in Nigeria, VP Shettima said at a time when most politicians “traded their principles for a seat at their oppressor’s table,” Tinubu chose to stay the course in building an alternative, “not in pursuit of personal glory, but in defence of democracy.
“I am telling you this, Your Excellency Pastor Umo Eno, because I want you and your co-travellers to know that Mr. President is a bridge-builder, an inveterate democrat, and so, your decision to come home to the APC is one that you will never regret.
“Mr. President asked me to assure you personally: no one will question your place here. This party is your home. You will not be humiliated. You will not be forsaken. We are your brothers and sisters in the high tides and the low ebbs. We ride together, and we rise together,” he declared.
The Vice President further gave the new APC entrants important insights into the workings of the party, saying the governing APC is “not a party of vanity metrics,” which is why it has remained the party to beat ten years after.
The party faithful, VP Shettima pointed out, are not kept alive by media hype or hostage to cabals but thrive on vision, just as he said the APC is a political platform that rewards merit and protects those who walk with the party “through fire and flood.
“That is why, ten years on, despite all odds, we remain the party to beat. We have defied the prophets of doom because we are more than an assemblage of politicians. We are a family.
“And as Mr. President said in his recent Democracy Day address, it is not our duty to fix the house of the opposition. What we are here to do is offer a better house, one that has room for the displaced, the betrayed, the dreamers and the doers. That freedom to choose, to walk away from darkness into light, is the very soul of democracy,” he further stated.
In his address, Governor Eno said his decision to join the APC was necessitated by the desire to align with the renewed hope Tinubu administration at the centre so he can rise with the progressives.
He told the gathering that his “progressive state movement is predicated on the enlightened state interest and to support Mr. President to finish the bold and audacious economic reforms he has started.”
He said joining the APC will help actualise the infrastructure drive in Akwa Ibom State, including the Deep Sea Port project that has been lingering for as long as thirty years.
Also in his address, National Chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, described the mammoth crowd as intimidating, saying the people came out of their own volition to join Governor Umo Eno because they believe in the APC.
“National unity leads to national development, national development leads to national integration and ultimately leads to national prosperity,” he stated.
On his part, Senate President Godswill Akpabio described the Vice President as the most intelligent and a man of integrity.
Noting that the crowd does not indicate a defection but a movement, he said the South-South has not only produced the wealth that has kept Nigeria going, but has always identified with the centre.
The Senate President said he was surprised when the zone went a different way in 2023, thanking the governor for the movement, assuring the people of the state that the Deep Sea Project and other requests from the state would be granted by the federal government.
Also, Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum and Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, thanked “Governor Umo Eno for the wise decision he has taken to join the moving train on the path of national development.”
He said President Tinubu is a great leader who came with economic reforms, starting with infrastructure and national policies, and is addressing insecurity in Nigeria and does not need distraction at the moment.
Welcoming dignitaries who graced the event, the Governor of Cross River State, Prince Bassey Otu, said it was a great day in the history of the South-South.
“Once upon a time I was an orphan in the South—South and was wondering what I alone in the zone was doing when the bulk of the resources is from the South – South,” he recalled, saying he started talking with his colleagues to align with the government at the center for the country to grow both politically and economically.
Assuring that the South-South will now work with one voice, the Governor said the Renewed Hope Agenda has been birthed in the land, and all the economic indices of the zone have taken a new stand.
The highlight of the event was the handing of the flag and broom, which are the symbols of the party, to the Governor by the National Chairman, saying it is a symbol of progress and authority.
