Senator Matthew Urhoghide crossed over to his old party the All Progressives Congress (APC), a few months ago. At the formal declaration at the Edo State APC Secretariat some of his followers were physically present to offer their support while thousands of other supporters and political associates across the seven local government areas of Edo South Senatorial District and some other supportes from Edo North and Central Senatorial Districts declared their memberships for the APC in solidarity with Senator Urhoghide.
With the thousands of new converts swelling the ranks of the APC, perhaps the strongest force that the party will have in the forthcoming elections when Senator Urhoghide is given the ticket of the APC to run for governorship in 2024 will be the unequalled acceptance that he enjoys across political parties and amongst the electorates.
Having just left the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and despite the party’s current internal squabbles, he maintains a support base within the party from both the party executives and ordinary members. Thousands of the PDP supporters are waiting on the flanks with baited breath to either come into the APC as members or support Senator Urhoghide from within their party were the APC to elect him as its governorship candidate.
The Labor Party(LP) on the other hand had wooed him to come into its fold because it recognized Senator Urhoghide’s vote-winning popularity – a consequence of the remarkable representation that he put up as senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria coupled with the palpable goodwill he enjoys from the electorates. In both the PDP and LP therefore, Senator Urhoghide was the man to beat for the parties’ gubernatorial ticket.
The loss of the PDP and the LP suddenly became the gain of the APC when Senator Urhoghide came into the fold. The single most sought-after and most sellable candidate for both the PDP and LP became APC’s absolute member.
The APC cannot afford to toy with the approaching election by making mundane, parochial or trivial considerations in its selection of its candidate for the election. It should not elect its candidate because he is loyal to the leader who might wield enough influence to be able to singularly pull the nomination through. The candidate should not be nominated because he has been in the party longer than others. It should not elect a candidate out of: sympathy; greed; selfishness; patronage; aspirant’s personal wealth or from the belief that the presidency musters enough power to force the party’s flagbearer into office.
Any responsible political party seeks ways to field a popular candidate that can guarantee across-party, across-society and communal acceptance. With a candidate elected for the right reasons, all other efforts at ensuring victory will be victory frills on an enterprise that is already coasting home and dry.
Senator Matthew Urhoghide is that sure card that the APC should play now. If the party truly intends to win the forthcoming election with legal and valid votes, it should give Urhoghide a waiver to run, work to make him emerge its candidate and then go to sleep without a worry.
The party must bury all acrimony as ‘I don’t like him; he’s just coming into the party now; he worked for opposition during the last election…’ etc. The goal, price and focus is victory. Whoever can win it for the party is the party’s man. The APC cannot afford to lose the state to opposition again. That will be an irreparably devastating blow to leaders of the APC in the state.
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