By CYRIL MBAH, CAbuja.
The National Chairman of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Commander Emmanuel Bishop Amakiri has described the general insinuation by some critics who claim that the party should not be taken serious or reckoned with as a faulty suggestion.
The national chairman emphatically stated that contrary to the impression created by detractors and certain people who do not mean well for the party, the YPP cannot be regarded as a pushover entity.
Amakiri reminded critics of the party that the YPP earned its right to remain as one of the 18 registered political parties after winning some seats in the parliament and was not de-registered like many other political parties.
He told our reporter in an exclusive interview at the YPP National Secretariat that the party has put everything in place to commence campaign September ending pointing out that the 2023 election would be used to increase the tally of the party’s members in the parliament and its presence in every part of the country.
“Before we became a political party, we were aware of the responsibilities before us and we selected reliable men and women of distinct character to pilot the affairs of our party. The party is always prepared for any task that is before us. The party is always prepared.
“We are everywhere even down to the ward levels. We are not a new party; we have successfully gone through the planning, crawling and gestation stages. Now, we are at the stage of stability after passing through stormy waters and in the 2019 general elections, we won a seat in the parliament.
“So, we earned our stay because of our performance and we are not sleeping. We are consolidating on the gains we made in 2019 and nobody can count the parties in the Senate today without adding the YPP on the list,” he enthused.
Amakiri also said the YPP understands and places high value on the youth population and would leverage on it because “the youths have the numerical strength, the intellectual sagacity, the energy and the drive to move campaigns and projects ahead,” adding that even though the nation has enormous potential in the strength of the youth, the resources have not been properly utilised like it was done in China.
On the preparations of the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Abdulmalik Ado Ibrahim for the 2023 election, Amakiri said the candidate has done what was expected of him and has been consulting while the party awaits the window of campaigns to be opened.
He described the candidate as one of “the best son-of-the soil that Nigerian have been yearning to have to move the country forward in development” adding “I am telling you today that the YPP is not a push over party.
“We have built from the scratch and today every YPP candidate knows what he/she must do because we are better placed to win elections everywhere. We are not a political party that is run based on rhetoric. We are practical and the coming campaigns will be an issue based one.”
On the rifts undermining the efforts of many political parties, the chairman described conflict as a natural thing in the genetic structure of human beings stressing that there must be disagreements when two or more people are working together on any project due to divergent opinions and interests.
He said what differentiates the party from the other parties currently neck deep in crisis include the fact that the YPP does not thrive in impunity like the older political groupings bearing in mind that one cannot always get away with recklessness or lack of social justice and decorum.
“We in the YPP operate on the basis of moral nobility, justice to all and we are immune to the type of crisis in other parties because we do not celebrate mediocrity against competence,” he said.
On Nigeria’s 62 independence anniversary, Amakiri also said that Nigerians have every reason to celebrate and thank God because people are still alive despite the biting inflation and general hardship in the country.
“We have every reason to celebrate and thank God on independence anniversary day. Whether or not we have reached the Eldorado, I cannot say but I think that we are on the road to Eldorado but Nigerians must also understand that we cannot get there without doing the right thing which is to elect good leaders.
“We have to change the way we elect our leaders. We are tired with seat tight leaders who just occupy seats for the sake of being there. We were sleeping before but I am happy that Nigerians are now awake and the political consciousness has increased more than it was before now. It is time for restitution and it is necessary that we celebrate.”
On the Electoral Offences Commission in the National Assembly, he acknowledged that many things are wrong with the nation’s electoral process and he urged parliamentarians to do something about the situation.
Amakiri concluded by saying: “For me, I think something serious and urgent must be done to improve the way politicians behave and play politics in the country. We cannot continue this way. It is time for political liberation. Nigerians have suffered enough. Everyone should be singing the chorus: ‘let my people go.’”
