Open Letter To Abia APC Chairman

THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR COMMUNIQUÉS AND DEMANDS FOR APOLOGIES; IT IS TIME TO FIX THE PARTY.

An Open Letter to Hon. Chijioke Chukwu, State Chairman, and Members of the State Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abia State

Dear Hon. Chijioke Chukwu and Members of the State Working Committee,

It is profoundly disconcerting, and indeed politically indefensible, that at a moment when the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State is drifting perilously towards internal disintegration, the leadership appears disproportionately preoccupied with communiqués, administrative posturing, and demands for apologies, rather than confronting the structural maladies eroding the party from within. The house is gradually falling apart, yet those entrusted with holding it together seem more concerned about identifying who caused the cracks than repairing the foundation. The increasingly pervasive politics of personal ambition, sectional interest, exclusion, and the pernicious doctrine that “if it is not mine, nobody else should have it” is steadily supplanting the collective interest of the party. Factionalisation is becoming normalised, internal distrust is deepening, and the struggle for supremacy has become so consuming that the party risks defeating itself before confronting its political adversaries.

APC in Abia South is in turmoil, while Abia North is hardly any different. The contest over who is the authentic leader and who controls the machinery of the party has degenerated into a debilitating struggle for political dominion, more fierce than the USA-Iran war over the Strait of Hormuz. Instead of constructing a broad-based coalition capable of confronting the opposition, the party is expending its political capital on internal vendettas and avoidable confrontations. And one will ask: who exactly should apologise, and for what offence? Is it Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, a major political actor who contributed significantly to the establishment and growth of APC in Abia State, who should apologise after being progressively marginalised within a political structure he helped build, and whose influence as a major stakeholder was diminished? Or is it Hon. Chief Chris Nkwonta, who committed considerable resources, time, influence, and political capital to building the party in Ukwa Federal Constituency, who should apologise after emerging victorious in his primary election and subsequently becoming entangled in avoidable political and legal controversies due to the carelessness of the party leadership? When those who have invested substantially in building a political institution begin to feel alienated by its custodians, the prudent response is not indignation; it is introspection.

The leadership must therefore abandon the convenient fiction that APC Abia State is in perfect health. The party’s political visibility, grassroots confidence, internal cohesion, and organisational credibility are being steadily eroded, while opposition forces are exploiting the vacuum and expanding their influence in territories previously considered favourable to APC, including Ukwa East and West, and other Local Government Areas. If an election were conducted in Abia State today, would APC be confident of winning in Abia South? If the answer is uncertain, then this is not the time for political cosmetics, communiqués, intimidation, or attempts to silence uncomfortable voices. A senior stakeholder publicly articulated grievances that many others whisper privately, yet the instinctive response was to demand an apology rather than interrogate the substance of the matter. No communiqué and demand for an apology can reconcile factions or rebuild a collapsed structure, and no administrative pronouncement can manufacture grassroots loyalty where trust has been squandered.

Chairman, Sir, leadership is not the art of suppressing dissent; it is the discipline of managing disagreement without destroying the institution. Leadership is the protection of the party from institutional decay, not demanding an apology where speaking the truth in honesty is required. If there are legitimate grievances, confront them. If factions exist, reconcile them. If structures have become dysfunctional, reform them. If members have lost confidence, earn it back through transparency, fairness, and inclusiveness. The leadership must understand that authority without legitimacy is merely administrative control, not political leadership. APC Abia State does not need a leadership obsessed with proving that it is right; it needs a leadership courageous enough to acknowledge when the party is wrong and determined enough to correct it.

The 2027 elections are approaching with a political clock that does not recognise internal quarrels, wounded egos, or factional calculations. Every day consumed by needless power struggles is a strategic advantage surrendered to the opposition. Every stakeholder alienated is a bridge dismantled; every influential member driven away is a campaign asset forfeited; and every grassroots supporter disillusioned is a vote potentially surrendered before the campaign even begins. The APC cannot credibly aspire to govern Abia by first governing itself through exclusion, intimidation, factionalism, and perpetual suspicion. The party belongs neither to an individual nor to a faction, senatorial zone, political family, or cabal of office holders. It belongs to its members. Those entrusted with its leadership therefore have a responsibility greater than writing communiqués and demanding apologies; they must preserve the institution itself.

The moment has therefore arrived for the State Chairman and the entire State Working Committee to rise above political ego, personal ambition, and factional arithmetic and undertake the arduous task of institutional reconstruction. Convene the stakeholders. Engage the aggrieved. Reconcile the factions. Restore internal democracy. Enforce discipline without discrimination. Respect those who built the party. Rebuild the grassroots structures. And, above all, restore to ordinary members the confidence that they belong to a political organisation in which loyalty is not rewarded with marginalisation and dissent is not punished with intimidation. History will ultimately judge this leadership not by the number of communiqués it issued, but by whether it preserved or squandered the political capital entrusted to it. This is not the hour for political cosmetics, manufactured outrage, or the endless search for who should apologise. It is the hour for courage, reconciliation, restructuring, and renewal. Fix the party before the party becomes impossible to fix. APC Abia State still has time to avert political catastrophe, but that window is closing rapidly.

Yours faithfully,

Comr O. P. Ifeanyichukwu

A Concerned Member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abia State.