Vice President Kashim Shettima has told the Delta state governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor and Vice Presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 Presidential election, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and others who decamped from the opposition party into the All Progressives Congress (APC) that they were not tenants but co-owners of the ruling party.
Shettima said this on Monday in Asaba Delta state where he formally received the Delta officials and others who dumped the opposition PDP into the APC.
According to a release by his spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, the Vice President described the occasion as a testimony to the enduring promise of the APC.
Shettima, who represented President Bola Tinubu at the event stressed the need for unity and collaboration, emphasising that the new members were joining as equals in the ruling party.
“You are not guests in this house; you are now co-owners. This is now as much your party as it is ours,” he said, describing the new APC entrants as giants in Nigerian politics.
The Vice President highlighted the significance of their decision to join the APC, saying, “The true measure of a political party lies not merely in the enthusiasm of its members, but in the conviction it inspires among those who once stood across from them.”
Welcoming the new members into the party fold, Shettima noted that they were joining the party “not as defectors but as brothers and sisters who have found their rightful place among” the APC faithful, even as he maintained that they were joining the governing party not as guests but as family and “as fellow architects of a better Nigeria.”
The Vice President explained the APC’s philosophy of governance and party politics, pointing out that “what sets the APC apart is not an illusion of uniformity; it is our acceptance that differences are inevitable and that greatness lies in managing them.
“Our tables have always been tables of dialogue, places where every member, no matter how great or small, is welcomed to air their grievances, challenge our direction, and shape our future,” he added.
The Vice President also reflected on the party’s journey right from inception. “Since its formation in 2013, the APC has been both the dream and the drama of Nigerian democracy. So many predictions have been written about us as though we were an experiment doomed to fail,” he said.
He credited the party’s longevity to its collaborative approach, observing that “dialogue, not dictation, has been our shield against disintegration,” just as he said there was no way the party could have survived this long without listening to one another.
“Today is not merely a day of receiving new members. This is a declaration that the spirit of our great nation is alive — a spirit that dreams beyond personal ambition, beyond party lines, and sees the larger arc of history. Nigeria is greater than all of us, and what we do here today is a step towards strengthening her promise,” the Vice President further stated.
Earlier, National Chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, said it was a historic day, even as he described the defection of the Delta State Governor as a political legacy.
Ganduje thanked President Bola Tinubu for providing good leadership that has attracted more credible persons into the APC fold.
“The National Working Committee of our party is happy with this decision of the Governor, and we are impressed with the cordial relationship existing between the Governor and his predecessor, Dr Okowa,” he said.
Formally accepting the Delta State Governor into the APC, Ganduje handed over the flag of the party and a broom, the main symbol of the APC, to Oborevwori.
The National Chairman thanked Vice President Kashim Shettima and all APC Governors who attended the occasion, informing them that more eminent Nigerians were on their way to the APC.
