Abuja: Abuja – A prominent chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Ayiri Emami, has declared that the party is on course to take control of Nigeria’s South-South region in the 2027 general elections, citing growing popularity and renewed unity among political stakeholders in the zone.
Emani, who stated this while speaking with reporters on Tuesday in Abuja, said that the party would have a notably better outing in Delta in 2027 compared with 2023, when it lost the state to the rival Labour Party.
According to him, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party in Delta are a set of politicians who lack the necessary political clout to win elections.
“I tried to check those in the Labour Party, and they are either APC or PDP. The party lacks a formal structure.
“It is made up of aggrieved people from APC and PDP, and anywhere, they are just aggrieved; they don’t know why they’re going to the Labour Party,” he said.
Emami stated that all political stakeholders in Delta were now united, specifically under the APC, and that consultations were still ongoing among leaders to bring on board all aggrieved members.
“I know that, at least, 80 per cent of our members are together. I cannot tell you that the remaining 20 per cent are not significant. So we must do everything to bring everyone on board.
“The 20 or 30 per cent that is left is still important, because in politics, everybody is important. Nobody has to be left behind,” he stated.
He noted that the APC’s chances in Delta and the South-South generally were currently looking brighter compared to the situation ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“To me, I believe that if the national level is APC, the state, one day, will be APC, and Delta is now APC. So I think we are going to do better in 2027, both in the governorship and presidential elections,” he said.
Emami said that he remained a loyal supporter of President Bola Tinubu and the APC.
“You know I’m a true supporter of President Tinubu. I don’t just support them because of money. I support because of my conviction that Tinubu will turn things around,” he said.
The APC chieftain expressed happiness that those who were criticising him and a few others in Delta for supporting Tinubu ahead of the 2023 presidential election were now card-carrying members of the party in the state.
“We were almost crucified in the Niger Delta region when we were supporting Tinubu, but we thank God.
“The most important thing in life is when you are convinced and you have a belief, and you follow that belief,” he said, adding that he had always believed in his political ideology and in Tinubu.
“I believe in his person and in his virtue because, as a young man, I had sat with him, I had listened to him, and I had seen him performing.
“So I have a lot of conviction that if he became president, we could turn things around,” the APC said.
Emami, however, said it was regrettable that some politicians in the country lacked political ideology.
He said it was only those with shady deals and businesses in the Niger Delta region who opposed Tinubu’s presidency ahead of his 2023 election.
Emami said such people were only afraid that their shady deals would collapse under Tinubu’s administration because he knew too much about the area.
“I have had several conversations with a lot of people from my region; they will tell you they prefer a president from other regions because they don’t know more about our area.
“Maybe because of the shady deals they will be doing around, but I don’t think that there’s any story we want to tell Tinubu about our region that he won’t understand.
“So I now found out that those opposed to him actually don’t have one serious reason, and when you ask them, they will say let us be with northerners that don’t know much about our area,” he said.
Emami noted that since Tinubu assumed office as president, many loopholes in the petroleum sector in the region had been closed.
He further noted that those with shady deals and businesses in the region had been complaining, not because Nigeria was not moving forward, but because their shady practices had been blocked.
The APC chieftain stated that with the projects underway in the zone, people had now been convinced that Tinubu had the region’s interest at heart.
