Chief Ifeanyi Ubah, Senator-elect for Anambra South District, on Monday dismissed the rumours that he had joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), stressing that his vision was to make the Young Progressives Party (YPP) a formidable political platform in Nigeria before the next general elections.
Ubah, the Chairman of Capital Oil and Gas Ltd,, made the assertion while fielding questions from newsmen in Nnewi.
He said he was a lone senator on the platform of his party and could not be an Island onto himself, hence his decision to be in “caucus” with the APC senators who are the majority in the Senate.
He said “caucusing, horse trading and lobbying” were normal in legislative practice seeing that he had the approval of his party to do so.
“As for APC, no, I did not join APC, I was only caucusing with them and caucusing is normal in politics all over the world.
“In America, Joe Lieberman is an Independent candidate that caucuses with the Democrats, Benny Sanders is another test case in America.
“So, there is nothing that says I should go to Senate and stand alone and wait for people to come and give me food because I went there on the ticket of YPP.
“I need to mingle with people I can share ideas with and see how I can be of value to my constituency, that is why I am caucusing with the APC and I have the backing of my party,” he said.
He described YPP as a party for the youth, noting that he would roll out programmes that would galvanise young people across the country to make the party one of the strongest with the widest grassroots reach.
“Politically, I am the highest ranking elected member of the YPP, the onus is on me to reform YPP and make it a strong national party.
“It is my wish that within the next two or three years, YPP will be able to build a very strong grassroots network of youths, we shall create a lot of programmes that will galvanise every Nigerian youth into the YPP,” he said