In this interview with ENIOLA AKINKUOTU,
the Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Grand
Alliance, Mr. Campbell Umeh-Nzekwe, who is also a Senior Special
Assistant to the party’s national chairman, speaks on the crisis within
the party and its plans for the 2015 general elections
We asked him to conduct local government
election in 2010 and he agreed and then we worked for him, he won a
second term but he reneged. Conducting local government elections was
the only way he could have kept the party on ground in the state. The
party has not won a senatorial election in Anambra since 2003 because
Obi refused to allow the party to have a foothold. That is the issue he
is having with the national leader of the party, Chief Victor Umeh.
Immediately Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu died, Obi withheld the money
that comes from the local government, he will take it and give it to
caretaker committees and when we insisted on election, he attempted to
remove Umeh as national chairman and impose Maxi Okwu. That was how APGA
got two chairmen but after series of court cases, Umeh finally won.
Finally, Obi approached Umeh and as a party man, he forgave Obi and then
Obi brought in his successor, Willie Obiano, and Umeh nominated the
deputy governor and then we won the Anambra State governorship election.
But Obi is still having problems with the party?
Since he left office, have you seen him
talk about APGA anywhere? Even the political summit that was held in
Abuja, he did not promote APGA, he went there to campaign for President
Goodluck Jonathan. He went there as APGA representative but he still
fails to recognise Umeh as the leader of the party. Obi’s case now is
that all the people he nominated as National Assembly members, who he
used in signing support for Okwu, have now defected to the PDP. They
were not sure of winning primaries in APGA that is why they ran to the
PDP but they have no electoral value.
There is this rumour that Obi
was supposed to be made the Minister of Aviation before it was given to
the former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Osita
Chidoka.
That is why I said Obi is after the PDP
so he is avoiding APGA and does not want to be seen as an APGA man but
wants to be a minister in Abuja. He lobbied PDP stakeholders who
nominated him for ministerial appointment but the Presidency refused
based on a petition by Emeka Ofor, Andy Ubah, Arthur Eze and others who
said an outsider should not be given the position. He is not in APGA, he
only pretends to be part of us. We are not after Jonathan. In 2011,
there was no agreement of alliance or negotiation to support Jonathan.
But your party has declared to support Jonathan for re-election.
Who said the party has agreed to support
Jonathan? Where was the decision taken? Those are mere speculations
based on a rumour that APGA is an extension of the PDP because we did
not contest in the presidential election in 2011 when Ojukwu was sick
and finally died in 2012 that was why we had no candidate so we decided
to support Jonathan. We are independent and the current defection shows
that the PDP and APGA are not the same party. And we want anybody who
wants to deal with APGA should come directly to us.
We fought the PDP in Anambra and Imo and
we won them and we will win them again so what kind of accord do we
have? Right now, our thinking is that all over the world, political
power is negotiated and I am using this opportunity to tell President
Jonathan and the PDP that APGA will not fold its arms and allow some
political wanderers in the South-East to use the President’s name to
disorganise us.
Even some who cannot win their ward use
Jonathan’s name to deceive people. We are telling Jonathan that we are
going to negotiate both APGA and Igbo support for him. Our negotiation
is that all PDP aspirants in the South-East for governor, Senate, House
of Assembly and House of Representatives should step down for APGA. That
was what happened in 1979 during the Shehu Shagari and Alex Ekwueme
administration.
Politics is give and take. The PDP
should choose whether it wants Presidency or governorship. Do they want
governorship in South-East or Presidency? We cannot allow what happened
in the South-West in 2003 between the PDP and the Alliance for Democracy
where they supported former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s second term
bid without studying the intricacies because it is hard to tell people
to vote PDP for the Presidency and then another party at the state
level.
You cannot be contesting against us at
the state level and we will be supporting your party at the national
level, there will be confusion and the chances of Jonathan winning the
South-East will be slim. The All Progressives Congress is there,
dragging, APGA and PDP are also dragging and it will be messy.
Does APGA have the right to make
any demand now? Since many people have left the party. You lost
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State to the APC and have now lost about
six federal and state lawmakers to the PDP?
APGA is a movement for the Igbo race.
Any party that says APGA and Ndi Igbo are not friendly is deceiving
himself. Without manipulation, APGA has no competition in the
South-East. Anambra State is a case in point. In Imo State, APGA is
ready to take over. Forget the likes of Arthur Nzeribe, Achike Udenwa
that have joined the PDP. Udenwa even ran for governor on the platform
of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria and lost. As I am talking to
you, we have no rival in the South-East. In fact, I am sure Okorocha is
regretting to have left APGA because his supporters did not follow him
to the APC. He can’t win one local government with the APC.
He joined the APC because he was offered
vice-presidency but the APGA he tried to bring in did not work out
successfully. He joined as an individual and since he failed to bring in
APGA, the APC cannot even field him as a vice-presidential candidate.
The APC cannot win an election in the South-East. Okorocha never won a
council election in his life before joining APGA. He once ran for
Presidency and lost. In 1999, he was in the PDP and ran for governor and
lost to Udenwa. In 2003, he ran on the platform of the defunct All
Nigerian Peoples Party and lost the primaries to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
(retd). In 2007, he contested against President Umaru Yar’dua at the PDP
primaries and lost. In 2011, he ran on the platform of APGA and won.
Why don’t you want to support
Jonathan without condition since it is rumoured that Jonathan will hand
over the Presidency to the Igbo in 2019?
That is not the issue. He can only
handover to those on ground but the PDP is nowhere in the South-East.
Most of the PDP governors in the South-East are leaving next year and
the PDP will not continue ruling. The PDP has been using and dumping the
Igbo. APGA is the only party that can give the Igbo what they want.
You have questioned Obi’s loyalty to the party. What of his successor, Obiano?
Obiano is a professional and is very
intelligent. He knows that it is wiser to build your base like Governor
Bola Tinubu did in Lagos rather than to go and join the PDP. He is busy
with Anambra State and is a staunch APGA loyalist. We made him win and
even when other candidates took the matter to the election tribunal, we
supported him. He knows that charity begins at home and that APGA
belongs to all of us. Where are the former PDP governors in the
South-East today? Where is Orji Uzor Kalu in the PDP today? Where is
Achike Udenwa in the PDP today? Where is Ken Nnamani? The PDP’s way is
to use and dump and the only way Obiano can stand the test of time is to
properly build his base.
How can your proposed deal with Jonathan work?
It worked between the National Party of
Nigeria and the Nigerian Peoples Party to earn majority votes in the
National Assembly, in 1979. The NPP controlled the South-East including
Plateau and Benue being governed by Solomon Lar. The NPN won the North
while Chief Obafemi Awolowo won the South-West.
The NPN entered into an alliance with
the NPP to earn majority votes in the National Assembly. They called
NnamdiAzikiwe, the leader of the NPP then and they ceded the Speaker of
House of Representatives to him and some other roles, they continued
until 1983 when they jettisoned the idea because the NPN did not want to
share power again. The election was rigged and then Buhari finally took
over.
So, Jonathan should learn from that
experience, if you overdo things, the outcome may be bad so we are
telling Jonathan that for him to win election and be at peace, he should
tell PDP aspirants in South-East states to step down for APGA so that
he can get the Igbo support in 2015.
