From Obinna Odogwu, Awka
In the midst of growing confusion and boiling leadership crises rocking the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in all corners, the former Deputy National Secretary of the party, Chief Jerry Obasi, has stepped forward to lay claim to the national chairmanship seat of the party.
Obasi, a former deputy governorship candidate of the party in Ebonyi State, dismissed the trio of Chief Victor Oye, Chief Edozie Njoku and Chief Jude Okeke, with a wave of the hand, describing them as strangers who were out to destroy their party.
Obasi, who is also a former state chairman of the party in Ebonyi State, told Sunday Sun in this exclusive interview that he was the leader of the “authentic APGA.”
He said that apart from Oye whose tenure, he said, has expired, the duo of Njoku and Okeke have no place in the leadership transition of the party.
He also made it clear that by law, APGA has no governorship candidate for the November 6 election considering the knotty legal issues surrounding the tussle over the soul of the party.
He also condemned the disqualification of Hon. Chukwuma Umeoji and Hon. Nonso Okafor from participating in the governorship primary poll of the party. Excerpts:
Recently, the National Working Committee (NWC) of your party led by Chief Jude Okeke announced the suspension of Chief Victor Oye and Chief Edozie Njoku. How would you react to the new developments in your party in view of the governorship election coming up in Anambra by November 6, this year?
Jude Okeke is a name in APGA that is coming from nowhere. And it is a name whose record in the party is unverifiable. But the major thing is this, APGA as a political party is suffering from a very serious national damage in terms of her image. We are not surprised because all the problems have long been expected. We know that everybody is waiting for the D-Day which is the Anambra election; that is the primary and so on and so forth. We are not also surprised to say here that Oye has been very incompetent as a national chairman; very, very incompetent. When I mention the issue of APGA, I want to be very hasty to mention the name of Chief Victor Umeh. Umeh caused all these problems because one, people like Oye, even till today, have some issues with APGA. You cannot bring in strangers to manage a big party like APGA. The last post I headed was the deputy national chairman under Martin Agbaso’s leadership from where I was the deputy national secretary from where I was the state chairman of the party in Ebonyi State from where I ran election to be deputy governor and so on and so forth. But you see that you cannot go to court. Victor Oye and co set a dummy and a landmine thinking that they are playing politics against themselves. They went to a high court in Ibadan asking the court to compel Oye and co to hold a convention which the court granted and gave them a particular timeline by which their tenure would have expired and they flouted that order. Let me tell you, INEC has been in contempt to have been dealing with Oye as the national chairman from the day that they violated that court’s pronouncement in Ibadan; that was the day Oye ceased to be national chairman. The issue of Jude Okeke or the issue of Victor Oye or the issue of Edozie Njoku, is neither here nor there. I met with Edozie Njoku. We held a meeting in Concord Hotel where we stayed for three days. We discussed the way forward in APGA; that was before all these things and we discussed how we will get these things correctly. We also talked about meeting the elders in the party like Iyom Bianca Ojukwu and other notable figures in the party. And what was our aim? Our aim was to bring the party into a very good and moveable situation. I agreed with Edozie Njoku to take the next flight to Abuja which I also did to wait for him for us to meet and take it further from there. Then the evening of the following day, Edozie Njoku sent me a tag and announced himself the national chairman. It doesn’t work that way. So, there was no way Edozie Njoku could be national chairman. It doesn’t work that way. On the part of Oye, he ceased to be national c1hairman from the day they granted the court pronouncement in Ibadan. And people like us are not comfortable with what was happening at the NWC. I am not missing my absence at the NWC because nothing was happening there as it were. So, we are not surprised that it is happening. They have destroyed the party. Valentine Ozigbo as we see today has very good chances and he is popular, also. But he would not have been as popular as people like Soludo if APGA had a candidate. But in this election, APGA has no candidate because APGA has no leadership.
Are you saying that none of the three persons, Oye, Njoku and Okeke, is the national chairman of your party?
It is balderdash. It is neither here nor there.
Who then is the leader of your party? Who should be, really?
The party, honestly, was foolish enough. Remember that today, I am here as the leader of the authentic APGA. They bequeathed leadership to me as the leader of authentic APGA. There is also a case of Nnamdi Ukaegbu, who until the last pronouncement of the court, was the only party functionary that is in existence after the expiration of the tenure of Oye as the national chairman when they flouted the court order which they also went to court to ask for. Then, the issue of Jude Okeke, there is nothing called Jude Okeke in APGA leadership transition. There is also nothing called Edozie Njoku in APGA leadership transition. There is nothing called Mic Adams in the APGA leadership transition. All these persons are just chasing ambulances. And even if they catch up with this big vehicle they are chasing, it would have been just a vehicle carrying an empty carcass of a dead horse called APGA.
In concrete terms, are you saying that you are the national chairman of your party?
Exactly! I am the leader of the authentic APGA. For instance, now, before Mic Adams started his story of APGA leadership, I was in a private meeting with him both on phone and other means. And we talked. And I spoke on the way forward. As I told you earlier, I was also in a meeting with Edozie Njoku in Concord Hotel, Owerri where then also it was a way forward sorted. All these persons in APGA, are prophets, but they were never prophets. I was the earlier prophet because when they were clapping hands, I called them and said, you’re clapping with one hand. I told them that APGA was heading to a ditch. And in the end, this is where we are today. No amount of bribery, no amount of inducement, no amount of drunkenness, politically, can give APGA leadership in this election. It is quite unfortunate. APGA on its own should quickly find a solution to this by quickly making a U-turn now by going back to the people they offended like Lady Bianca. After they offended her, what have they done? They continued to deepen their offence against this same person. In the actual sense, the only person that has the capacity to solve APGA problem would have been Bianca Ojukwu; first and foremost as the wife to our spiritual leader, both dead and alive, which is Dim Ikemba Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. People like us are here. They have equally offended us. I have been offended by the party. After all my servitude to the party, what has the party done for me and others? They find ways to extinguish these persons which in the end they couldn’t do. The party now has no leadership.
By saying that the party has no leadership, does it mean that the party has no legally backed candidate in this Anambra governorship election? Does it mean that Soludo’s candidacy has no legal foundation?
From the first time that Soludo wanted to be governor, I was still within the ranks of the party. I think I was the state chairman of the party in Ebonyi State. I have been a lover of Soludo, but he is in a pitiable situation. The party is in a very deplorable state. As popular as he could be, Soludo may end up not being a candidate even though today we have seen INEC moving back and forth. INEC in some cases abandon the true position of the law to do whatever they like. It is very bad for INEC to behave in that manner. It is unfortunate that APGA as it were may not have a candidate for this election. It is quite ridiculous and ludicrous that the party now finds itself this way. This also goes back to the followers of APGA who are actually waiting now to produce the next governor in Anambra State. And the next governor of Anambra State under APGA will be stillborn. But I am not saying that all hope is lost. All hope is not lost. There are still windows for redress. There are still windows for change. But considering how the party has been run so far, honestly, Oye has been grossly incompetent.
The Oye-led faction of your party conducted its primary recently and produced Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as its governorship candidate. But before then, some aspirants including Hon. Chukwuma Umeoji representing Aguata Federal Constituency in the National Assembly and Hon. Nonso Okafor representing Nnewi North in the House of Assembly were disqualified from contesting the primary poll. As one of the leaders of APGA with good knowledge of its workings, are those reasons given for their disqualification justifiable?
It is a very sad situation that the party has refused to learn from history. Why would you disqualify aspirants? Why would you not throw up a transparent primary? Why would you now, in a democracy, deny people the opportunity to express themselves politically? What are the ingredients in a democracy if people are not allowed to express themselves by their same party; by the party they have served? The other guy is in the House of Assembly, he is representing his people. The other guy is in the House of Representatives also representing his people in the name of APGA. And today, these persons are disqualified. Is it justifiable? It is not justifiable. That’s not a way to run a political party. Under Oye, it has been from one form of madness to another; from one recklessness to another and it is not proper. The party should learn from its past. Why would you continue to create problems? But honestly, they will ask for their pound of flesh, politically. A lot of problems are still coming.