By Tony Onyima
What’s really in a name? Everything, some will say. Names create an impression about a person and many times we form opinions about people based on their names. Take Chief Victor Umeh, for example. At birth, his parents gave him two names – Chukwunoyelu (God be with you) and Victor. These two names seem to have profoundly defined his life and politics. His politics, on face value, appears to be controversial, but like the mythical phoenix, he has always emerged victorious and stronger from each crisis surrounding him.
The intrigues, conspiracy, fabrications and treachery that have dogged Umeh’s travails since March 28, 2015 when he contested election to represent Anambra Central at the nation’s Senate can be likened to late Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom after spending 27 years in prison. The title of this piece is, therefore, a paraphrase of Mandela’s odyssey. Like an Ijele masquerade, he stands out in the Anambra State’s political landscape. What you see of him depends on what you are looking out for and where you are standing at the time. Many love him with their hearts. Some hate him with venom. But love or hate him, Chief Victor Umeh, OFR, Ohamdike Ndigbo, is a passionate patriot, consummate democrat, formidable and intrepid politician with resilient and unwavering sense of justice and equity. His political sagacity is peerless. He is easily the generalissimo of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). With his towering red cap, he has created a unique physical identity for the party.
Born on July 19, 1962, Umeh was providentially brought to national limelight on December 15, 2004 when the National Working Committee (NWC) of APGA elected him as acting national chairman of the party following the suspension of the then party’s leader, Chief Chekwas Okorie. The suspension and later expulsion of Okorie resulted into the longest and most protracted crisis in the party. Between January 31, 2005 and March 25, 2011 when the Supreme Court upheld the suspension and expulsion of Okorie, a record number of no fewer than 23 lawsuits were instituted in various courts across the country. It is remarkable to state that all the cases were decided in favour of Umeh. His legal victories were manifestations of his deep knowledge of the political process, sound insight into the labyrinth of law and respect for rule of law. His resistance against reactionary forces has ensured that today his name is permanently etched in the nation’s jurisprudence. Okorie’s challenge was resolved on March 7, 2012 when he returned the certificate of registration of APGA in his custody to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). By April 2013, another crisis spearheaded by Hon. Sylvester Nwobu-Alor erupted. Encouraged by state power, Nwobu-Alor created factions in APGA with the election of Chief Maxi Okwu as national chairman. The Okwu faction instituted no fewer than 20 lawsuits across the country with most of the suits resolved in favour of Umeh. On January 15, 2016, the Supreme Court upheld Umeh’s leadership of APGA despite the fact his tenure as national chairman had ended six months earlier. Under his watch, APGA soared; winning many positions – three Federal constituencies; Chief Peter Obi’s re-election in 2010; in 2011 general elections APGA won Imo governorship, one senatorial seat, seven seats of House of Representatives, a good number of state House of Assembly members, produced two Speakers, and three ambassadorial appointees. In 2013, APGA also won Anambra State with Chief Willie Obiano emerging as governor. Umeh was also the chairman of the Obiano Re-election Campaign Organisation, which ensured that the governor was re-elected with a historic mandate on November 26, 2017.
The Anambra Central Senatorial seat, which Umeh is seeking to occupy, is, perhaps, the most contentious election in Nigeria. Since March 28, 2015 when the election was first held, litigations arising from the outcome had moved from the election tribunal to Appeal Court and Supreme Court. Today there are tribunal judgment, three Appeal Court judgments, two Supreme Court pronouncements and no fewer than four Federal High Court judgments. Majority of these judgments, particularly, the ones at the appellate courts were again in favour of Umeh. The November 20, 2017 Appeal Court judgment, which ordered INEC to conduct a re-run election within 90 days, in the view of many legal analysts, is final. This has led INEC to fix Saturday, January 13, 2018 as the date for the re-run. These legal twists came as a result of the brazen impunity of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State. It is pertinent to point out that since 1999, PDP in Anambra State has remained problematic so much so that today while PDP at the national level is making strenuous efforts to reposition the party, the Anambra State chapter is retrogressing. The chapter couldn’t organise a credible state congress to enable it participate at the concluded national convention of the party. But in Victor Umeh they found a formidable match.
With the reassurance of INEC that the January 13, 2018 re-run will hold, it would seem that the people of Anambra Central will finally have a senator representing them at the red chamber of the National Assembly. And from all indications and the grace of God, it would also seem that Umeh’s long walk to the Senate, which he started two years and six months ago, would end on a victorious note come January 13, 2018.
•Onyima, a former Anambra State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, wrote from Umuoji.