‘APGA will determine who wins presidency’

Chief Ifeatu Okoye is the Senior Special Adviser to Governor Willie Obiano on Political Matters. In this interview with NWANOSIKE ONU, the one-time Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) explains why the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is in crisis and how the party leadership is resolving the logjam. He also says APGA will play a key role in determining who wins next year’s presidential election.

HOW prepared is APGA for next year’s general elections?

You will recall that we just finished our party primaries nationwide. I must admit that it presented a lot of challenges for us, because the party has grown in size, stature and membership, as a result of the good works of Governor Willie Obiano, who is also the national leader of APGA.  This is perhaps due to the way the party has been managed in the last few years. This attracted a lot of new members. What we did not reckon with is the fact that these people were coming from different political backgrounds and that has brought a lot of pressure in the conduct of the primaries. But we will remain focused in our quest to more seats at the National Assembly and to win governorship elections in other states across the nation. All things been equal, we intend to win Imo, Abia, Nasarawa and Taraba states. Everything is pointing to that direction. We are fielded Dr Alex Otti again as our candidate in Abia, because of his popularity and influence. We are also looking at Nasarawa State, which we won in 2015, but were rigged out. You recall that the Nasarawa governorship election result was delayed for almost five days. INEC officers who participated in that election refused to be involved in doctoring the result. But, after five days, a new result was announced and we lost Nasarawa State. Unfortunately, the judges didn’t see it at the tribunal and at the Appeal Court. We are fielding the same candidate again, Mr. Labaran Maku, who is also the National Secretary of our party. We are also looking at Taraba and Benue States, because of the new politics of the Middle Belt. At the presidential race, without sounding too ambitious, I want to tell you that APGA will play a cardinal role in determining who will win the election. I am not sure we have done enough in this period to win the presidential election, unless God does it in His own way. We are ready preparing, by picking credible candidates, no matter the crises that may have arisen as a result of the primary.

Given the crises destabilising your party in Imo and Abia, are you still capable of winning those states?

There were 19 governorship aspirants on our party’s platform in Imo. I was part of the team that visited the state, even before the primary started. I recall that we interviewed 25 people who wanted to be governor. But, when it came to purchasing the form, only 19 of them did. Out of the 19 aspirants, I can tell you that only about three were members of APGA as at December last year. It tells you that the 16 others were new members. The nature of rancour in Imo State suggests that it was sponsored. We had secret information that most of those aspirants were being sponsored by Governor Rochas Okorocha of the APC and the PDP. Their objective was to destabilize APGA. All of them were part of the process in one way or the order, but in the end a candidate has emerged. If you see the way a lot of them are jumping out, you will see that they are not members of our party. You will also see the way they proved us right as Ikedi Ohakim, who led the first protest is now the candidate of the Accord Party and Okey Eze is now the candidate of the SDP. So, that tells you that the rancour has nothing to do with the conduct of the primary. Where you have 19 people running, one person was bound to win and that person has won. That person is a very strong candidate. He is one person we are very certain has the capacity to win the governorship election in Imo State. In choosing our candidates during the primary, we were looking at many factors. Those factors also include capacity to win the general election. Every aspirant thinks he is popular, but not all of them has the capacity to win. This entails a lot of things. It includes the ability to fund the process of the election. It includes your ability to attract critical institutions that will be there for the election. What is your relationship with the police? What is your relationship with other agencies that will conduct the election? All these form the capacity to win an election. That is very important. A lot of them don’t know or have the idea of what APGA is all about. APGA is not the usual political party. It has a followership that transcends the political class. In Anambra State, we have always won elections, not because it is a political class, but as a result of those institutions; the traditional institutions, disaster institutions, which have been the party’s unique selling point. What we have in Anambra is stronger in Imo, because Imo State has the stronger of Igbo elements, movements there are always difficult. Go to people on the streets, they are going to vote for APGA and, happily, we are fielding a strong candidate, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume. He is strong in every capacity. He is very experienced in every process of the election, because he has been there. He would have been the candidate of PDP a long time ago. He has been a two term senator. So, he understands what it takes. A lot of those who participated don’t even know what it takes to go into general elections. Before now, APGA has always argued that we were unable to defend our results in Imo State. I am happy today that we have a strong candidate who can rob shoulders with those of other political parties.

You were not clear about APGA’s readiness for election in Anambra State…

Like I said, we just came out of primary. It was a full house of all sorts. I will give you an example; in Aguata Constituencies I and 1I, there were 13 and 18 House of Assembly aspirants respectively. One seat and only one person would win at the end of the day. Thirty people are going to lose. You now understand the level of ill-feelings that will definitely come out. In Supreme court judgment between Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the PDP, it was established that it is the party that people vote for. The candidates use the party as a vehicle to reach their destinations. It is always about the party. Because it is always about the party, in arriving at a decision, we always look beyond the personality in question. Sometimes, a popular person that comes from a small community may not be considered, if the opponent comes from a community that may produce votes may be 10 times of the popular person from a small village. We have to look at this factor. We have to also consider the seeming religious factor. If from your locality, you come from a minority religious sect, it may not be wise for us to field you, unless you show yourself that you have the capacity to rise above that kind of situation. Do you know that in this country, we had Muslim-Muslim tickets? But, it took someone like the late MKO Abiola who everybody accepted. Christians and Muslims accepted him. But, I doubt if anybody can try that again. What I’m saying is that, altogether, we tried our best to produce the best candidates who will carry the party’s flag. It is the disagreement from that exercise that we are currently grappling with. It is connected to the November 2017 governorship election in Anambra State, when a lot of people joined APGA. Many of them have not sat down to really appreciate the culture of APGA. Before now, we did not have this type of noise. APGA had never been a place where you have rancorous party congresses, because we believed in the consensus process, in dialogue. We always choose our candidates in a peculiar way; not from the usual political party election contest.  So, a lot of them were taken by surprise. No true APGA person can insult the governor of a state, who is the national leader and Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT). But, be that as it may, when you beat a child, you must one way or the other try to pacify the child. That is what informed the reconciliation committee which I’m the secretary. We have completed our work. Hopefully, this week, we will be presenting our report to the national leader.

What do you think of what is happening in the House of Assembly? Does it have any connection with the APGA primary?

I seriously doubt it has anything to do with the primary or members of the opposition. I have my reasons. What happened few days ago was the fourth attempt to remove the Speaker. What it means is that the removal of the Speaker has been lingering. I recall that in October last year, barely a month to the governorship election, 27 members of the House of Assembly signed for the impeachment of the Speaker. But, there was an intervention from the leadership of the party. The governor intervened for very critical reasons; because it was too close to the election. Again, we were just coming out of the national crises in the party: The case of National Chairman and Martin Agbaso. The timing as it were was uncalled for. It does appear to me that there was a postponement of that agitation. So, what is happening now is a continuation of that agitation. It definitely has nothing to do with the primary. But, something may resuscitate an existing issue. In that context, one may say that the circumstances of the primary may have reinvigorated it. But, if you look at it critically, 15 of the old members were re-elected. There are 30 members, excluding two PDP members. That is, they are 14 members left. If it is a product of primary, one will now say the 14 members involved in the impeachment of the speaker. We are getting conflicting number. Some said they are 22 that signed. The Speaker said she had 16 members with her. But one thing in my mind is that there must be a separation of process of notice of impeachment and impeachment proper. Outside the chambers of the house, even within the chambers of the House when it was not in session or when is in session, 30 people can sign. But impeachment of the Speaker must be signed by two-third (20) members of the house. What it means is that there must be a proceedings captured in the votes and proceedings of the house where each of the members voted against the continued presence of the Speaker as the Speaker of the House. We don’t have that record. The votes and proceedings of the day did not show that any such process was conducted.  What we only hear is that 20 people, 22 people, 23 people have signed. It does not matter if 30 people have signed for the removal of the Speaker. Her removal must be in the context of the law within the proceedings of the House where each member will stand up and vote. That is how it is done. That is what is expected of the law. But we must exercise caution. I understand that a few of them were suspended by the party.