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Victor Umeh Blasts Gov. Okorocha

Umeh1Victor Umeh is the national chairman of APGA. He has been battling hard to spread the tentacles of his party to other parts of the country. He spoke on Gov. Okorocha and other issues in this interview.

We used to have about three states controlled by APGA, but now we have one. Do you still feel confident that APGA can survive in 2015?

I think APGA should be respected for being very strong in national consciousness in its 12 years of existence. Remember that we won in 2003 in virtually all the south-eastern states but our victory was stolen; we had to go to the tribunals. Through tenacious and resilient prosecution of our petition in Anambra, we were able to bring Peter Obi in, in 2006 after nearly two years. We have used that also to demonstrate a number of things, as well as tenure interpretation that opened door for other people who won at the tribunal. That was one major contribution made by APGA. In 2010, we won a second election in Anambra State and in 2011, we won in Imo State even though it was a misadventure because of the character we used for that election. Okorocha proved to be most unreliable and defected to another party.

But you said Okorocha was a potential Igbo leader at the lying-in-state of Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu in Owerri.

No, I never said that. People continue to misinterpret statements made by political leaders. In Owerri, I said that the Igbo nation was not bereft of people who were worthy to succeed Ojukwu in leadership. I never said Okorocha was to step in. I said with Ojukwu’s death, though a very big loss, we had people who could take over the mantle of leadership. The word ‘people’ is plural and does not connote one individual. So that was not so. But because I made that statement in Owerri at the lying-in-state of Ojukwu, people misinterpreted that I said that Okorocha was in a position to do so. I said we have many people who can move into leadership.

Don’t you think APGA is shrinking as a result of the continuous crisis in the party?

We are not shrinking at all. APGA still has a very latent force and if we continue to conduct credible elections, we will continue to prevail in the areas where the party has received tremendous support. If that conjecture was right, APGA would not have won the election in Anambra State. I knew APGA was going to win despite the fact that a section of the media wrote off APGA completely. I maintained that APGA would win another election convincingly. I led the election campaign, coordinated the election, and it was a thrashing out of all our opponents. So it goes to say that APGA is not a party anybody can kill. It is a culture of the people. Okorocha described it as a religion meaning, you hardly can kill religion. That is why Islam and Christianity are very strong. There is something in APGA that will always make it very relevant in any election. Once elections are conducted, APGA would continue to win with our traditional support.

Why are the party leaders always at a loggerheads?

Well, it is as a result of a combination of things. People who nominated themselves as friends of APGA are from the Igbo stock and what they are doing in APGA is what they are doing even in their villages. It has been part of them. And sometimes, I look back and I feel so sad that people will continue to instigate problems sometimes in pursuit of self-esteem, ego and money when there ought to be none. Igbo people leave the substance and continue to chase shadows. Sometimes, people would say “Oh this man has become too popular, let’s bring him down.” It is part of the ‘pulling down’ syndrome our people are known for that you are seeing in APGA. If you had looked at the issues that are predominant in APGA crisis, they have always been that people try to overtake somebody who is in front just like the song of Fela. Once you see somebody in front of you, you want to overtake the person, and so in that kind of struggle, sometimes you begin to question the rationale behind such things. Each time they want to start a crisis through the leadership, money has always been at the centre of the issues they bring up, not capacity to comprehend issues or deal with matters of politics. It’s always been about money. Someone would say, “The chairman has been ‘chopping’ too much money, he must be removed so that other people can ‘chop.’” So it doesn’t make any sense. In Nigeria, everybody knows me. My antecedents can speak for me. People have wondered why some are even after me despite my productivity as the chairman of APGA. Some people think Umeh is making waves and want to throw mud at him. That is how they destroy themselves. If you look around, you will see that what you see in APGA is what you will see in all Igbo-dominated organisations. Ohaneze is in crisis and we don’t hide it anymore. Any organisation that you find our people, the struggle for relevance would always throw up crisis.

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After the long crisis between you and Chekwas Okorie, we thought everything had settled. But it is now between you and Chief Maxi Okwu again.

Okwu is just a man of yesterday. He was just brought in in 2013. Before him, you saw others scheming in the party. And the unfortunate thing about APGA is that even those who are not its members would always want to interject in the affairs of the party – people who want to hold themselves as important. And they are not members of the party. So it is like that. Some people would think that, ‘Oh you are climbing the ladder and very soon, you will start shining. Let’s remove the ladder.’ The issue of APGA crisis is exactly what I have told you about and sometimes when you have a leader who is very courageous, bold and very strong, people will come after you. Leadership is something you can hold on to if you are courageous. Dora is being celebrated today because of her courage, not because she was a ‘yes woman’. If she was, nobody would have celebrated her like this. But in our own case, our people know how to weave crisis around their leaders. It has always happened. Look at Imo State; instead of concentrating on delivering good governance to the people, the governor has been fighting traditional rulers. What he should not even dabble into at all. Okorocha would come and dethrone the chairman of the traditional rulers; that shows you the type of people we find in Igboland. For no justification, people would think of bringing someone down to their knees. And you begin to use government power and resources recklessly. That is why there is crisis all over the place. So the case of Maxi Okwu is a joke. It is a joke because this is a man who was expelled from this party in 2005 along with Okorie. He was a national chairman of Citizens Popular Party until 2013 when he was suddenly thrown up. And he started brandishing himself as the national chairman of APGA being propped up by the then former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi. That was how he came into the scene. After eight years of being chairman of another party, he came to claim to be the chairman of APGA challenging actions we had taken when he was a member of another party.

But his chairmanship was being sanctioned by the Attorney-General of the Federation.

The Attorney-General knew that his actions were not justified. Last Monday was the last day for submission of candidates’ names for the Osun State governorship elections. My leadership submitted the name of Professor Akintunde Adetunji as APGA candidate to INEC. Maxi Okwu brought his own candidate but INEC went through the legal procedure and dismissed Okwu’s claim and accepted our candidate. INEC acknowledged that our candidate would contest in the election. INEC, as the statutory body that monitors operations in all political parties is fully aware of all the litigations and judgement subsisting on APGA leadership and the processes leading to each situation. So it knows that Okwu has a fraudulent claim to APGA leadership. It is aware that there is a Court of Appeal judgement that is higher than the High Court judgement that Maxi Okwu is parading. That is why INEC has refused to recognise Okwu up till today. On February 8, 2013, the Enugu State High Court nullified the convention of APGA conducted in 2011 which produced my leadership and ordered that another convention should be conducted to elect new officers for the party. I quickly appealed against the judgement, and on April 8, the Court of Appeal granted an order staying the execution of that judgement and the order it made. The same day, Okwu and his cohorts reported to have held a convention in breach of the order of the Court of Appeal as it were. Then the Court of Appeal said the status quo should be maintained until the final appeal was determined. The final appeal was heard on July 4, 2013 and on July 16, the final judgement was delivered. The Court of Appeal nullified the judgement of the Enugu State High Court and stepped aside all the orders made or contained in that judgement. But Okwu having defied the order for the stay of execution, conducted a convention, took his convention to the High Court of Anambra State for validation and you know Peter Obi was his sponsor when he was still the governor. So, the High Court said his convention was valid. How can a convention which breached the judgement held by the Court of Appeal be valid? And to make the matter worse, the Court of Appeal in its final judgement nullified the originating judgement. INEC washed its hand off it and reverted to our leadership and has maintained it till date. It has never changed. And when the final judgement came, INEC was following it so that the judgement that gave rise to whatever Okwu did has been set aside by the Court of Appeal. So his convention has no foundation again. This is about one year after. That is why INEC has continued to recognise my leadership.

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Who is responsible for all these?

They are agents of darkness because they are crippling the party. Whatever conspiracy was weaved to continue to unleash disunity on the party, all of them will continue to fail along the way. At the tribunal, Okwu presented a petition with his own candidate, the tribunal dismissed the petition on June 4 stating that they were strangers to the election. The fact that people do not have time to read explanations makes them keep saying there is crisis in APGA.

Why did the Attorney-General say that Okwu should be recognised?

He did not have the full information. The documents he analysed were all submitted by Maxi Okwu; he did not collect anything from us. Actually, we sent our judgement to the Secretary to the Federal Government. From what we learnt, he made enquiries from the Attorney-General, but from what the Attorney-General wrote to him, he did not mention the stay of execution by the Court of Appeal of July 16, 2013. So he merely reviewed the Enugu State High Court judgement, the Akwa High Court judgement because something was being suppressed. We were patient and I learnt three days ago that the Attorney-General has now been forced to ask Maxi Okwu to forward the Court of Appeal judgement that validated my leadership of the party. That judgement will expose the whole thing to the Attorney-General. One thing is that the Attorney-General of the Federation cannot promote judicial rascality. He cannot uphold the decision of the High Court over that of the Court of Appeal. I will not say anything beyond this. Let me wait for his comment. I have asked the party’s legal officer to forward the whole thing to the office of the Attorney General and I hope that by the time he reads through, he will be better informed. He will now tell me how he justifies to hold the decision of the High Court in breach of that of the Court of Appeal.

Some said Peter Obi only made peace with you because of the last election held in Anambra State.

Whatever situation it is, I don’t indulge in crookedness. Anything I tell you, you can go home with it, and know that it is like that. When I won at the Court of Appeal on July 16, 2013, their back was broken, and they were the ones who came for reconciliation and I accepted it so that the party could move on. And as a Christian, I forgave everything. I went to that election not looking back anymore. So if Obi’s intention was to make peace with me and plans another thing behind me, he is the one to explain that. Once I say I have forgiven you about something, I don’t look back again, and that’s why I always look forward. No matter what they conspire behind me, God will always put a stop to it. If it was Okwu who told you that, they have been working together.

We learnt that you disagreed with Peter Obi over money issues. Is it true?

People will always say anything. Which money are we struggling over? I left him to do the governance. I never interferred in the awards of contracts nor any other thing because as the national chairman of the party, I am always looking for the good interests of it. We disagreed on non-conduct of local government elections in Anambra State. That was the only thing that separated us and I have always made it clear in various interviews. Even before Ojukwu died, we agreed that he would conduct local government elections if he won in 2010 and he reneged on that. Unfortunately, Ojukwu died and Obi refused to conduct local government elections. Governors in Nigeria don’t want to conduct local government elections for the simple reason that they want to use local governments and state allocations together. I was very critical of that and that was why we disagreed.

So that’s why he brought Okwu?

No, Okwu was brought in just last year. Because of the disagreement between Obi and me, sycophants took over. They told him that he was the governor and should deal with me. So he started dealing with me and the sycophants made money from him. But God kept me going at every stage. I survived. In 2011 when Okorocha emerged, he teamed up with Obi to fight me. I don’t support what is wrong. So far I know what I am doing is right, I don’t run away from fight. How could Okorocha who just came into the party, got sworn in on May 29, 2011 write me on June 8, 2011 to dissolve APGA structure in Imo State, the structure that got him elected? I told him I would never do it. The two of them wrote me again, I said I could not do it. We fought on. In 2012, politics of interest separated them. In February 2013, Okorocha told me to merge with another party. He mobilised forces against me and because of this issue, we parted ways on February 3, 2013 when he bolted and joined another party. Someone told me in 2011, when Obi and Okorocha combined forces to fight me that I was finished with two governors against me. I said nothing like that could happen. I said what I was doing was defending the party against their unreasonable demands. I have thoroughbred and complete gentlemen in my executive; people like Alhaji Shinkafi, the national secretary and Alhaji Sowunmi, these are very strong people behind me. At the end of the day, they collapsed. We have waged very serious struggle against dictatorship from the executive arm of government.

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You described Okorocha as a disappointment earlier on, why?

Okorocha is not only a disappointment, he is a confused man. He has no political philosophy and ideology. He is a fair weather politician. What he is looking for is what will benefit him and not what will benefit anybody. He is now in APC but watch what I tell you, since it has elected its national officers, Okorocha will be a pain in the neck of APC. Once he doesn’t get anything that will benefit him, he will destroy it. I watched him on TV a few days ago where he was warning APC not to treat Igbos the way PDP had treated him. He has started. Once he doesn’t get what he wants, he will leave. He is going to the APC as a presidential or vice presidential candidate and if he doesn’t get any of these two, he would shoot down APC. You will see it happen. He is a man I know very well. He is the last person you can rely on for anything. He is somebody who not only speaks from the two sides of the mouth, but five sides of the mouth and behind. There is no organisation Okorocha would be that will grow unless it is along with his own interest.

Is the former governor Peter Obi part of your own faction of APGA?

Yes, he is part of my own APGA; I can show you a text message he sent to me a few days ago.

Did you ask him why he brought in Maxi Okwu?

We disagreed and he thought he would use that to get at me. He wanted to use everything to remove me; he was involved in a bull fight. So he brought in Okwu and used him to fight me but it did not work. Okwu is not a member of APGA to start with.

But people are saying that in no time, Obi would take APGA to merge with the PDP.

Nobody will take APGA to any political party as long as I remain the chairman. It will not happen under my chairmanship. In about nine months’ time, my tenure will end, that is the only time anybody can begin to think of taking the party somewhere else. We have always said that the party can engage in alliance but it will never be consumed by any merger. That is why I told Okorocha he could not do it. It was because Okorocha did not know the history of the party. I was part of its formation from day one even before the party was registered. I was its national treasurer later.

But Okwu alleged that you usurped the chairmanship position from being a treasurer.

That is his own propaganda. He was expelled along with Chekwas Okorie and when they were sent out, people were appointed in acting capacity and I got appointed as acting chairman.

With all these problems, are you hopeful that an Igbo man can become the President of Nigeria?

Which problem? I don’t know why we can’t be. Which part of Nigeria does not have problems? I know Afenifere is having the same problem with Tinubu. They don’t agree with him. Every part of Nigeria has its internal issues. We are being blackmailed. What is happening in Igboland is happening in every other place. It’s only that our people don’t know where to stop; others know where to. This is the difference. So the Igbo man can still become the president of the country.

You think Nigerians can trust an Igbo man to become President?

Despite the internal disagreements, the Igbos are still the most resourceful set of people in the country – intellectually, etc. We have some of the best brains in the country. If we are given an opportunity to govern, we are in a position to do what will make the country great. Individually, we are very strong, hardworking and resourceful.