National chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Umeh, in this chat with Correspondent, CHUKWUJEKWU ILOZUE, explains why the November 16 governorship poll in Anambra is good as won by APGA. Excerpts…
Your party’s rally on Monday, October 7, at the Alex Ekwueme Square to showcase your candidates in the November 16 governorship election attracted a huge crowd. What was the secret?
There was no secret behind the grand flag-off rally we had on October 7 other than the appreciation shown by our people that APGA has not disappointed them. Secondly, the governor, who is now on his way out, has kept faith with the people. Therefore, it was a solidarity and expression of trust in the way we have piloted the affairs of this state in the last seven and half years. Like I said at the rally, before we came, this place was a war zone, a theatre of war. Dr. Chris Ngige, who we removed through the court, because of his lack of honour in keeping with agreement he reached with people who forced him on the people of Anambra State when he lost the election, opened the state for all kinds of macabre warfare. Nothing was really working despite the noise being made at that time he was standing up against his estranged godfathers.
But when we got rid of him, the way and manner Governor Peter Obi went about re-laying the foundation for sustainable good governance in the state was completely unparalleled.
The state has been taken out from the doldrums to alevel where people now feel proud to say they are from Anambra State. All those negative things the state was associated with during the Ngige era were gone; nobody would wish to go back to those old ways. This time around, our people are determined to sustain this good governance that they have experienced. That was the secret.
Your governorship candidate and his deputy have intimidating academic qualifications. How will this transform to electoral relevance?
First of all, nobody will want a mad man to preside over his or her affairs. In choosing candidates for APGA in this election, we were mindful of the strategic partnerships that Governor Obi was able to bring to bear in governance in the state. The international donor agencies and development agencies that partnered with Governor Obi cannot deal with people who are not knowledgeable to pilot the affairsof governance. The European Union (EU), Canadian Development Agency, United State Agency for International Development (USAID), even the World Bank, will be comfortable to deal with people who have requisite experience, education and exposure, before they will begin to put their monies here.
Unknown to people, Obi did not excel because he was managing statutory allocations very well; that wasn’t the reason for the turn-around in the state. Before he came, Anambra State was not getting anything in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) funds because the people who were here did not understand what those things were. It was when Obi came, particularly between 2008 and 2009, that we were able to build that confidence that started attracting these funds that were coming from MDGs schemes in the state. These partners in development are well established organisations internationally. Before they can deal with you, they would be certain that you know what to do with the money. They would look at your ability to manage resources and be convinced that you have a sincerity of purpose, that the monies sent down will be channelled to the programmes they designed for development.
Governor Obi excelled because he was very humble, and approached these organisations always with well-articulated programmes of utilising those funds. They have serious parameters for measuring what we have done. They were also coming here, checking the things he was doing and were always coming with the financial support.
Now, on the twilight of his tenure, it is only important that we should use people who are also well positioned, both academically and in terms of career profile, to continue to enjoy those supports. When we receive statutory allocations, after paying the government bills, the state will be left with about N800 million. But you can see how we have been turning out billions of naira on weekly basis on the final push to achieving the MDGs. It is only this set of people we have produced that will enjoy the confidence of our international development partners. Looking at their career profile and education, you will be convinced that they would readily want to continue to work with Anambra State in all key areas of development. That was why we made those strategic choices.
You cannot replace Obi with somebody who these partners will not have confidence in. And most of the characters parading themselves inthis election in Anambra do not understand simple rudiments of good governance. You cannot vouch for their capacity to husband and manage resources very efficiently. Normally, if you are approaching these development partners, you would be required to present the qualifications of your Chief Executive Officer. If you come with the profile of people who never saw the four walls of a university, they would be very scared. Our candidates are well exposed. Apart from education, internationally, they have attended top management courses in Ivy League universities abroad, to Harvard, Stanford, and other business schools. They are all loaded in their CVs if you see them. These are all included in their CVs. I think they will find it very pleasing to deal with them.
One of the challenges we see, that after most primary elections have been lost and won, is the issue of resolving and settling aggrieved parties. In view of strengthening your internal processes, what successes have you recorded so far?
First of all, everybody must appreciate the fact that it is one person that will be the candidate of a party in one particular election. All the people who have contested to become APGA governorship candidate in this year’s election have come to the realisation that it is only one party that they have.
Secondly, no matter how aggrieved anybody may feel for not becoming the candidate, over time they must have deep reflection over the actions of the party, the choices the party made, to really know that everybody, particularly me as the chairman, acted in the best interest of the party. We did not go out of our way to stop anybody.
And from what you have seen thus far, there is no place you will put these candidates we have produced in a free and fair contest that they will not stand out.
When the nomination ended, of course, as party chairman, we had to engage those who participated in the processes that produced our candidates. We had meetings with them, individually and, finally, collectively. And they saw the dynamics, particularly those that were not cleared to go into the next stage; I had to ask them to fault their non-clearance, but none of them could. Sometimes, when you allow emotions to overtake your sense of judgement, you tend to over-carry yourself. Most of them came to the realisation that even in other organisations, they wouldn’t have fared better. We were very open-handed and clean with everybody. At the party’s flag-off penultimate Monday, some of them were there. But because of the shortness of time, we couldn’t call them up to the podium. We had 10 of them in attendance at the rally. Uche Ekwunife, who came second in the primary after a strong showing, was there with her supporters, adorning her dresses in solidarity with our candidate. Paul Odenigbo, who was former Secretary to State Government (SSG), was also there. All of them were wearing APGA dresses. Of course, Henry Oselako Obase, when he couldn’t make it, has since been reappointed the SSG of Anambra. He was everywhere, working. Francis Idigo, John Nwosu and Emeka Nwaogbo were there. So also were Patrick Obianwu and Tony Nnacheta. The only person who was not there was Charles Soludo, who did not keep faith with his promise that if he did not become our candidate he would join to build the party. It clearly showed that he didn’t come to build APGA, but to use APGA as a platform to pursue his personal ambition. The other one that went to court, Chike Obidigbo, was in our meeting, but he had an engagement that Monday and he wrote a beautiful letter that he would not be there, and that was it.
There are allegations that your candidates were imposed on the party by Governor Obi. Is there any truth in that?
That is a pedestrian argument to make. In this process, Ngige remains the only person imposed on his party. It is no news that in All Progressives Congress (APC), where he is running from now, Senator Annie Okonkwo was a major contender for the ticket. When it became obvious to Ngige that he may not get the ticket of the party, based on the stronger followership Okonkwo enjoys in the party here, he had to go get people from outside to force Okonkwo to step down for him. Okonkwo was forced to step down and that was the main reason he withdrew from Ngige’s campaign management. He was to lead Ngige’s campaign in Anambra.
In our own case, because he has nothing to fault our candidate with in terms of experience, ability to deliver good governance and education, he decides to turn the whole campaign to Obiano being imposed on APGA. I am the national chairman of APGA; nobody could have imposed anybody on the party, if I feel someone cannot represent the party very well.
You seem to be convinced that the election is as good as won by APGA. Where does that confidence come from?
I said that we have performed very well here and one law of nature is that nobody will be quick to give up a good thing. If you go to your house, all the things you treasure, you won’t give them out.
Our campaign thrust is on telling the people to look at how things were when we came, look at what we have done in the period we have been in power and this are the things we are going to do in the future. They have clear means of assessing us. They cannot assess the other people contending with us. Most of them have failed businesses and others are political merchants. They cannot attach them with anything that is promising. It stands us out in this process. Then, I have not said we have won. I am only being reasonable in assessing our chances in the election. We still have so much work to do. After the rally, we went into another meeting that ended around 2 a.m. the next day. We know we have work to do to keep the tempo the way it is and get the people out to vote. Of course, we have to design strategies to checkmate electoral malpractices; we have people who are going around now, because experts in underhand deals will want to subvert the electoral processes. We have a lot of work to do to checkmate those things. Based on electoral goodwill, I can tell you clearly, and will keep saying it, that we have nobody standing on our way. But we need to do that work to protect the electoral process and translate the vote we shall receive to victory. If they have any message to give, we are waiting for them to bring the message. As journalists, we want you to interview them, ask them about their background, what they were doing before, schools they attended, their schoolmates and so on. That is why we are flaunting the ones we have. Ask them about their background because it is not enough for you to come out and tell the people of Anambra: “I love you. I want your state to be the best state in the world. If you vote me in, I will make everybody happy.” These are general promises. The question will be, what capacity do you have to deliver those promises, to deliver the essentials of governance that will translate your actions to profound joy on the part of the people? Of course, if you don’t have that capacity to do it, you can promise us all the beautiful things and we will gamble with you and the place will crash.
That is the major factor that will decide the election. It is not about how much money you throw around and so on. Most of them are running around borrowing money to deceive the people that they have money; that it is not about money, but the capacity to run this office of governor and keep it on the track APGA has put it and convince them that whatever you do will be a total departure from whatever used to be here before APGA came. Some of them are moving around with convoy of about 50 vehicles. These were the things we saw before Obi came to office and downsized operations of government officials. If you are a candidate in an election and you think the way to convince our people is to show off and line 100 vehicles behind you, and you are a candidate in an election, not even a governor, it is a sign of what to expect if such person gets into office. I don’t think that is what our people are looking for.
Remember, our state is one that has produced great men in all fields of endeavour; in education, business and whatever you have, even the clergy. We have very strong people from this state. It is not a place where you can just wake and say this is a place you want to govern. They are there as major stakeholders. You must be in aposition to convince that you are qualified. Qualification is key; if you are not qualified, no matter what you do, nobody will look at you. Before you can tell us to throw away the apple we have, that your own will be sweeter, you must be at least in a position to parade requisite qualifications that can compare with people who have done it successfully, before they can consider giving you a chance. If you have not, I am sorry it is not going to happen.
Your party has kept faith with ensuring a power-shift in Anambra State politics. So far, what is the response of other senatorial districts, and has zoning come to stay in Anambra politics?
No. It is a very subtle thing. We did not really choose Obiano because he is from Anambra North. It is true that our governor made that promise while he campaigned that he will want for equity, that Anambra North be given a chance. We, as party leaders, insisted that whoever that will do that from that part or any other part must meet certain criteria. If you look at our primary, there are aspirants from all the three zones. So it wasn’t a policy that the ticket was zoned to the North. Ekwunife that ran and gave a strong showing comes from Anambra Central. Nwaogbo from Awka also comes from the same zone. In the South, we had John Nwosu, the chief executive officer of Jetlink Limited, an ICT company. He comes from Nnewi. If the party had zoned the ticket to the North, we would have precluded aspirants from other zones. But they contested. That was it. Because we were able to find the level of competence desired for this job in Obiano, the whole party supported him across the three senatorial zones. There was an open voting process which was aired live.
Governor Obi and I come from Anambra Central, along with Ngige. I assure you that we shall choke up Ngige in the Central senatorial zone. We will deal with him because his arrogance has come to a level now that he should be taught a bitter lesson. He has not won elections in the past. We had evidence that he rigged the senatorial elections that he claimed to have won. He kept challenging the decisions of the tribunal and the Court of Appeal. He filed so many interlocutory appeals to frustrate Dora Akinyuli’s petition. What caught up in that petition was the 180 days bar in the constitution by the Electoral Act for proving electoral petitions. I want also to tell you to make people hear that Ngige has all the odds against him in this election. His party is an enemy party here. Our people don’t want to hear about that party. Just few weeks before the nominations started, his brother, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, deported the Igbo from Lagos and dumped them in Anambra State at the wee hours. As soon as that happened, he came out with a public statement supporting the deportation. You cannot wipe it out anywhere, in the markets, that he has deported our people. And we don’t understand why he wants to become the governor of Anambra State through APC, where whatever he will be doing will be cleared with people who are not from here. Our people are now wiser. Another thing against him is that election the office of the governor of Anambra is not about Ngige.
Victor Umeh
There was no secret behind the grand flag-off rally we had on October 7 other than the appreciation shown by our people that APGA has not disappointed them. Secondly, the governor, who is now on his way out, has kept faith with the people. Therefore, it was a solidarity and expression of trust in the way we have piloted the affairs of this state in the last seven and half years. Like I said at the rally, before we came, this place was a war zone, a theatre of war. Dr. Chris Ngige, who we removed through the court, because of his lack of honour in keeping with agreement he reached with people who forced him on the people of Anambra State when he lost the election, opened the state for all kinds of macabre warfare. Nothing was really working despite the noise being made at that time he was standing up against his estranged godfathers.
But when we got rid of him, the way and manner Governor Peter Obi went about re-laying the foundation for sustainable good governance in the state was completely unparalleled.
The state has been taken out from the doldrums to alevel where people now feel proud to say they are from Anambra State. All those negative things the state was associated with during the Ngige era were gone; nobody would wish to go back to those old ways. This time around, our people are determined to sustain this good governance that they have experienced. That was the secret.
Your governorship candidate and his deputy have intimidating academic qualifications. How will this transform to electoral relevance?
First of all, nobody will want a mad man to preside over his or her affairs. In choosing candidates for APGA in this election, we were mindful of the strategic partnerships that Governor Obi was able to bring to bear in governance in the state. The international donor agencies and development agencies that partnered with Governor Obi cannot deal with people who are not knowledgeable to pilot the affairsof governance. The European Union (EU), Canadian Development Agency, United State Agency for International Development (USAID), even the World Bank, will be comfortable to deal with people who have requisite experience, education and exposure, before they will begin to put their monies here.
Unknown to people, Obi did not excel because he was managing statutory allocations very well; that wasn’t the reason for the turn-around in the state. Before he came, Anambra State was not getting anything in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) funds because the people who were here did not understand what those things were. It was when Obi came, particularly between 2008 and 2009, that we were able to build that confidence that started attracting these funds that were coming from MDGs schemes in the state. These partners in development are well established organisations internationally. Before they can deal with you, they would be certain that you know what to do with the money. They would look at your ability to manage resources and be convinced that you have a sincerity of purpose, that the monies sent down will be channelled to the programmes they designed for development.
Governor Obi excelled because he was very humble, and approached these organisations always with well-articulated programmes of utilising those funds. They have serious parameters for measuring what we have done. They were also coming here, checking the things he was doing and were always coming with the financial support.
Now, on the twilight of his tenure, it is only important that we should use people who are also well positioned, both academically and in terms of career profile, to continue to enjoy those supports. When we receive statutory allocations, after paying the government bills, the state will be left with about N800 million. But you can see how we have been turning out billions of naira on weekly basis on the final push to achieving the MDGs. It is only this set of people we have produced that will enjoy the confidence of our international development partners. Looking at their career profile and education, you will be convinced that they would readily want to continue to work with Anambra State in all key areas of development. That was why we made those strategic choices.
You cannot replace Obi with somebody who these partners will not have confidence in. And most of the characters parading themselves inthis election in Anambra do not understand simple rudiments of good governance. You cannot vouch for their capacity to husband and manage resources very efficiently. Normally, if you are approaching these development partners, you would be required to present the qualifications of your Chief Executive Officer. If you come with the profile of people who never saw the four walls of a university, they would be very scared. Our candidates are well exposed. Apart from education, internationally, they have attended top management courses in Ivy League universities abroad, to Harvard, Stanford, and other business schools. They are all loaded in their CVs if you see them. These are all included in their CVs. I think they will find it very pleasing to deal with them.
One of the challenges we see, that after most primary elections have been lost and won, is the issue of resolving and settling aggrieved parties. In view of strengthening your internal processes, what successes have you recorded so far?
First of all, everybody must appreciate the fact that it is one person that will be the candidate of a party in one particular election. All the people who have contested to become APGA governorship candidate in this year’s election have come to the realisation that it is only one party that they have.
Secondly, no matter how aggrieved anybody may feel for not becoming the candidate, over time they must have deep reflection over the actions of the party, the choices the party made, to really know that everybody, particularly me as the chairman, acted in the best interest of the party. We did not go out of our way to stop anybody.
And from what you have seen thus far, there is no place you will put these candidates we have produced in a free and fair contest that they will not stand out.
When the nomination ended, of course, as party chairman, we had to engage those who participated in the processes that produced our candidates. We had meetings with them, individually and, finally, collectively. And they saw the dynamics, particularly those that were not cleared to go into the next stage; I had to ask them to fault their non-clearance, but none of them could. Sometimes, when you allow emotions to overtake your sense of judgement, you tend to over-carry yourself. Most of them came to the realisation that even in other organisations, they wouldn’t have fared better. We were very open-handed and clean with everybody. At the party’s flag-off penultimate Monday, some of them were there. But because of the shortness of time, we couldn’t call them up to the podium. We had 10 of them in attendance at the rally. Uche Ekwunife, who came second in the primary after a strong showing, was there with her supporters, adorning her dresses in solidarity with our candidate. Paul Odenigbo, who was former Secretary to State Government (SSG), was also there. All of them were wearing APGA dresses. Of course, Henry Oselako Obase, when he couldn’t make it, has since been reappointed the SSG of Anambra. He was everywhere, working. Francis Idigo, John Nwosu and Emeka Nwaogbo were there. So also were Patrick Obianwu and Tony Nnacheta. The only person who was not there was Charles Soludo, who did not keep faith with his promise that if he did not become our candidate he would join to build the party. It clearly showed that he didn’t come to build APGA, but to use APGA as a platform to pursue his personal ambition. The other one that went to court, Chike Obidigbo, was in our meeting, but he had an engagement that Monday and he wrote a beautiful letter that he would not be there, and that was it.
There are allegations that your candidates were imposed on the party by Governor Obi. Is there any truth in that?
That is a pedestrian argument to make. In this process, Ngige remains the only person imposed on his party. It is no news that in All Progressives Congress (APC), where he is running from now, Senator Annie Okonkwo was a major contender for the ticket. When it became obvious to Ngige that he may not get the ticket of the party, based on the stronger followership Okonkwo enjoys in the party here, he had to go get people from outside to force Okonkwo to step down for him. Okonkwo was forced to step down and that was the main reason he withdrew from Ngige’s campaign management. He was to lead Ngige’s campaign in Anambra.
In our own case, because he has nothing to fault our candidate with in terms of experience, ability to deliver good governance and education, he decides to turn the whole campaign to Obiano being imposed on APGA. I am the national chairman of APGA; nobody could have imposed anybody on the party, if I feel someone cannot represent the party very well.
You seem to be convinced that the election is as good as won by APGA. Where does that confidence come from?
I said that we have performed very well here and one law of nature is that nobody will be quick to give up a good thing. If you go to your house, all the things you treasure, you won’t give them out.
Our campaign thrust is on telling the people to look at how things were when we came, look at what we have done in the period we have been in power and this are the things we are going to do in the future. They have clear means of assessing us. They cannot assess the other people contending with us. Most of them have failed businesses and others are political merchants. They cannot attach them with anything that is promising. It stands us out in this process. Then, I have not said we have won. I am only being reasonable in assessing our chances in the election. We still have so much work to do. After the rally, we went into another meeting that ended around 2 a.m. the next day. We know we have work to do to keep the tempo the way it is and get the people out to vote. Of course, we have to design strategies to checkmate electoral malpractices; we have people who are going around now, because experts in underhand deals will want to subvert the electoral processes. We have a lot of work to do to checkmate those things. Based on electoral goodwill, I can tell you clearly, and will keep saying it, that we have nobody standing on our way. But we need to do that work to protect the electoral process and translate the vote we shall receive to victory. If they have any message to give, we are waiting for them to bring the message. As journalists, we want you to interview them, ask them about their background, what they were doing before, schools they attended, their schoolmates and so on. That is why we are flaunting the ones we have. Ask them about their background because it is not enough for you to come out and tell the people of Anambra: “I love you. I want your state to be the best state in the world. If you vote me in, I will make everybody happy.” These are general promises. The question will be, what capacity do you have to deliver those promises, to deliver the essentials of governance that will translate your actions to profound joy on the part of the people? Of course, if you don’t have that capacity to do it, you can promise us all the beautiful things and we will gamble with you and the place will crash.
That is the major factor that will decide the election. It is not about how much money you throw around and so on. Most of them are running around borrowing money to deceive the people that they have money; that it is not about money, but the capacity to run this office of governor and keep it on the track APGA has put it and convince them that whatever you do will be a total departure from whatever used to be here before APGA came. Some of them are moving around with convoy of about 50 vehicles. These were the things we saw before Obi came to office and downsized operations of government officials. If you are a candidate in an election and you think the way to convince our people is to show off and line 100 vehicles behind you, and you are a candidate in an election, not even a governor, it is a sign of what to expect if such person gets into office. I don’t think that is what our people are looking for.
Remember, our state is one that has produced great men in all fields of endeavour; in education, business and whatever you have, even the clergy. We have very strong people from this state. It is not a place where you can just wake and say this is a place you want to govern. They are there as major stakeholders. You must be in aposition to convince that you are qualified. Qualification is key; if you are not qualified, no matter what you do, nobody will look at you. Before you can tell us to throw away the apple we have, that your own will be sweeter, you must be at least in a position to parade requisite qualifications that can compare with people who have done it successfully, before they can consider giving you a chance. If you have not, I am sorry it is not going to happen.
Your party has kept faith with ensuring a power-shift in Anambra State politics. So far, what is the response of other senatorial districts, and has zoning come to stay in Anambra politics?
No. It is a very subtle thing. We did not really choose Obiano because he is from Anambra North. It is true that our governor made that promise while he campaigned that he will want for equity, that Anambra North be given a chance. We, as party leaders, insisted that whoever that will do that from that part or any other part must meet certain criteria. If you look at our primary, there are aspirants from all the three zones. So it wasn’t a policy that the ticket was zoned to the North. Ekwunife that ran and gave a strong showing comes from Anambra Central. Nwaogbo from Awka also comes from the same zone. In the South, we had John Nwosu, the chief executive officer of Jetlink Limited, an ICT company. He comes from Nnewi. If the party had zoned the ticket to the North, we would have precluded aspirants from other zones. But they contested. That was it. Because we were able to find the level of competence desired for this job in Obiano, the whole party supported him across the three senatorial zones. There was an open voting process which was aired live.
Governor Obi and I come from Anambra Central, along with Ngige. I assure you that we shall choke up Ngige in the Central senatorial zone. We will deal with him because his arrogance has come to a level now that he should be taught a bitter lesson. He has not won elections in the past. We had evidence that he rigged the senatorial elections that he claimed to have won. He kept challenging the decisions of the tribunal and the Court of Appeal. He filed so many interlocutory appeals to frustrate Dora Akinyuli’s petition. What caught up in that petition was the 180 days bar in the constitution by the Electoral Act for proving electoral petitions. I want also to tell you to make people hear that Ngige has all the odds against him in this election. His party is an enemy party here. Our people don’t want to hear about that party. Just few weeks before the nominations started, his brother, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, deported the Igbo from Lagos and dumped them in Anambra State at the wee hours. As soon as that happened, he came out with a public statement supporting the deportation. You cannot wipe it out anywhere, in the markets, that he has deported our people. And we don’t understand why he wants to become the governor of Anambra State through APC, where whatever he will be doing will be cleared with people who are not from here. Our people are now wiser. Another thing against him is that election the office of the governor of Anambra is not about Ngige.
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