BUHARI STILL THINKS SAME WAY AS MILITARY AS WHEN HE OVER THREW SHAGARI

Chief Victor Umeh

Chief Victor Umeh is the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the party’s Candidate for Anambra Central Senatorial District. In this interview with journalists in Abuja, he bares his mind on the party’s preparation for the 2015 general elections, it’s support for President Goodluck Jonathan and his chances of defeating Senator Chris Ngige at the polls. ASST. EDITOR, JOE NWANKWO, was there. Excerpts…

The party said, months ago, that its adoption of Jonathan as its presidential candidate would be based on reaching an agreement on the role the party would play in the government if he wins, was such conditionality met before last week’s adoption of the President?

Of course, there is no way somebody would come and publish an agreement or discussion he had with somebody prior to an action. Clearly we are very emphatic on the reasons for adopting Jonathan. We made an allusion to the report of the National Conference which he pledged on October 1 that he will implement. If he goes ahead to implement the report of the national conference the people that APGA represents in Nigeria will have some relief. It is something that would make us support him as President. With that national conference report we believe that it is something the country needs, if implemented fully, for the sustainable unity of this country. The president has pledged that he will implement it. When we talk about discussion, we are not talking about discussion that he would give anybody money or other things; we are talking about what should be done to take Nigeria out of the

woods. And this is one of the key things that he has accepted that he would do in a nationwide broadcast on October 1st. After the FEC meeting of last Wednesday, the government approved N20 billion for the reconstruction of the dual carriage way between Enugu and Onitsha expressway. This is one of the things that everybody is asking for. We expect that the way they have done it in other parts of the country, the South East that supports APGA wholeheartedly would be happy with such developments. We also believe that the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway will receive the same attention. These were part of the demands that we had made. For the good of the country, it is in order that somebody who is developing every part of the country should be supported. As for appointments and the allocation of slots in government, he did so in 2011 though not formally. He gave APGA some attention albeit informally. This time around I know that with our support if he goes ahead to win the election there will be formal relationship between the party and his office in making these appointments.

Should it be taken that APGA did not give ticket to any of its National Assembly members because it was dissatisfied with their performance?

This is democracy for you. You go and renew your mandate both from your party and the larger society. I don’t think it is only in APGA that such a thing happened. There were heavy casualties in the PDP in the National Assembly. Big Senators did not make the PDP list. Democracy is about your constant relationship with the people who gave you their mandate to go and represent them. If you do well they would be eager to give you a fresh mandate. If you fall short of their expectations you run into trouble when you go to seek a renewal of their mandate both within the party and from the electorate. I think what happened in APGA was a reflection of the people’s views about those who have been in the National Assembly on their behalf. Most of them were asked so many questions as they were campaigning for support. You can’t climb to an office through a political party and you don’t remember the party unless when you want to seek a ticket to go back to where you are. There was a time I said that those of them that were sponsored to National Assembly never gave our party any financial support for the four years; it was the same thing down the line, I mean to their constituencies. That is why the people reacted negatively. It is going to be a clear roadmap to those who will win next year’s elections. They must know that they must be in constant touch with the people that they represent both within the party and their constituents generally. So it was nothing unusual because it happened across the parties.

What do you make of the recent push in the court in Umuahia to stop you from leading APGA?

My support base today as the National Chairman of the party is overwhelming; it has always been so. Those who have been filing suits in the court against me are people who are afraid of me. When you feel that you cannot manipulate me the best thing to do is to fight my leadership and tell lies to the public. At the special convention on the 17th of December, how would you assess a situation where everything we brought to the convention succeeded? Only one dissenting voice was heard. The actions against me in court have always failed. The reason is that those who have been going to court against me have always ignored the constitution of the party and the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Internal party matters are not justiceable. Forget about the things you see today where High court judges run and make all kinds of orders. There are established Supreme Court decisions that internal affairs of political parties are not matters that the court should dabble into. Courts do not answer political questions as to who should be the leader of a party. The one you saw in Umuahia recently, you also saw in Abuja few weeks ago where somebody came on the last day of the sale of nomination forms of our party and purchased our forms. The person who was not a member of our party, he went through the screening panel and he was not cleared to participate in the primaries. He dragged us to court and brought somebody to challenge my leadership of the party. All those cases were struck out. In Umuahia , Regan Ofomba who has been a dissident member of the party and who belongs to the Maxi Okwu faction is the one sponsoring the suit in Umuahia because he wants to run for governor. He didn’t approach us in Abuja to buy our nomination form to run for governor. We have had no relationship with him for the past three years. Suddenly he sponsored somebody from his village, Ntigha. He purportedly said that he came here to buy expression of interest form on 10th of November when we closed the sale of forms officially on 4th of November. I didn’t see him, I never met the man. They went to court saying that, because I am the chairman I did not want to sell form to them; therefore, I should not be chairman again. They claimed that my tenure expired on December 1. It is the same issue of tenure that the Appeal Court has dealt with two times – one in Enugu and the other in Abuja. They misled the court into making an ex-parte order against me. We appeared before the court immediately and it discharged the order admitting that it was misled. This thing you see people riding against me, is part of the deceit in our system. They try to make it like actions instituted to save the party but these actions are coming from disgruntled elements, people who have fears that they may not get what they are looking for. They are all misplaced. We have gone through our primaries, submitted names of our candidates to INEC. Everything has been going smoothly thus far. In Abia, Dr Alex Otti who is a frontline contender for the office of governor of the state emerged through our leadership. I don’t know through which leadership Ufomba is contesting his own governorship. He is the one wasting his time and distracting people. He is now using Ejike Uche, who was my former deputy but now Maxi Okwu’s deputy, to go and file actions against me. They asked the court to declare that my tenure has expired and that Ejike Uche should take over. This is the greatest madness anybody can see. Ejike Uche was elected alongside my leadership on the same day. So, if my tenure has expired what tenure is left for Ejike Uche?

How convinced are you that you can win your senatorial election? Secondly, what do you make of Buhari’s candidacy?

For my opponents in the senatorial election, they are great citizens of Anambra state. Our people will make the decision by themselves. All of us have antecedents they know. They know who will represent them better at the National Assembly. I leave the decision of who will win the senatorial election for my people to make. I am campaigning very well . Right now at the Anambra Central. I am the only one who is touching the grassroots in my campaign. I have received overwhelming support and endorsements of the people of the zone. Our government that is in power in Anambra is doing very well. I said it before that I accepted to go to the senate so as to provide the much needed synergy between the state government and the National Assembly members who will be representing our state from 2015. We need to be members of the same party so that we will collaborate more effectively in providing the much needed services to our people. A situation where people come from different parties from the state to the National Assembly will not help our state. We need to work together. The purpose of governance is to deliver dividends of democracy and quality representation. From a divided house it will be lacking because there will be tussle and competition that will be unnecessary. Now that the governor is properly focused and he is doing the work we need senators from his party that will consult with him at intervals of one month or thereabout. I don’t know who is representing PDP because four people emerged. By the time INEC finishes the process we will know who they will publish as the candidate of PDP, then we will begin to deal with that. For Dr Chris Ngige, I don’t want to keep belabouring the issue that he has had his time and this is the time for him to give way. He has been governor though unlawfully for nearly three years. He did some good work which we acknowledge; he has been in the senate for four years. He failed us as a senator. There is no way he can be asking to go back there. This is my own opinion and the opinion of our people. On Buhari’s candidature, there are many reasons why Jonathan will win the 2015 Presidential election: one, we will campaign for him. Buhari, this is the fourth presidential election he is contesting in this country. He is a great Nigerian; I respect him for his discipline, but this election goes beyond that type of consideration. We need somebody who is balanced in his views, somebody who is urbane; if you look at the way things have gone in Nigeria, you will know that there are two sides of a coin. For the fact that he overthrew a democratically elected government in 1983 makes a lot of people uncomfortable with his democratic credentials; that his coup, to a large extent, dragged Nigeria through a long period of military coups which would have been avoided. If we had a smooth transition from civilian to another civilian administration in 1983, you would have seen that by now we would have been able to correct our mistakes and all the flaws in our democracy. It is not just about saying I will fight corruption; we know that he will fight corruption but after that what happens. Nobody knows what he would do when he wins, but then whether democracy will survive, I cannot guarantee that. And democracy is the only form of governance that can turn the fortune of any country around. But the character of the individual is very important; so, if he gets there and begins to use military tactics, all of us will be the worst for it. You saw what we suffered under Obasanjo’s leadership? It was under Obasanjo that Nigeria never had a credible election. Nigeria was traumatized under Obasanjo because he was using the force of the gun. Secondly Jonathan has demonstrated the ability to be calm, the annoyance if the activities of the Boko Haram sect would have been enough for him to order the massacre of people in that zone like Obasanjo did in Zaki Biam and Odi. These are military men so when they see any opposition they move in the soldiers, so it is good that we enthrone a truly civilian government; somebody who does not have any military background. Another negative thing about the APC is that they are like a cabal that is waiting to hijack the government. If Buhari wins, those who went to the APC think that it will be a credible opposition to the PDP, they have all left and are now complaining about the cabal in the APC, which is manipulating the system. So if that cabal takes over government at the center Nigeria will be in serious danger. There are two leaders in the APC, Buhari and Bola Tinubu, one has become the Presidential candidate while the other has appointed his protege as the Vice Presidential candidate. So they have shared power but we shall resist that as Nigerian people, we will work against the cabal. The APC thing is a mafia business between Tinubu and Buhari and it will not work. Those who came like Atiku Abubakar, Kwankwanso who tried to run for the presidency, you saw how they were all rubbished in the primaries. Okorocha who also contested for presidency, you saw how he ran back to contest for governor in Imo State. He has lost everything. So, it goes to show you that APC is a closed house. We shall campaign and hope to win this election with Jonathan