Chief Victor Umeh And His Baggage By John Maduekwe, Esq

VICTOR UMEH and his baggage…

It remains an incontrovertible fact that Chief Victor Umeh is an issue in the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). Hence in the recent times any discourse on APGA and its problems must refer to him. 

However, it remains arguable if his association and attachment to APGA have propelled or retarded the course of the party. Indeed, his loquacious mien and manner have only woven a toga of notoriety around his person and APGA as a party has become the worse for it. His loud-mouth and twaddle through his press interviews are evident exposures of his proclivity to belligerency and APGA remains decapitated in the process. One recalls with nostalgia that it was his incoherent interview in the “Daily Sun” of February 20, 2012, that set the stage for these hassles and hostilities in the party.

        In the referred interview, he made series of unsubstantiated allegations against the then governor of Anambra State, His Excellency Mr Peter Obi, CON, who also was the deputy leader of the party at the material time. He did say Mr Peter Obi had a pact to destabilize APGA and hop into PDP. He also alleged that the then Gov. Obi had painted him black before President Goodluck Jonathan and so, had lost the attendant goodwill and handouts hitherto enjoyed by him from the presidency. He in fact squealed and screamed with gusto.

        However, the one that stirred the hornet’s nest was his disparaging remarks on chief(Hon) Sylvester Nwobu Alor, a pragmatic, positive and propelling factor in APGA. The languages employed by Umeh in the said interview are to say the least derogatory, despicable and desecrating. Umeh twaddled that Nwobu Alor “was already dying and nearer to his grave at 88 and wanted to take as much people with him to the grave”. In another breath he painted Nwobu Alor as a senile old man who should be consigned perpetually to the village and not in government house. What balderdash!

        Happily, with the benefit of hindsight, all his projections have all fallen flat and floppy. For one, it’s now over two years since then and Peter Obi had not destabilized, dumped or decamped from APGA, neither had he hopped into PDP as forecast by this seer. Rather, he has continually taken APGA from strength to strength as evidenced by the recent landslide victory of the party in the last gubernatorial contest in Anambra State. Chief Nwobu Alor  on his part, has not expired and neither has he been recalled by his creator. Rather, he still calls the shots from his office and adds premium and power to the APGA government of the day.

        Expectedly, Umeh in his most recent interview fielded in the ‘Daily Sun’ of April 28, 2014, in his usual manner made vain and venomous remarks and in the process committed a faux pass. He arrogantly claimed APGA revolved around him and every victory of APGA must have his seal. He also arrogated to himself the toga of an ‘apostle of rule of law’. He went ahead to bombard and berate the learned trial judge, Hon. Justice Kafarati for not giving him a fair judgment recently. He went further to accuse chief Maxi Okwu of only coming to collect Jeeps from His Excellency chief Willie Obiano. Again, he posited that the youths are begging him to go to the senate come 2015 amongst other outbursts that shall be taken in turns to dissect so as to sieve the chaff from the wheat.

        Rule of law is a vital ingredient in any democratic set up with an alluring and accompanying index of division of labour that precipitates the needed checks and balances. Chief Victor Umeh, our emergent ‘apostle of rule of law’ deliberately stifled and usurped the duties of accountant, auditor, cashier, treasurer of the party and in the process mismanaged and misappropriated the party’s fund which is the crux of the allegations against his inept and ineffective leadership, and which ultimately triggered off these legion of litigations and cacophony of clashes. Again, sitting tight in office and parading oneself as the party’s chairman even when the court has severally ruled otherwise is akin to a despotic disposition and certainly a contempt of court. For Christ’s sake, occupying an office for 11 years for an 8-year tenureship and even with a plethora of subsisting allegations of corruption that quakes the foundation of such an office is unequivocally a mockery of this solemn rule of law.

        Too, employing debasing and derogatory terms on the learned trial judge, Hon. Justice Kafarati for not getting victory at the instant case was simply callous and malicious. No matter one’s grouse, rule of law rules that petitions to superior judicial authority suffice in cases of perceived provable unfairness. Therefore, attacking a judicial officer that dutifully discharged his task on the pages of newspaper is simply futile and puerile. The National Judicial Council has the onerous responsibility to reprimand, sanction and suspend erring judge and never a litigant in a dispute.

        Again, his boast that he was responsible for all APGA victories is neither here or there. The party has continued to coast to victory only in Anambra State which remains its flagship. Going by the recent postulations and pontifications as pertaining to this current tussle in the party, it has been revealed that the personages, pedigree and the personality cult of the troika of Ikemba Ojukwu, Gov. Peter Obi and Chief Nwobu Alor provided the needed fillip and fortune that culminated into the party’s enviable and engaging posture in Anambra State. Ikemba availed his rich cult followership, while Gov. Obi through his legendary legal leaps sustained this brand. Nwobu Alor it was who nudged this super performer that Obi has become to run and who also cerebrally co-ordinated the first ever gubernatorial campaign of the party in Anambra that has translated into its continual victory in the state. Elsewhere, the chairman of the party, Victor Umeh, systematically disorganized and destabilized the party structures with his recalcitrant, autocratic, arrogant and despotic demeanour, and APGA’s followership and fortune apart from Anambra have dipped to an all time low. For instance, in the present dispensation, no senator of the federation comes under the APGA umbrella. Too, the party’s membership in the federal house has shrunk to a pitiable three even with the huge resources availed by the party’s backbone and who incidentally is now the party’s leader, Mr. Peter Obi, CON. In an over nine hundred membership of the state assemblies across the federation, APGA is hopelessly comfortable with a mere thirty-man membership. A decent and dignified ‘party chairman’ would have resigned honourably in the face of these abysmal anomalies resulting from inefficient and ineffective party leadership under his watch, instead of clinging to power to add to its woes.

        Matter-of-factly, APGA’s recent landslide victory in Anambra State that translated in the inauguration of Chief Willie Obiano as the governor of Anambra State was essentially made possible through the super, sterling and sparkling performances of Gov. Obi while in office. Evidently, throughout the electioneering campaigns it was the face of Obi that was affecting and attracting the electorates and not that sky-bound cap with its baggage of ineptitude. Even at a time it dominated public discourse if Obi was gunning for a third term. Conversely, the ‘party chairman’ with his big cap was at the time accused of stampeding the party’s flagbearer, Obiano(as he was then called) into signing a covenant with him for a selfish end if he (Obiano) succeeds at the polls. Consequently, the out-gone governor at the inauguration ground and in the full glare of the camera emphatically enjoined the newly sworn-in governor to jettison any real or purported agreement/covenant, reiterating that his pact was only with the good people of the State who elected him to power, short and simple!

        Furthermore, in the interview under discourse, Umeh made an impotent attempt to attack the person of Chief Maxi Okwu, who currently and with a valid judicial pronouncement sits atop the affairs of APGA. Chief Okwu was accused of describing Ikemba Ojukwu as an extremist. He also accused Okwu of struggling to take over APGA only to collect Jeeps from Gov. Obiano to inscribe ‘APGA National Chairman 1,2,3,4 etc’ on them. What a preposterous and puerile thought! Such a statement from the ‘National Lord’ of a party is petty, prevaricating and indeed, distracting. Calling Ojukwu extremist, if true, should be situated in the entire lexical context, English word for a clear meaning goes in sequence, any attempt to disjoin throws up an entirely different meaning and intendment.

        Nonetheless, it’s always Umeh’s past time to always evoke sentiment with Ojukwu’s name. For instance, at each court outings he goes to the man’s tomb to do only what he knows. Again, it’s not mandatory that a new chairman must adopt his trademark-glamour and ostentation/convoy in running the party. It’s a known fact that Chief Umeh in his heydays as the party’s dictator collected Jeeps from Gov. Obi and President Jonathan, and these SUV’s were principally deployed to water his ego and never for the services of the party. Consolably, Maxi Okwu by his Spartan antecedents shall not toe the same line of profligacy, after all, Gov. Obi was frugal and faithful all through his tenure and the attendant achievements are for the benefits of NDI ANAMBRA. Again, instead of attacking Maxi Okwu, he should rather be applauded for saving APGA at that turbulent period. Truly, if Maxi Okwu had not appeared in the scene at the heat of that squabble and steadied the storms, I’m afraid APGA would have been decimated and most probably, no Gov. Obiano would have emerged therefrom.

        Empirically, public service is any body’s take, if Victor Umeh wants to test waters come 2015 using the senate platform, he is free to do so but bragging he’s been begged by a nondescript youth to contest is the height of deception, delusion and deceit. Of course, it’s the same refrain by incompetent persons. No refined youth would elect to identify let alone support a queer character that suddenly amassed a quantum wealth in questionable circumstances and which even never benefitted any youth even from his rural village. It is said if you sideline people on your way up you will definitely meet them on your way down. Yesterday, Chief Umeh was with his jalopy and decrepit Mercedes car, today he cruises around with the state of the art cars and mansions in choice global capitals, and suddenly now looks down and attacks those personalities that made him, the law of Karma remains instructive, anyway.

        Finally, since the majority of APGA members and essentially the stakeholders have lost confidence in you to the extent that they cannot anymore avail you the much needed goodwill and fund to march on, the honourable thing is for you to conceal your nuisance value and leave the scene. It’s a common knowledge that there is no love lost between you and Mr. Peter Obi, the leader of the party, also the likes of Dr. Tim Menakaya(vice chair,BOT), Chief (Hon) Sylvester Nwobu Alor(chair, APGA stakeholders) etc hold you in high suspicion and contempt and can never vouch for you. Even your relationship with the new Obiano remains elastic. So, who are you actually banking on to assist to move APGA forward?

        Lastly, if performing and popular candidates like Prof Dora Akunyili, Sen. (Dr.) Joy Emodi, Chief Chuma Nzeribe etc all failed in their bids because of Umeh’s clueless and clownish leadership in APGA, I wonder what awaits this scandalized and destabilized ‘lord of Manor’ if he dares a dance in 2015. Agreeably, Chief Victor Umeh remains a confused factor/issue in APGA, for his loquacious leaning has never added any premium nor patronage to APGA, OED!

JOHN MADUEKWE,esq.

Co-ordinator, Anambra Solidarity Youth Movement

14 Igwebuike crescent, Awka.

08187865899 (sms only)