Obi’s Resignation As BoT Chair Should Worry APGA – CJ Okoli- Akirika

                            
C.J. Okoli Akirika, a lawyer, can be regarded as All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) die-hard. As state secretary of the party, he weathered the storm when the party was virtually living in the courts, and in times of crises when Peter Obi was Governor. Perhaps, as reward for his hard work, he was appointed Commissioner for Land, Survey and Urban Development after being secretary of APGA.
In this interview with newsmen, Akirika speaks on the next move of former governor, Peter Obi, APGA’s romance with President Goodluck Jonathan, and proposes an alliance of APGA and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming government, after the 2015 general elections, if President Jonathan wins. He also speaks on other issues. Excerpts…
C.J. Okoli Akirika, a lawyer, can be regarded as All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) die-hard. As state secretary of the party, he weathered the storm when the party was virtually living in the courts, and in times of crises when Peter Obi was Governor. Perhaps, as reward for his hard work, he was appointed Commissioner for Land, Survey and Urban Development after being secretary of APGA. In this 
Do you think that the rumour that former governor, Peter Obi, is joining the PDP will come to reality?
Well, what I will say is that, ordinarily, I know that His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, is a man who believes in due process. When he resigned as the Chairman of BoT and leader of APGA, he gave reasons for doing so. Obi has never said that he is no longer a member of APGA. What he said was that he was resigning as Chairman of BoT and as a leader of the party. That is his right. His resignation as far as I am concerned, calls for sober reflection on the part of APGA, especially the national leadership of the party. So, as to whether he would join PDP or not is a matter that is entirely left at his discretion. In as much as we concede the fact that it is rare for people to be conceptual of all the issues, at the same time, it would do us a lot of good if we reduce to the barest minimum, areas and matters of avoidable rancour in the rank and file of our great party. This is not time for grand standing of anybody or group of persons to think that the party can be held to ransom. Politics, we all know is a numerical game, in other words, it is a game of numbers, so we can’t afford to be losing our members and be thinking that all is well. Because it is antithetical for any person to think that the party, as an entity, can grow by losing its members. Growth and reduction, you know very well, are antithetical concepts. It behooves all to do what can enable APGA to win elections and remain relevant in the scheme of things. In simple language, what we need now is nothing short of political pragmatism. We must adopt a very proactive and realistic approach to the forthcoming general elections. By this I mean, going into accord where that is strategic, going into discussions and negotiations where and when necessary, working together where mandatory.
You said you need to go into accord that is strategic, how do you mean?
You see that politics is a living art. There are times you discuss and leave it at the stage of discussion. There are times you work together which have gone beyond the state of discussion. And there are times you are no longer working together; you go into the field to put into practice what you have discussed and what you agreed to work on. You have different approaches, but at the end of the day, the bottom line is all benefit. You can see what is happening in, for instance, the APGA/Jonathan relationship. Essentially, the party leadership has said that we have agreed that we are going to adopt Jonathan. That is good. It is not only commonsensical, it is also constitutional, and APGA constitution allows the party in peculiar instances and subject to the guidelines that was made by the National Executive Council, NEC, to adopt credible and nationally acceptable candidate.
So, if somebody is credible and nationally acceptable, the NEC of the party can make a regulation, guideline, on how that person can be adopted to run for an election for APGA?
In the case of Jonathan, you can see that the governor of another party from the South-West, Mimiko, is joining PDP; Ribadu, from Adamawa, is joining PDP; Ikimi, from Edo, is joining PDP. The examples I have cited cover three separate and sensitive geopolitical zones involving high ranking politicians. So, I will say that if I take a second look at all these, you will notice a centripetal tendency towards Jonathan. Therefore, if APGA’s NEC now says Jonathan is credible and nationally acceptable; we can work out modalities on how to adopt him, that is on the issue of accord. The next stage is how we go about this. The party constitution says go by way of convention and then constitute men and women of intelligence and caliber, who will now work out modalities on how that will be done. It was in that process that the nitty-gritty will be worked out. That is the second stage. It will now become mandatory and compulsory that we go out into the field for an election. Then, what will APGA do? We want to look at the possibility of telling people to vote for Jonathan in this election, vote for APGA in other elections. And while deciding that, we factor in the level of political sophistication, because we are talking about the average Nigerian or Anambra or South-East voter and you know that they are in majority. What is the possibility of saying, for this presidential election which APGA leadership said we are not contesting, you vote for Jonathan; for other elections you vote for APGA. How do you do that in practice? It calls for an intricate political maneuvering and alignment. It is not something we do by holding rallies, grand standing, name calling, and not something we achieve by going to court like Ken Emeakayi did. It is not something we do by pasting posters on billboards. It is something we do by sitting down and working out a very beneficial arrangement that will suite APGA, suite PDP, and take care of the interest of everybody concerned. It calls for pragmatism and takes a very close look of the surrounding circumstances. So, once a mistake is made – you are alive and witnessed what happened in South-West during AD/Obasanjo accord. It was a bandwagon. By the time AD governors realized what was happening, both the presidency and gubernatorial elections were PDP all the way. That is why there is the need for us to sit down and look at the modalities that will suite us so that we don’t allow history to repeat itself. We have failed to learn the lessons of history. The lesson of history from South-West during AD/PDP accord was that the proper thing was not done. So, I am very mindful that the best for us to do is to have a pragmatic approach so that we don’t fall victim to the bandwagon effect of what happened in the South-West.
It is like already APGA has started making the mistake. There is this court judgment that it should not use anything pertaining to Jonathan like logo, photograph, etc, how do you think this thing can be corrected?
Well, the court did not say we can’t adopt Jonathan. That interim order mainly worked out the modalities that must be adopted for us to effectuate the adoption of Jonathan, and that is what the law says. Jonathan belongs to PDP, a different political party that has different name and different logo from APGA. So, if they say don’t campaign with our name and our logo, using Jonathan’s picture, it is their right. It is now left for us to work out modalities on how we can work with Jonathan for the purposes of realizing his presidential ambition.
Why should APGA enter into marriage when the bride said that I don’t want you, as PDP did?
No, they didn’t say so. What they said is work for Jonathan but work for him in accordance with the law. The essence of that ruling is, in simple language, adopt Jonathan within the frame work of legality. The Electoral Act and perhaps the guidelines that will be published by INEC, I know for sure will not permit a party to market a member of another political party using its names and logo. To illustrate this, the law will not allow us to put Jonathan’s picture, put APGA and our logo. But the law can allow us to put Jonathan’s picture, put the picture of our dear governor showing that he is sympathetic and co-operative to the cause of Jonathan. You know, the danger in this is the fact that presidential election is not taken place alone. Rather, it is taking place with national assembly elections. So, PDP is trying to say, we don’t want a position where you use the name of our candidate to market your own candidate and in law, it has the right. And we are saying that Jonathan has done well for us and we want to support him but within the ambit of the law, already what we did was more of an invitation to a treaty.

Interview conducted by Daily Independent’s CHUKWUJEKWU ILOZUE