Money Has Stopped Winning Election In Anambra –Maja Umeh , Senatorial Aspirant For Anambra South Senatorial Zone

Chief Maja Umeh and wife with a friend former commissioner for Lands, Survey and urban Planning , CJ Okoli-Akirika 

Chief Maja Umeh is a for­mer commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism during the Governor Peter Obi administration, and now a sena­torial aspirant for Anambra South Senatorial Zone for the 2015 elections.

Umeh, in this interview with Odogwu Media spoke on the chances of his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the relationship be­tween Governor Obiano and former Governor Peter Obi, among other issues in the polity. Excerpts:

Your party, APGA, may have come out of leadership crisis but the recent resignation of the former governor, Mr. Peter Obi, as the chairman of the party’s BoT and the defection of some federal lawmakers elected on the platform of the party are issues, worrying your supporters. Don’t you think these may adversely affect the party during next year’s election?

Well, first of all, APGA is a spiritual move­ment; it is not just a political party the way other political parties are fashioned. People who are following APGA are doing so for what APGA is. That is why I call it a spiritual movement, not minding that some people come in and some people go out. It is natural. The electorate in this part of the country believes stoutly in APGA.

Though APGA is experiencing some problems, I don’t see such problems as in­surmountable. For me, as a party man, I will advise my party leadership to look inward. A situation where highly placed members of the party are leaving the party is not a good development. A situation where a former governor, more or less the founder of the party is also saying he needs a ratification of his BoT chairmanship is also a serious issue. I must admit that all is not well in APGA but they are not insurmountable problems. I want our party leadership to look inwards and find out the reason for the disgruntlement. I am happy with the sustained tour of local governments by the Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, which would give him firsthand experience and feelings of party supporters.

As for our chances in next year’s elec­tion, I believe they are bright because I hope that before the election, we will put our house in order. I sincerely call on our party leadership to look into the issues that make people leave our party and not to treat their leaving with a wave of the hand. It is not healthy for the party because we believe in one large, big family. The challenges may be there but we must conduct ourselves the way our great leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu directed us. If we don’t do that people will be asking: Is it because Ojukwu is no longer there that these things are happening?

It is not a good omen for the party. So, I call on the governor, the national chairman of the party and the entire leadership of the party to, for the sake of Ikemba and Ndi Igbo, not let this cock to stop crowing. If there are areas that need amendment, let us amend them. We should not adopt the pos­ture of it doesn’t matter. If four people have left out of five, you have to call them. They are not dead people. If you ask, they will tell you and then you will know whether they are right or wrong. Everything matters and a stitch in time saves nine.

There is this report that the incum­bent governor and his predecessor are not on talking terms. Don’t you think this will also affect party cohe­sion?

I don’t know about the insinuation that the former governor and the incumbent governor are not getting on well because I discussed with my principal, the former governor, and he told me he has no problems with the new governor. I am yet to see the new gover­nor but I believe that they don’t have any irreconcilable difference, if they do have at all. But as I said before, our party leadership should sit down and put their acts together because our lack of cohesion can definitely affect the way party develops.

There is also the insinuation that the immediate past governor is back­ing you for the senatorial race, while the party leadership is backing the former deputy governor, Dr. Okey Udeh. What are you envisaging dur­ing the primaries?

Nobody is backing me, except the masses that have said go, speak and get our things for us. The slogan of our Effective Represen­tation Group (ERG), is: ‘go, speak and get’ and that is what this ambition is all about. It is about speech, it is about delivery, under­standing your terrain; it is not about money. So, at the end of the day, you get something for your people. You have gone there to represent them. It then means that you go and present their case and get a solution. It is not how wealthy one is, and if there is any of them that is better than me; so be it. Right now I don’t want to address the insinuation of who is backing who. I am not a money bag but my determination is coming from people’s love for me. My moral encourage­ment and personal zeal are God given.

From my knowledge of Anambra politics, virtually all the money men come from your senatorial zone, that is, Anambra South Senatorial District. How are you going to compete with these men?

I agree with you that a couple of very suc­cessful Ndi Anambra come from my zone. But I want to re-iterate that politics is not all about money. Nigerians must begin to ap­preciate quality of representation; they must begin to appreciate effective representation. That is most important and I must tell you that people underrate the intelligence and po­litical behaviour of the electorate. Money has stopped winning election in Anambra State a long time ago without people realizing it. I have seen so many money bags backing people and yet they lost elections. What is important is; who is the candidate, what does he have to offer? People are beginning to appreciate that if they see a good candidate, they will follow him because they know that he will lead them well and for those of us with a reasonable track record, I don’t have any fear that when I am put side by side with any competitor, that I will excel. So, I considered all that but I appreciate more im­portantly that our people have gone beyond monetary consideration in determining who leads them. It has become something of the past in Anambra politics.

You said you want to go to the Sen­ate because you are not getting good representation. Essentially what are your programmes?

We have articulated opinions of what we are going there to do. It is all encapsulated in our slogan: ‘go, speak and get’. We are going there not to be a bench warmer. We are going there to make sure that all that the Federal Government is supposed to do here in our senatorial zone and Anambra State in gen­eral, we will get them to do it. We will get them to do it because I don’t believe in sup­port without commensurate compensation. We will support the government of President Goodluck Jonathan when we get there but President Jonathan will also do for us what he is supposed to do for us as a people.

And let me at this point advise our people, both APGA leadership and the entire Igbo people to please for the sake of Ikemba and posterity, put our acts together in our support for the federal government and our President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Our President has done well and is entitled to be sup­ported, but we as a people must get our acts together. The present charade and the way we are going about it is most embarrassing to an average literate and liberal mind. This is because the risk we are running is that the Igbos have not had their shot at the Presiden­cy. For me, if we want to support Jonathan as a political party, APGA is a political party with a leadership and there is nothing wrong with National Chairman, Chief Victor Umeh holding a meeting with the National Chair­man of PDP and working out modalities for this support so that we go there as a political party and be able to negotiate for our people. I believe in parties working together but it must be properly articulated. And before you give support, you must know what is in there for you. You don’t just give support for self­ish reasons or for dramatic reason or out of helplessness. Nobody is helpless in politics. So, I want to see a situation where the APGA leadership goes to discuss with PDP leader­ship on the modalities for this support and what we will get so that we and the people we represent will benefit maximally from this alliance with Jonathan.

Next year’s presidential and Nation­al Assembly elections will be held the same day. Don’t you think there will be some confusion among APGA supporters when it comes to who to vote for?

Yes, there will be confusion no doubt. But the funny thing is that the confusion can go either way. You might find people who will say, we are APGA and go ahead to vote for APGA president that is not there. I don’t want to believe the mistake will go one way.

Can you explore your background for which you feel that without money you can still win the election?

Well, I started politics way back in 1979 as a member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), where in my university days I was the students’ leader of NPN in the University of Nigeria Nsukka, and by virtue of that position I was an active member of the State Executive Council. We worked closely with Dr. Ibrahim Tahir during the ‘Operation Land Slide’ in 1983. We also worked with Alhaji Shetima Ali Mongono who was the Deputy National Chairman of the party in those days, and the pro-chancellor of my university at that time and other NPN stalwarts from Anambra State, the State Chairman Sir Joe Nwankwu, our gubernatorial candidate Chief C.C. Onoh, Chief Austin Ezenwa of blessed memory, among others.

I have been in politics for long. Even though I was a junior player, I gathered all the experience I needed at that time and we became used to wining and dinning with the president of the country at that age. Again within that period I became the founder of the Chubist Movement fashioned under the philosophy of late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, and the same time, in Ikemba Front under the solidarity of late Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Also in my university days, I became an active social and political student and I belong to a fraternity order of Ancient Beta Sigma and I rose to become the governor of that fraternity. You need subtle leadership qualities because it was the biggest fraternity on campus. Some of our members you will like to know included Okwy Nwodo, the former deputy governor of Enugu State, Okechukwu Itanyi and so on who are very successful in their own right.

I came into government and began as a political adviser to Anambra government under Governor Peter Obi. Subsequently, I was elevated to the status of Honourable Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism. And my track record there speaks for itself. And then again, that afforded me the opportunity of being the leader of my party in my local government and I did my best to attract a lot of things to my people. And that is why my ward in Nnewi South where I come from has said yes, if he is go­ing to the Senate he has our support because he has done it before and he will do it again. That is why a lot of groups have been calling on me to go and see if I can make my own contribution to the development in our area, especially Anambra South Senatorial zone which has been grossly under-represented despite all these years of representation. Our zone had had a lot of bench warmers in the National Assembly and that is why the people are saying no this time. You know that what it takes to have a bad government is for good people to sit down and do noth­ing. And we are saying it will no longer be so; we have got to move.