Umeh Speaks On Obi Joining PDP And Ngige Chances To Return To Senate In Explosive Interview

The story was that because of defection of former Governor Peter Obi to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , the National chairman of the All progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) , Chief Victor Umeh has approached Senator Chris Ngige of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to run for senate in APGA but Umeh had some other agenda as explained in this interview where he spoke on why he wants to replace Ngige at the Senate :

National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, who is gunning for a senatorial seat in Anambra State, in this interview with  newsmen at his country home on his ambition to represent his people in the senate , his days in the National Conference, the defection of former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the future of APGA. Excerpts 

Since you decided to run for the Senate, can we know how you are preparing for the race and the people’s reaction to it?

Since I accepted the call of my people to contest the senatorial election for Anambra Central Senatorial District, a lot of people have been excited by my decision or acceptance to run for that office. Unlike what people would trivialise as a political play that nobody asked me to come, I was under immense pressure from the people of my state, my party members, particularly, people from Anambra Central Senatorial zone, that I should contest this election on behalf of our party. Some of the reasons they gave me include, but are not limited to, the following: that APGA has not produced a Senator from Anambra State since its existence even though the party has been in charge of the State government for eight years and beyond, and now and we have never produced a Senator. My people considered it not good for the party. Secondly, they urged me to run because they felt I will present a good face for the party and the Igbo people at the National Assembly, going by what I have represented in my political life over the years. They became more desperate to urge me to run after I participated in the National Conference, where I was everywhere, championing the cause of Igbo people and fighting for a just Nigeria, in terms of pushing for something that will make Nigeria a more functional nation, a country that would be run on the basis of equity and fairness; a country where the citizens of the country, their interest in their country, would be renewed. That performance I put at the National Conference became the final straw that they used to insist that I must go there to offer them effective representation.The other reason is that they have not been happy with the way the Anambra Central Senatorial Zone was being represented at the Senate by Dr. Chris Ngige. They consider him to have become a shadow of himself. At the National Assembly, they expected a more vibrant representation from him, going by his antecedent but, suddenly, he was swallowed at the chamber of the Senate. So they expect that there is need to have somebody who cannot change colour, when the person gets to the National Assembly and they forced me to step in. So, I accepted to do that and since I accepted to run, it has been endorsement galore from all parts of the state, both youth organisations, children, womenfolk, community leaders and all categories of persons have been rejoicing that am there.

With the defection of the former governor, Mr. Peter Obi, and some members of the National Assembly from APGA, how strong is APGA platform to carry you through in your senatorial ambition?

APGA is a political party with a different character. APGA is the movement of a people. You know, it is not something that an individual can reduce its potentialities in any contest. For example, APGA had been registered before I dragged Obi into APGA to contest governorship election. I was the one who dragged him into the party. I used the word ‘dragged’ because by October 8, 2002, I was the one in in charge of his bid to run for the governorship election in Anambra State, which he started in 2001 – by October, 2002, Obi had not made up his mind on which party platform to run for governorship. As a matter of fact, his uncle, Chief Sylvanus Nwobu Alor, advised him to join the UNPP and told him that he would not win any election through APGA even though UNPP was registered the same time with APGA. So, when he was vacillating, I had to threaten him that if he failed to join APGA, that I would back-off supporting him for the governorship of Anambra State. It was at that stage that in a meeting, where Chief Paul Odenigbo was present and  Chief Callistus Ilozumba, the present Commissioner of Works, were present, I  told him if you don’t join APGA and declare, I would back-off. It was at that stage that he accepted, because he could not do without me, having led him on for about a year plus. At that time, he accepted that he would now run in APGA. By the time he declared at the Holy Trinity field that he was going to run for Governor through APGA, Nwobu Alor’s associates including Nwobu Alor himself all of them were in UNPP.  He  was in UNPP. So, I have to drag him because I knew it was only through APGA that he could win that election. I was also aware that as at July 2002, Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu had called on all Igbo people to join APGA. That was at Choice Hotel, Awka, on 30th July, 2002.

 Ojukwu was also on his way to APGA because at that time, he was the chairman, Board of Trustees of APP. So I knew that once Ojukwu joined APGA, that it would become a different type of political movement for our people and that was exactly what happened when he declared to run for presidency in APGA in December 2002. So, you can now see that it was that character that APGA has that was responsible for the followership the party enjoys in the South East most and in other places. So, APGA’s strength is something that cannot be credited to any individual other than the character that it gained because Chief Emeka Oumegwu Ojukwu told our people that this is their platform. And when APGA was being registered as a matter of fact our vision is that it was going to offer itself as a political platform for we the South East people that have been marginalised structurally in Nigeria. You know and our people embraced the party believing that through this party, they would gain their voice and with Ojukwu commanding the affairs of the party, he became the face of the party. Ojukwu having led the Igbos in a very difficult war of survival said this is the way and everybody followed the way.

Even in death the Igbos are still identifying with APGA as that vehicle, that platform that they will use to get to the promised land. So, that some people left the party cannot in any way be looked at as being a problem to the party because they did not give the party the character. Obi did not give APGA its character. Obi was never the face of APGA like some of his media aids are putting out in the internet and in the newspapers. The face of APGA has remained Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and the character of the party has remained its strength in Nigeria. If anything is to be said, I will say that APGA made Peter Obi what he is politically. He did not make APGA, but APGA made him. If he had left in October, 2002, to join UNPP, Nigerians would not have known anybody called Peter Obi. He would have gone back to his business after the election, because he would have lost woefully. It was that decision to come into APGA to run for governor of Anambra that made it possible for his visibility in Nigeria. And of course you know that his ascension to the governor of Anambra State was not gotten on a platter of gold. It came through a strenuous struggle of all sorts to establish him as the Governor of Anambra State in 2006, nearly three years after the election was conducted. It took my coordination, my coordination of the affairs of the party, and the legal challenge in court with the fatherly cover of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to put the matter on course. It was in our struggle in the court to retrieve the mandate which the people of Anambra State gave to APGA and Obi as our candidate then that led to the first crisis in the party. Our former chairman lost faith in the judicial struggle and attempted to trade-off that mandate to Ngige. And we came together, myself and Obi with the support of Ojukwu and my colleagues in the National Working Committee. We came together and agreed that there was need for a change in the leadership of the party in order to preserve the matter at the court.

That is how we shoved Chekwas Okorie aside. And at the meeting where we took the decision to go and do that in Abuja, Obi was present and participated in a prayer session, where we resolved to keep faith alive. I, of course as the propelling force to Obi’s bid, being a member of the National Working Committee of the party, I led the onslaught and the rest is history today. We got rid of Chekwas Okorie, continued the struggle in court where you know that I played pivotal role; where I was the first witness for Peter Obi. I was in the witness box for one month. So, we did all this and finally we won at the tribunal, continued to the Court of Appeal which we won and on the 16th of March, he was sworn in. It was a great struggle at that time and myself working very closely with Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and under his cover we were able to tackle all the challenges that came our way. At very critical moment, I will rush to Ojukwu and he would roar like a lion and the things he said would be splashed in all the national dailies and those who were threatening the recovery of that mandate, would run away. The Judiciary sat up to its responsibilities, knowing that Ojukwu was threatening fire and  brimstone if anything unconstitutional would happen  to that judicial process.

 So, that is how we shepherded Obi’s mandate. We got it for him and it wasn’t yet Uhuru. Six months after that he was impeached after he was sworn in. I had to go to work again with Chukuemeaka Odumegwu Ojukwu to see how he could be returned to office. He headed to the court because he was the one impeached and that time our leader of the blessed memory had become angry with some of the things  Obi  did in the first  six months in office. He was angry. It took Chief Victor Umeh to convince Ojukwu one more time to accept that Obi would be reinstated. He asked me to go and plan the strategy. I gave him the strategy. He accepted the strategy and we implemented it. That is how Obi got back to office on 7th of February, 2007. So, it is not something he can come out to tell anybody that he made himself governor and so on and so forth. And even at that, because we have no people in the State House of Assembly, there were several challenges. When we reinstated Obi few months after that, there was a governorship election where Andy Uba was declared winner by INEC. We had to go for tenure interpretation, which was actually a reason I gave Ojukwu for reinstating Obi, that if we reinstated Obi we would file an action for tenure interpretation. I read the provision of 182 of the Nigerian Constitution to Ojukwu that Obi’s tenure is actually for four years and not a year and four months because his tenure was eaten very deeply by Ngige when we were at the tribunal and the court. And when they put Andy Uba as the winner of the election, controversial election at that, it was that tenure interpretation case that saved APGA. It was my finding, that of that provision in the constitution that saved APGA, not Obi. Obi didn’t see it. I was interviewed by my present media assistant in August, 2006, where I told him that Obi’s tenure would end in 2010 and not in 2007 as was being speculated. He published that interview in the Sun Newspaper in August 2006 with a bold headline: “Obi’s tenure would end in 2006, says Umeh”. I was the one who found that out and when I asked Obi that he should go to court to interpret that constitution, he didn’t have the liver to try that until he was impeached. So he got wounded and when I showed Ojukwu that section of the constitution, he believed that. When they finally put Andy Uba in office, we had already commenced that tenure interpretation. We lost at the Federal High Court. We lost at the Court of Appeal. At Court of Appeal, it was a messy situation, very messy that judgment of Court of Appeal came few days to Andy Uba’s inauguration as the governor of Anambra State. It was me who ensured that the record of proceedings was allowed to be transmitted to the Supreme Court under 48 hours. The people at the Court of Appeal said it has never happened before. They did all kinds of things to frustrate that. But because the records were compiled over- night and ready to be transmitted to the Supreme Court I felt there was no reason why they should not transmit the record because we were desperate to get to the Supreme Court before 29th of May 2007. And you know that the judgment was delivered I think 22nd or 23rd of May 2007, just two days way to the inauguration. Because of the noise made at the Court of Appeal, I brought in correspondents from Enugu and insisted that the record must move, that they were trying to obstruct justice, since they had delivered judgment against us, they must allow us to go to a higher court to try our luck and seek justice. It was a very rowdy session that day and at the end of the day the presiding justice then, Justice Ogebe who later retired at Supreme Court, ordered that the record should leave and that record was ferried through difficult circumstances from Enugu to Lagos and from Lagos to Abuja, arriving Abuja in the night. By the next morning the records were at the Supreme Court where the Appeal were entered and we were given a date for Monday, 28 of May, 2007. On that day the Supreme Court said if they find this appeal meritorious, whether they swear in Andy Uba on 29th of May or not, he has to vacate office. On the 14th of June, we came to court and they found the appeal meritorious and agreed that Obi’s tenure would end in 2010 and ordered Andy Uba to vacate that office; that the seat was not vacant when the election was conducted and he left after 17 days in office. These were the struggles we made and at each stage, Ojukwu gave me the backing and we kept everybody on their toes.