2015: APGA is ready to face all challenges –Emeka Ojukwu Jnr

The Sole Administrator of Nnewi North Local Government and son of the late Igbo leader, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Jnr, has said that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) would in the forthcoming general elections put to shame all those that thought the party was dead because of the defection of some its members, whose number and strength, he said, were insignificant.

He said that APGA would make waves in the 2015 in all categories of the general elections except the presidency as the party has adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate.
Ojukwu Jnr who was responding to a publication by the Media Assistant to former Governor Peter Obi, Mr Val Obienyem, that attacked the National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, described the chairman as the champion and symbol of the party.
He also spoke about his position as sole administrator and his achievements so far, the 2015 election, APGA and President Jonathan, among other issues. Excerpt:
How has it been overseeing this council area, your challenges and exploits in the office so far?
Anyone who has sat on this seat for this amount of time would know that Nnewi North is quite a challenging place and not an easy place to manage. But I think we’ve done quite well in the months that we’ve been here, in terms of administration and in political terms. We all know the circumstances that led to my arrival here. We had a challenge to energize and revitalize the party and we’ve made a significant stride in that area. There is a lot of energy now in Nnewi North as far as APGA is concerned. A lot of activities and lots of new blood coming into the system.
We are also weeding out those who are not really part of what we are doing. And there is more to come. Overall, I am satisfied with the progress we are making. In terms of administration I think we are doing quite well, based on the circumstances and we can only work based on the framework of the budget we are given to work with.
We’ve done reasonably well in terms of traffic flow, in terms of sanitation management. We have attracted certain amount of projects into Nnewi North, many of which people see every day; the street lights; we have covered every pothole in all the roads of the streets in Nnewi North. We are going to be grading as many roads as possible as we wait for the contracts for the roads to be awarded and constructed, but this grading make them passable. The last time the governor came, I mentioned three roads that he has already approved and an additional one has been approved since then, like the one they call Coscharis Road. We are building some of the road networks especially in quarters that have not been previously touched. There have been lots of changes and even in the local government headquarters there are lots of projects that we are putting up. I think we are doing alright so far.
Last time you were given an award by the disabled; you also paid a visit where you motivated the elderly people. So, why are you impacting positively on the down-trodden?
Certainly, the disabled are part of the society. It has always been my training not to discriminate. Also the governor has a similar view and like I always say, we try to emulate what he is doing there. Yes, we work very closely with the disabled, we give them care and equipment to help them move around. Yes, I visited the elderly people’s home and paid their rent for their new location and gave them some medical equipment and lots of encouragement. I was given an Award of recognition by JONAPED and I’m very proud of that award. I’ve also promised them to make one of their members a Senior Special Adviser and that would happen within this month. We are proud of our achievement in that area. That reminds me of something we talked about earlier. In terms of road decongestion, and trying to discourage decongestion, there is the tendency to see road decongestion as a punishment, especially where you remove street traders from the road.
The truth is that street trading is illegal. So, the government is within its right to clear people from the street. What we’ve done is to be a little bit more caring in our approach and we’ve asked them to just move behind the gutter so that they can stop operating on the streets and having a negative impact on the investment on the road, because you see people lighting fires to boil corn and make suya or whatever on the tarmac and this decrease the asphalt and breaks down the road and the roads are investments worth millions of naira. Not to talk of the dangers posed by the vendors and those that are potential customers who operate on the streets while the cars are moving. Not to mention the impact on the drivers themselves. So, there is just no excuse for anybody to be on the road. But our detractors will say that we are carrying away old lady’s foodstuff and punishing people; those are the words of people who are looking for others to destroy and looking for something to pin on the administration.
Your party APGA, at the time you came into office, the spirit was at its lowest ebb. What magic made things to turn around?
In the past, there was a feeling in Nnewi that APGA was a party for a small group of people who dictate to everybody else what should happen. And I wanted to introduce the idea that APGA belongs to everybody and that everybody could be a stakeholder, could have a say and I run an open door policy. Everyone is allowed to bring forth their own idea and we take the ones that make sense to us and leave the others either later or never to be used at all. Once you’ve started interacting with people, giving them their due respect, recognizing people’s efforts, those who have put in many years of sacrifice and rewarding them, people will start to feel a sense of belonging. I think that’s what really happened, I do not really call it magic.
Making them know that they have a say in the party, they belong to the party and that the party recognizes their efforts. Even if the recognition is just a ‘thank you,’ it could just be a phone call, an invitation to an event; it could be a gift, like phone, motorcycles, tricycles or whatever. We have also made some strides in coming up with ideas to restructure the party which we will start implementing soon. But I think the catalyst is as I said, everybody now feels a part of what is now going on, and it is no longer a preserve of the elite or the few. I think that has been what has really opened up the party in Nnewi North.
Recently the former governor, Mr Peter Obi left the party, and the fireworks have continued to reverberate. The other day, we read Valentine Obienyem’s interview where he lambasted Sir Victor Umeh, the national chairman of APGA. Do you think this is a positive sign for the party?
Honestly, my feeling about all these is that it is a distraction. If anybody left the party, then they left the party. Nobody forced them to join the party. And when they chose to leave, nobody forced them to leave. The statements that I have made and other people have made about that are self-explanatory and very clear. That there were certain promises made and those promises were broken. All these things have been addressed before.
We have a governor in the person of Chief Willie Obiano who is as far as I am concerned God-sent to Anambra State and he is making significant strides, everybody is very happy and the structure the former governor used to propel his political career is firmly intact and is in his hands and in the hands of Sir Victor Umeh. The bottom line is this: whether you like it or not, the governor of Anambra State is now Willie Obiano, whether you like it or not the national chairman of APGA is Sir Victor Umeh, end of story. You just have to swallow that bitter pill, if it is a bitter pill for you, swallow it and move on.
In that interview, Chief Umeh was labeled a selfish politician and a wolf, that as national chairman, he went to the national conference as delegate and now picking up a senatorial ticket from the party and other things. What can you say about these?
Is there anything wrong with the national chairman, once his tenure is over, wanting to vie for elective office? How many governors once their tenures are over either try to become a minister or senator and so forth. Why should his case be different? And if we want to, for want of a better word, look into each other’s behind, then we are going to raise a lot of dusts and people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Victor Umeh has served APGA very well. He has been a champion for the party and a symbol for the party after my late father. You must remember that Victor Umeh has been the backbone to even Peter Obi in terms of the successes that he had, especially in the court cases. And for anybody to suggest otherwise is a bit amusing to me. Sir Victor Umeh is somebody who my late father trusted. He demonstrated that when he was selected to become acting and then fully national chairman of APGA.
Ezeigbo is not somebody who would have done that if he didn’t believe in his capability to do so. And once he gave him the mandate, he also gave him the freedom to operate and not to interfere. So, if anybody is trying to suggest otherwise, they are trying to rewrite history. But the good thing about history is that history has witnesses and many of us who are here know the truth. Nobody is perfect and people have the right to have one complaint or the other, but trying to bring a man down and trying to erase his legacy or to undermine his achievements is something being done for personal interest. My father’s medical condition got bad before the public knew and some of these things started happening then. And it was an internal power struggle that led to this type of crisis in APGA where people were now trying to push Victor Umeh out. While my father was hale and hearty, he would never have stood for any such act. In fact, they tried it and failed because he stood against it. Let nobody come up now and try to re-write history.
2015 election is at hand, how prepared is your party?
APGA as a party is ready to face any challenge. Historically when election is approaching, there is always this tendency that APGA is not ready, like other parties are coming with their Tsunamis powers to sweep away the whole place but it doesn’t really play out that way. And the reason is because APGA is more than a party. APGA is a movement. It’s in the hearts and minds of Ndigbo. So, at the end of the day when you go to their conscience, you vote APGA. I think we are ready, I know we are going to succeed.
Apart from the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who we support whole-heartedly for the 2015 campaign and will continue to support, any other position we are going to fight for it. From Senate to Federal House, state House of Assembly and all the way down. That is our duty to our people and our constituency and we will not fail them in that regard. I repeat, the structure that has been in place for the last eight years, that has given us certain success that we’ve had is firmly in the hands of the governor and the national chairman and in vernacular we say: No shaking at all. We are ready for 2015 and we will make significant strides beyond what we’ve seen before. If you speak with Willie Obiano, you’ll see the picture of a man who is determined to strengthen and grow the party, APGA, the party that brought him to prominence. And he is somebody who will not betray.
Some have argued that APGA not fielding a presidential candidate might come back to hurt the party. Considering the fact that Jonathan’s election will come up on the same day with the National Assembly election. How do you sensitize the common-man to vote for Jonathan as president and APGA at other levels?
I’ve heard those arguments but I don’t think the Nigerian population is all that naïve. I think we have to give a lot more credit to the electorate that they are able to make the distinction. If you see the cock, that stands for APGA and you vote along party lines as far as that is concerned. It is only when you come to presidential election that you vote for the other thing. I don’t think it is so complicated. I don’t think it will confuse anybody. These again are people coming up with ideas to undermine what we are trying to do. There is nothing wrong for a party deciding that a candidate from another party is well suited for a particular job and decide to throw their weight behind such.
President Goodluck Jonathan has done marvelously well. Both at the personal and national levels, I know what he did when my father died. If any other man had been in Aso Rock, I don’t think my father would have gotten the honour that he was given. If you look at the selection in terms of people in his government, if you look at his government in terms of development in this part of the country, I know he has done so much for other parts of Nigeria, but I’m just concentrating here, I think we owe him quite a lot. He deserves our votes. And we are going to do our best to convince the population here in the South-East to vote for him again. Jonathan is good for Ndigbo and we are going to do our best to deliver him.
What is your message to Ndi-Nnewi and APGA family in general?
Ndi Nnewi and APGA, I will say to you that we have an opportunity now under the leadership of our present governor, Chief Willie Obiano to get back to the mainstream of things in Anambra State. For a while now; it looks like Nnewi North has been in opposition to the state government for whatever reasons. It does cost us, we may not know that. And I think this opportunity that has presented itself, with the governor that has the mindset that he has and having me as the sole administrator who is close to the government; I’ll make sure that Nnewi gets all the goodies that accrue to Nnewi North. It is an opportunity that we should not trifle with.
I ask you all to stand behind this administration, to stand behind me, encourage us. We run an open door policy. If there are things you feel should be done differently, come let us discuss it. Whatever it is, let us work together to get the best that we can out of this government. Even those of you that are not APGA, as long as you are from Nnewi and you have the good of Nnewi at heart, set aside those political differences. Support this administration so that we can get everything possible for Nnewi and bring the development that Nnewi needs to Nnewi.
Other things can come later. Nnewi first, before party, before any other consideration, if we can have that attitude, we will never ever cease to succeed. And this administration will bring breakthrough for Nnewi North. Many people are already coming on line with that kind of thinking and I think with time, more will join us and understand the benefits of that approach.
The Sun