Umeh Bombs Ngige , says he failed as Senator, floors Bianca Ojukwu dismisses PDP But supports Jonathan

National Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and senatorial candidate for Anambra Central, Chief Victor Umeh, has dismissed the PDP candidate in Anambra as according to him , there is no candidate now while saying that Senator Chris Ngige failed Anambra central and the state at large as a Senator . Umeh however stated that President Goodluck Jonathan will be re-elected in next months presidential poll.

In an interview, Umeh x-rayed some happenings in his party and the political terrain generally, while expressing confidence that he will win the February senatorial election in Anambra.

www.odogwublog.com brings you the excerpts:

The extension of your tenure and that of other officers by some months was an issue during APGA’s recent convention, as Amb. Bianca Ojukwu kicked against it. What happened and why was the extension effected?

We had our special convention on December 17, 2014 at Awka. At the convention, the party took important decisions. One, APGA constitution, since it was registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2002 had not been reviewed.  Based on the need to bring the constitution to uncovered grounds, we set up a constitution review committee early last year. The committee consulted with party members and stakeholders across the country and came up with recommendations. The recommendations were brought before the national convention for approval.  We changed the motto of the party to: ‘Be Your brothers and sisters’ keeper.’ It was: ‘Be Your brothers’ keeper.’  To bring the motto to cover both sides of the gender, we had to effect the change.

We created the office of the National Leader of the party. We did so in 2006 at our convention in Enugu. But because of distractions, we have not been able to put it in a new constitution booklet. That was what we did now.  Looking at what the party had suffered in the past four years, where people had come to use the party and dump it, we resolved also to put in a rule that, for somebody to qualify to contest election through APGA, the person must be a member of the party for at least 18 months. There is however, a right of waiver to be granted by the National Working Committee of the party. This was unanimously approved. The reason being that some people, when they lose nomination in other parties, would run to us at the last minute. They were doing that because we did not have anything that would stop them in our constitution. Sometimes they would be given our ticket without undergoing strenuous checks. After using our platform to win election, they would run away again.

We needed to put a safeguard to protect the party from such entrants. We resolved that 18 months should be the minimum period one should stay in the party before we can sponsor the person in an election. The right of waiver, which we approved, is discretionary. Like I said, it will be granted by NWC, so that a diligent checks would be done before granting such waiver.

On the issue of tenure, we were able to, also, amend the constitution because using secret ballot to elect people whose positions are not contested in an election is clearly unnecessary. We amended the constitution to say that where an office in the party is not contested for in an election by more than one individual, we can use voice vote to elect such people at any for a, be it congress or national convention. Of course, we also had to put in place a transitional provision. In a situation where the party is not in a condition to conduct congress or convention, at a time the tenure of officers of the party would be lapsing, the national convention would have the power to extend the tenure of such officers for a maximum of 120 days, within which congresses and convention would take place to elect officers of the party. This provision was made to ensure a smooth transition. We have also come to find out that the tenure of officers of APGA will lapse at the time INEC is conducting general elections. For the good of the party, which was well received by members of the party and delegates to the convention, we agreed that, since the tenure would be expiring between January and February 10, at the peak of campaigns for the 2015 general elections, the tenure of the current officers of the party should be extended.

INEC has scheduled presidential/National Assembly elections for February 14, 2015 and governorship/state House of Assembly election for February 28. It was found to be very inconvenient for the party to be holding congresses and convention, trying to elect new officers for the party and at the sane time participating in general elections. It was for the good of the party that delegates and stakeholders unanimously agreed to the amendment. It was not self-serving. To shift handover date by two months cannot be said to be tenure extension or elongation, in the real sense of it. And when this thing is done, you would see that every four years APGA would be changing the leadership of the party outside the INEC calendar for general elections. It would be very convenient and peaceful.

Another decision taken at the convention was the ratification of the appointment of Governor Willie Obiano as the leader/Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party. We also, because of our previous resolutions not to field a presidential candidate but to rather support President Goodluck Jonathan, adopted him as our presidential candidate. We had done same in 2011. These were the highlights of the special convention of our party.

As to your question that the Ambassador to Spain and wife of our late leader, Bianca Ojukwu, opposed the amendment of extension of the tenure of officers of the party, I will say that she was a lone voice. She was the one person that objected to the extension. The beauty of democracy is that the will of the majority would always prevail, while the minority will have their say. In a national convention that was attended by virtually everybody and only one person stood against the decision of a national convention shows that it is not something that needs to be discussed. The party had done so and the national convention, by our constitution, is the highest decision-making organ of the party. Before the extension was made for the reason already adduced, the constitution had been amended, approved and adopted by the national convention, including her. She didn’t oppose the amendment of the constitution. It was voted and it was unanimous. All the amendments sailed through. It was only when the motion to extend the tenure of officers at all levels came up that she stood up to object to it. Somebody can have a dissenting voice. The person is entitled to that, but the majority would always have the day.

I do not agree with her comments that the extension was unconstitutional and illegal. If a national convention approves a constitution, any action taken, pursuant to the contents of that constitution, cannot be said to be unconstitutional anymore. It was purely for the good of the party and that is why everybody agreed to it.

The party had said months ago that its adoption of Jonathan as presidential candidate would be based on reaching an agreement on the role the party would play in the government, if he wins. Was such condition met before the adoption of the president by APGA?

Of course, there is no way somebody would come and publish an agreement or discussion he had with somebody prior to an action. Clearly, we are very emphatic on the reason for adopting Jonathan. We made an allusion to the report of the National Conference, which he pledged, on October 1, 2014, to implement. If he goes ahead to implement the report of the national conference, the people that APGA represents in Nigeria will have some relief. It is something that would make us support him as president. With that national conference report, we believe that it is something the country needs, if implemented fully, for sustainable unity of this country. The president has pledged that he will implement it.

When we talk about discussion, we are not talking about discussion that he would give anybody money or other things; we are talking about what should be done to take Nigeria out of woods. And this is one of the key things that he has accepted that he would do in a nationwide broadcast on October 1, 2014.  After the FEC meeting of last Wednesday, the government approved N20 billion for the reconstruction of dual-carriage way between Enugu and Onitsha expressway. This is one if the things that everybody is asking for. We expect that the way they have done it in other parts of the country, the South East that supports APGA wholeheartedly would be happy with such development.  We also believe that Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway will receive the same attention. These were part of the demands that we had made. For the good of the country, it is in order that somebody who is developing every part of the country should be supported.

As for appointments and allocation of slots in government, he did so in 2011, though not formally. He gave APGA some attention, albeit informally. This time, I know that with our support, if he goes ahead to win the election, there will be formal relationship between the party and his office in making this appointments.

What do you make of recent push in the court in Umuahia to stop you from leading APGA?

My support today as the chairman of the party is overwhelming. It has always been so. Those who have been filing suits in the court against me are people who are afraid of me. When you feel that you cannot manipulate me, the best thing to do is to fight my leadership and tell lies to the public. At the convention of December 17, 2014, how would you assess a situation where everything we brought to the convention succeeded? Only one dissenting voice was heard.  The actions against me in court have always failed. The reason is that those who have been going to court against me have always ignored the constitution of the party and the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Internal party matters are not justiceable. Forget about the things you see today, where High Court judges run and make all kinds of orders. There are established Supreme Court decisions that internal affairs of political parties are not matters that the court should dabble into. Courts do not answer political questions, as to who should be the leader of a party.

After the one you saw in Umuahia recently, you also saw in Abuja, a few weeks ago, where somebody came on the last day of sell of nomination forms of our party and purchased our forms. The person who was not a member of our party, went through the screening panel and he was not cleared to participate in the primaries. He dragged us to court and brought somebody to challenge my leadership of the party. All those cases were struck out. In Umuahia, Reagan Ufomba, who has been a dissident member of the party and who belongs to the Maxi Okwu faction, is the one sponsoring the suit because he wants to run for governor. He didn’t approach us in Abuja to buy our nomination forms to run for governor. We have no relationship with him for the past three years. Suddenly, he sponsored somebody from his village, Ntigha. He purportedly said that he came here to buy expression of interest form on November 10, 2014 when we closed sale of forms officially on November 4. I didn’t see him.  I never met the man. They went to court saying that, because I am the chairman I did not want to sell form to them and therefore, I should not be chairman again. They claimed that my tenure expired on December 1, 2014. It is the same issue of tenure that the Appeal Court has dealt with two times, one in Enugu and the other in Abuja. They misled the court into making an experte order against me. We appeared before the court immediately discharged the order, knowing that it was misled.

That people are riding against me is part of the deceit in our system. They try to make it look like actions instituted to save the party, but these actions are coming from disgruntled elements; people who have fears that they may not get what they are looking for. They are all misplaced. We have gone through our primaries and submitted names of our candidates to INEC. Everything has even going smoothly thus far.
In Abia, Dr. Alex Otti, who is a frontline contender for the office of governor of the state, emerged through our leadership. Ufomba is the one wasting his time and distracting people. He is now using Ejike Uche, who was my former deputy but now Maxi Okwu’s deputy, to file actions against me. They asked the court to declare that my tenure had expired and that Ejike Uche should take over. This is the greatest madness anybody can see. Ejike Uche was elected along my leadership the same day. So if my tenure has expired, what tenure is left for Ejike Uche? Our tenure should expire the same day. They make this noise and deceive the public. Why would the tenure of those elected along with Victor Umeh not expire at the same time? These people saying all this nonsense are people who are not only disgruntled but lack intelligence to tell the public what they are doing. I was elected the same day with Ejike Uche before he became a dissident. There is no action you can maintain in court through such disguise and hope to achieve anything. They have suits in the High Court and Federal High Court in Umuahia. The suits were aimed at truncating the preparation of APGA electoral processes for the 2015 general elections, but they failed. None of the courts gave them what they were looking for.

How convinced are you that you can win your senatorial election? Secondly, what do you make of Buhari’s candidacy?

For my opponents in the senatorial election, they are great citizens of Anambra State. Our people will make the decision by themselves. All of us have antecedents they know. They know who will represent them better at the National Assembly. I leave the decision of who will win the senatorial election for my people to make.

I am campaigning very well. Right now, at the Anambra central, I am the only one who is touching the grassroots in my campaign. I have received overwhelming support and endorsements of the people of the zone. Our government that is in power in Anambra is doing very well. I said it before that I accepted to go to Senate so as to provide the much needed synergy between the state government and the National Assembly members, who will be representing our state from 2015. We need to be members of the same party, so that we will collaborate more effectively in providing the much-needed services to our people. A situation where people come from different parties from the state to the National Assembly will not help our state. Our Governor, Willie Obiano, will seek renewal of his mandate in 2018. If we don’t put our people together on one platform, they might be discordant tunes. There will not be cohesion in the activities of government. That is why we are telling our people that they should vote for APGA candidates in the National Assembly and the party’s candidates in the state assembly. We need to work together. The purpose of governance is to deliver dividends of democracy and quality representation. From divided house, it will be lacking because there will be tussle and competition that will be unnecessary.

Now that the governor is properly focused and he is doing the work, we need senators from his party that will consult with him at intervals of one month or thereabouts. Anybody who is at home will go to the governor’s lodge and ask him how he is doing and how we help, when we get back to the National Assembly, in the areas of making laws etc? Such a thing does not happen now and it is the state that is suffering.

People who are contesting against me are people that I know. The outcome will tell. I know their strength and weaknesses. I know what they are not in a position to offer our people and I will tell them so. I will even challenge them to a debate. I want a public debate with them. If we go to a public debate the difference will be clear. They have been there before and people know what they have lost. I don’t know who is representing PDP because four people emerged. By the time INEC finishes the process, we will know whose name they will publish as candidate of PDP; then we will begin to deal with that.
For Dr. Chris Ngige, I don’t want to keep belabouring the issue that he has had his time and that this is the time for him to give way. He has been governor, though unlawfully for nearly three years. He did some good work, which we acknowledge. He has been in the Senate for four years. He failed us as a senator. There is no way he can be asking to go back there again. This is my own opinion and the opinion of our people.

Which side do you think the pendulum will swing, in the presidential election?
Of course, President Goodluck Jonathan will win. It will be a landslide victory. The president has performed very well. Nigerians cannot be deceived. APC is not what the country needs at this time. We need a president who is committed to the welfare of the people.