Umeh: APGA Adopted Jonathan’s Candidacy Due to His Policies Towards South-east
Chief Victor Umeh, the national chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, explains the party’s adoption of President Goodluck Jonathan, a non-APGA member, as its presidential candidate for next month’s election, and other issues in the party, in this i
How do you see the attempt being made through 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 on 17th of December, 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 justiciable. 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.
The one you saw in Umuahia recently, you also saw in Abuja few weeks ago, where somebody came on the last day of the sale 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.
Can you give some insight into the case?
In Umuahia , Regan Ofomba, who has been a dissident member of the party and who belongs to the Maxi Okwu faction is the one sponsoring the suit in Umuahia 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 10th of November when we closed sale of forms officially on 4th of November. 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 forms to them, therefore, I should not be chairman again. They claimed that my tenure expired in December. It is the same issue of tenure that the appeal court had dealt with two times – one in Enugu and the other in Abuja.
They misled the court into making an ex parte order against me. We appeared before the court immediately and it discharged the order knowing that it was misled. This thing you see people writing against me is part of the deceit in our system. They try to make it 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 smooth thus far. In Abia, Dr Alex Otti, who is a frontline contender for the office of governor of the state, emerged through our leadership. I don’t know through which leadership Ufomba is contesting his own governorship. He is now using Ejike Uche, who is my former deputy but now Maxi Okwu’s deputy, to go and file actions against me. They asked the court to declare that my tenure had expired and that Ejike Uche should take over. Ejike Uche was elected alongside 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?
What were some of the decisions taken at your last convention?
We had our special convention on the 14th of December in Awka. At the convention, the party took important decisions. One, APGA constitution, since
it was registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission in 2002 had not been reviewed. Based on the need to bring the constitution to uncovered grounds when it was made, we set up a constitution review committee early in the 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 “Your brothers and sisters’ keeper.” It used to be only “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 had 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.
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 forum – 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 lapse at the time INEC conducts general election. 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 that will be 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, governorship/state 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 same time participating in a general election. 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 continent and peaceful.
Another decision taken at the convention was the ratification of the appoint- ment of Governor Willie Obiano as the leader /chairman, Board of Trustees 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.
Your tenure and that of other officers were extended by some months at the convention, but Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu kicked against it. Were you upset by the opposition?
The Ambassador to Spain and wife of our late leader, Bianca Ojukwu, opposed the amendment for extension of the tenure of officers of the party; her move was reported in the press because it had to do with her. She was a lone voice; she was the only person that objected to the extension.
The beauty of democracy is that the will of the majority would always prevail. 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. But everybody in the hall agreed. 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 comment that the extension is 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.
Some time ago, APGA said its adoption of Jonathan would be based on certain agreements bordering on the role of the party in the government,
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 around, 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
if the president is re-elected. Was that issue resolved before the party’s recent adoption of the president as its presidential candidate?
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 that he will 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. The national conference report, we believe, is something the country needs, if implemented fully, for sustainable unity of this country. The president has pledged that he will implement it.
After the FEC meeting of penultimate Wednesday the government approved N20 billon for the reconstruction of dual carriage way between Enugu and Onitsha. This is one of 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 have made.
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 around, 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.
Should it be taken that APGA did not given election tickets to any of its National Assembly members because it was dissatisfied with their performance?
This is democracy for you. You go and renew your mandate both from your party and the larger society. I don’t think it is only in APGA that such thing happened. There were heavy casualties in the PDP in the National Assembly. Big senators did not make the PDP list. Democracy is about your constant relationship with the people who gave you mandate to go and represent them. If you do well they would be eager to give you a fresh mandate. If you fall short of their expectation you run into trouble when you go to seek renewal of their mandate both within the party and from the electorate. I think what happened in APGA was a reflection of the people’s views about those who have been in the National Assembly on their behalf. Most of them were asked so many questions as they were campaigning for support. You can’t climb to an office through a political party and you don’t remember the party unless when you want to seek a ticket to go back to where you are. There was a time I said that those of them that were sponsored to National Assembly never gave our party any financial support for the four years. It was the same thing down the line, I mean to their constituencies. That is why the people reacted negatively. It is going to be a clear roadmap to those who will win next year’s elections. They must know that they must be in constant touch with the people that they represent both within the party and their continents generally.