AS VICTOR UMEH’S AMBITION DEPLETES NDI IGBO’S POLITICAL CHANCES ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES. I have severally restrained myself from writing this essay about the incessant crisis which have become the culture in APGA, as I prayed and wished that tomorrow shall herald a new dawn, however, the day’s darkness has refused to clear and its gloom has worsened, hence, my decision to do this now and clear my conscience. I can remember that I did write a private letter to Chief Maxi Okwu (IKENECHEOHA II) through his Facebook inbox and also copied his hardworking Senior Special Assistant on Media, Hon Victor Eneh. This private letter which I wrote to the respected Ikenaecheoha II just few weeks before the Anambra gubernatorial election would have also gotten to Chief Umeh, but I did not have any means to do that. I tarried, expecting both men as elders and leaders to introspect and advise themselves, but things continued to degenerate within the Party they claim to love. For the avoidance of doubt, I am not presently a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) neither am I officially registered with any political Party. But, as a true born Igbo son, I have a soft spot for APGA as our own Party. I also respect and admire the great leader of that Party, Ikemba Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu of blessed memory, and identify with most, but not all his political, leadership and revolutionary ideals. I will not mince words in letting those involved directly or indirectly in thess intractable crises ravaging the Party know that they have disappointed not just the teeming members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), but all Igbos from varied political divides. While I do not intend to take sides here, I will leave the major actors to their consciences and to the Courts of public opinion. I am aware that Chief Victor Umeh has continued to drag the Party from one court to the other over issues bothering on the method of his emergence as the national chairman of the Party to his deliberate efforts at perpetuating himself in office as the Party’s national chairman. It is for one of these reasons that the founding chairman of that Party and a good number of the Party’s pioneer members trooped out of the Party and founded the United Progressive Party (UPP), before that defection, the Party has always been factionalized, dimming its chances at laying any credible claim at electoral victory beyond Anambra State, and with PDP’s assistance, Imo State. It is for the other reason that Chief Peter Obi and Maxi Okwu teamed up in a failed bid to extract the Party from Chief Umeh’s tight fists. Peter Obi stepped back from that fight as a way of salvaging the Party’s electoral chances in the 2013 election. Being the good tactician that he is, Peter Obi understood the dangers that were inherent in entering into electoral contest with a divided or an unsure house; hence, he made some sacrifices for the sake of the Party. However, Chief Maxi Okwu remained in the creeks, and is still there, insisting that he is the authentic national chairman of the Party. We are expecting the Supreme Court’s decision on this matter in a short time from now. But, before or immediately after that, and no matter what the verdict of the Supreme Court turns out to be, it will be proper if Victor Umeh ensures that the Party’s national chairmanship position leaves his hands. This will go a long way in boosting people’s confidence in the Party. Victor Umeh’s continued stay in office as the National chairman of the Party has got people thinking or talking that the Party has become one man’s private property. One of the strongest points which those opposed to Chief Maxi Okwu’s emergence as the Party’s national chairman have continued to use against him is the fact that he was not a member of the Party before he was smuggled in as the Party’s national chairman out of Peter Obi’s understandable desperation to stabilize the Party for the impending gubernatorialelection. This is not a good one for the ebullient heir of Ikecheoha dynasty. While I do not have the slightest doubt over Chief Maxi Okwu’s burning passion to reposition this Party for greatness and more exploits, I also appreciate the position of those who are opposed to him because of his perceived or real disloyalty to the Party. Maxi Okwu should have returned or shown credible interest in returning to the Party, at least one year or even some months before his appointment or nomination as the national chairman of the Party. Coming directly from his position as the founder and presidential candidate of his Citizens Popular Party to take over the leadership of APGA sends a very bad signal to those who have invested their time and resources in APGA all those years. Chief Victor Umeh, has also put himself forward as one man with the ambition of ten men. I do not quarrel with anyone for being ambitious, but it is condemnable when one man’s ambition continues to be a stumbling block to the progress and prosperity of a people. Victor Umeh has shown himself as not being interested in the progress of the Party and the people who have taken the Party as their own. He has not considered it important at anytime to put the interest of the Party before his own. For him it has always seemed to be about himself and his political interest alone. He cares little about the fate of the Party and what the destruction of this Party will mean to the political bargaining power of the Igbo nation and the South east geo-political zone in particular. The All Progressives’ Grand Alliance has become the Igbo man’s identity and bargaining chip. While I do not delude myself by dreaming that an Igbo man can become Nigeria’s President under the APGA ticket, I do not have any doubt that APGA can serve a good purpose in the Igbo man’s negotiation for power at the center. I was expecting APGA leaders to concentrate on extending their electoral value, to at least capture most if not all the electoral positions in the South East. This would give them an impermeable negotiation advantage. Had APGA being able to take adequate control of the South East, Igbo leaders would have only needed t enter into a good alliance with either the PDP or any other national Party with the aim of producing a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction, most advisably in 2019. There is no gainsaying the reality that the overbearing desperation and despotism of one or two men have led to the destruction or reduction of the Igbo man’s negotiating power at the national level. A viable and strongly positioned APGA would have put us in a very advantageous position in the negotiation for national power come 2019, but the gradual depletion of the Party’s ranks which have culminated in the resignation of Governor Peter Obi as the Party’s BOT chairman and also the massive defection of some of APGA’s best assets has placed us, the Igbos in a very weak position, no thanks to Chief Victor Umeh and other leaders of the Party who have continued to trade out the Party’s values for personal gains. I will continue to put a big bunch of the blame on Chief Victor Umeh for his role in the destruction of APGA, because he has been that Party’s national chairman for the past twelve years. It is his fault that from 2003 when the Party’s pioneer national chairman, Cief Chekwas Okorie with the assistance of the Party’s leader, late Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu led the Party into winning the Anambra gubernatorial election, Victor has not been able to add any other State. Imo State was never going to be retained by the APGA, because it was not really APGA who won it for them, it was rather the individual and some strong forces from the PDP, who won it for APGA in 2011. It would have actually taken the determination of the Party’s leadership to ensure that the Party retained its victory in Imo, but the leaders of the Party seemed more interested in personal vendetta, ego and financial aggrandizement. It is still to Chekwas Okorie credit that Anambra is an APGA State, and to Victor Umeh’s discredit that the Party has refused to grow beyond Ananmbra State. It may be safe to assume that Victor Umeh was benefiting from the Party’s electoral misfortunes. Politics is a game for people who are interested in being in charge of the affairs of a society. Therefore, the more of such people you bring into relevance, the clearer the chances of your political Party or organization to win elections, because more people will feel involved in the Party’s struggle. But in a situation where it is one or few people who takes whatever comes to the Party, the others are bound to feel disenchanted. Victor Umeh and Sani Shinkafi showed unthinkable greed when they nominated themselves as the Party’s representative at the just concluded National Conference. This was further isolated many leaders of the Party like Tim Menakaya, Ochiagha Reagan Ufomba, and so many other leaders of the Party who have contributed immensely to the growth and sustenance of the Party. The decision of these people to be at the conference themselves paints a picture that there are no other people in that Party. In Imo State, the relative peace which the Party enjoyed since the defection of Governor Rochas Okorocha has been stolen away since the Appeal Court restored Chief Victor Umeh as the national chairman of the Party. His one single handed decision to dissolve the Party’s State Working Committee and replace them with people who are alleged to have been handpicked by one of the Party’s gubernatorial aspirant has understandably not gone down well with the Party’s members in the State. Just last week, some aggrieved LGA executives of the Party who were unilaterally sacked by the interim State chairman of the Party in the State, invaded the Party’s State Secretariat along Mbaise road in Owerri, and it took the concerted efforts of security agents to stop them from lynching Mr. Peter Ezeobi, who was appointed the Party’s interim chairman by Chief Victor Umeh, against the wish of majority of the Party members. There is no overemphasizing the sacrifices and contributions of Ochoudo Martin Agbaso to the sustenance of APGA in Imo State and the open show of support he has given to Chief Victor Umeh, during his travails in the courts. One wonders what could inform Chief Victor Umeh’s seeming haste in handing over the Party’s structure in the State to Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho who joined the Party less than one year ago. The idea of giving the Party’s ticket to the highest bidder has been the albatross of the Party since the crisis laden tenure of Victor Umeh as its national chairman and this has made it possible for some money bags to come from the backdoor and pick the Party’s ticket, only for them abandon the Party immediately after the elections, whether they won or not. There is little doubt that Governor Peter Obi has been frustrated out of the Party, already. While he has not declared his intention to defect, he has left no one in doubt that he will no longer be very involved in issues connected to the Party’s administration and development. Victor Umeh has been left alone to do whatever he wishes with the Party, and I do not expect him to do any better than finally trading the Party off to the highest bidder and for this he will be judged by posterity. The guardian Spirits of the Igbo nation will also turn up in judgement on this matter, because one man has ingloriously traded us away for personal gains.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 22:46:15 +0000