ONLY IF.... Ojukwu Would’ve Been The First To Join APC If… – Senator Okonkwo Senator Clement Annie Okonkwo is the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former member of the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly. In this interview with journalists, Okonkwo speaks on the forthcoming November 16 Anambra State governorship election and the emergence of APC among other issues. TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE reports. What is the fate of APC in the South-East, given the fact that the PDP seems to be in control in the zone? PDP is not in control. PDP is in disarray and of course, you can see that almost all the PDP governors in the South-East are already two term governors. So, there would be no relevance of power of incumbency. What that means is that it will give APC the opportunity to take over all other states in the South-East. APC is already in control of one state in the South-East, which is Imo State, and I believe that from the look of things, by November 16 when Anambra governorship election will hold, I can see APC taking over the state. And once APC takes over the state, the rest of the four states will fall in for APC. So, for me, I believe that this is the best opportunity for APC to take over the entire South-East states and bring the desired change, the desired development in infrastructure, the desired protection of our people in terms of security, in terms of creating jobs and in terms of free education which is the key manifesto of APC. I don’t think that anybody will try to ignore these factors that APC has. There are speculations that APC plans to zone the vice presidential slot to the South East. How acceptable do you think this offer is going to be to the Igbo, given the current cry of marginalisation by the people? First of all, the truth of the matter is that we in APC are not aiming for the number two position. We believe strongly that the APC will field an Igbo man from the Igbo extract to run as its presidential candidate and that means that we are making progress. People are thinking about number two position should change their minds and give Igbo the number one position. In other political parties, we are not even number four or number five. In fact we are nowhere. So, we cannot be saying that we have been playing second fiddle when we are not in the fourth or even fifth position as it stands today. Our people have been completely ignored. I believe that APC is here for the people of the South-East and APC has recognised that the South-East is a very important part of this country. If, for any reason, we miss the number one position, the number two is there for us. All of us should be happy with APC; at least we are getting nearer unlike in other political parties where there is no hope for the Igbo man. I want to recognise that the only place we have hope as an Igbo man is in APC. Apart from the fact that APC governorship candidate in Anambra, Senator Chris Ngige, appears to be drawing a crowd for the party in Anambra State, how acceptable is the APC in the South-East generally? I think that a lot of people still don’t understand what is happening. Today, I will use Anambra as an example; APC started membership registration and in two days, they recorded over 500,000 members. I have never seen this before in my political career where so many people are interested in a political party and registered such huge number within 48 hours. What that means is that the people of Anambra State have embraced APC. I believe that the entire South-East have embraced APC. Of course, Senator Chris Ngige is a known name in Anambra. He is a very strong member of APC and there is no doubt that during his tenure as a governor, he performed very well in terms of giving our people the basic infrastructure they needed, and as the APC’s candidate, I believe that the people of Anambra State will support him because they have seen him, they know what he (Ngige) has done and know for a fact that he can do more. As the Deputy National Chairman (South) of APC, how does your party intend to dislodge PDP and the ruling APGA in the forthcoming Anambra governorship election? From what everybody can see, the acceptance of APC is quite enormous. Nobody is happy with the PDP because PDP has already dislodged itself because it has ruled this country for about 14 years and has nothing to show for it. I believe that from what we can see in the country today, it is a total change from the way things are done and if you also look at the way APC governed states are working compared to the PDP governed states, there is a lot of difference. We can use Imo as an example; if you go to Imo State today, you can see the massive development and change in their infrastructure, road constructions, free education. Schools and hospitals are being built overnight. That is the sign that the party is a party that is going to take over. I believe that if these things are being duplicated in other South-East states, you can feel the difference and South-East will definitely be a place where people will no longer have the need for urban migration to places like Lagos and that will finally change the way things are being done, especially in the South-East. For APGA, after November 16 election, there will be nothing like APGA anymore. At the Abuja APC parley you stepped down for Ngige for the APC Anambra governorship ticket. Why did you do that? I am the National Deputy Chairman (South) of APC. I am in charge of the Southern Nigeria. What that means is that I have jurisdiction in about 18 states and of course, we are laying the foundation of APC. It was really difficult as a party man. It is all about service. I considered that my position in the national hierarchy of APC would serve our people better instead of coming to Anambra State, which is just one of the states I control. I therefore decided to support a candidate which I believe that if we can all give our support to, will change Anambra State for the better. That is why I decided to lead the campaign of Senator Chris Ngige to make sure that, at least, Anambra State will become the first state which I will deliver to APC before other states will follow. Your faction of the APGA melted into the APC, leaving the other faction still waxing strong. Are you worried about the capacity of the “Legacy APGA” in Anambra to give your new party the fight of its life? What is left in APGA is its carcass. You can see the way they disqualified Charles Soludo by giving reason that Abuja said that they don’t want him. Is this the kind of party that was left for us? Is this really the ideology of Ikemba Ojukwu? Today, if Ikemba were still alive, he would have been the first person to join APC. The leaders of the party have sold the spirit of the Igbo man and have decided to do a different thing, but I thank God for APC. I believe that after November 16, there will be nothing like APGA anymore. Source: National Mirror
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 20:51:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015