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By David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
One of the most vocal politicians in Igbo land, a nationalist and the founder of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie has revealed what transpired between him and the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the political arena as it concerns the APGA, the political coup d’etat against him in the party he founded, the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi’s angle and issues about the presidency.
He also gave his views about coup de’detats sweeping across some African countries in recent time.
What’s your view about recent cases of coup d’etat sweeping across some African countries in recent time?
The recent cases of coup d’etat have come up as a result of people trying to perpetuate themselves in office like heads of governments and even some of them try to hand over to their blood relations and children where they cannot continue in office. Again, this can happen as a result of those in office not using the resources of government for the welfare of the people which should be the primary objective of any government. However, nothing can justify a coup d’etat. Coup is never an alternative to the change of government and can never be an alternative to a democratic government. I agree with all those renowned international leaders including the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria who said that the worst democratic government is always better than the best military government. I have every reason to completely align myself to that position. So, nothing should justify a coup d’etat. But the rising cases of that is a clear indication of the failure of the political class especially those who have been given the mandate to manage the resources of the people and their welfare because that is what government is all about.
wThe first thing President Bola Tinubu did on inauguration was to remove fuel subsidy which has subjected the Nigerian masses to hard economic condition despite the palliatives the government has introduced. Did Tinubu get it right?
I believe he is very much on the track. Nigeria requires someone who has the boldness and courage to take difficult decisions. The decisions he has taken are not popular decisions. But they are the ones that will lead Nigeria out of the doldrums. The stoppage of the fuel subsidy was one thing all those who campaigned for the office of the president canvassed. None of them came out that time to say if they were elected, that there were things they would do before the removal of fuel subsidy. I remember the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi saying that subsidy would not survive a day longer necessary, after his inauguration. In other words, it would be removed. Tinubu made such commitment. The fact that subsidy was a scam, it was no longer something that needed any proof. It was staring us in the face. The fact remains that the management of our foreign currency, Forex , was the most corrupt, we have noticed in the history of this country. People just become millionaires by not doing anything simply, swapping currency from the official rate to the black market and will sit in one place and make millions only because they have access to the people in power maybe in the CBN. So, the attempt to try and harmonize these various markets that foreign exchange official and unofficial market, that’s the parallel market, was also another bold decision that may not be immediately popular. And now having done that, he starts to look for where the resources will come, where the foreign exchange will come to be able to fund the demand for foreign exchange and that is what is causing the inflation we are looking at now. But one would have said why not look for the supply side of the currency before taking the decision, but the decision to do this is something that would have been taken long ago. So, now we have seen enormous increase in government revenue. States are receiving far more allocations than they ever received. So, we must pay attention as to how the states have become suddenly so buoyant as a result of these decisions taken. And they are using what they are collecting to make life better for the people they are governing. So, the Federal Government is not the one governing the states and local governments. And having said that too, I must commend this government for its accommodating posture, with dialogue and rich understanding with Labour. At least they know Labour has no intention to bring down the government, but it’s doing what it’s statutorily expected to do, to defend not only workers, but the ordinary people. And the government instead of coming like others would have done, to accuse them of being used by enemies of the government, they decided that the answer is to sit down and dialogue. And Labour leaders showed maturity even though some anarchists would like the economy to be locked down. But Labour leaders showed maturity and patriotism by giving the government benefit of doubt. Thirty days, before we know it is all there. And certain things are really going to be in place before the 30 days. This type of understanding, this type of trade unionism that this government is encouraging is healthy for the development of this country. Yes, things are rough for everybody. Anybody who says things are not hard for him now must be looked at twice, to know what he really does for a living, otherwise, it’s so hard, but I’m confident that it won’t be long and everything will get to turn-around. Until this government announces its own budget in the light of its own objectives, budget it has prepared and this budget takes off, hopefully by January, according to the new setting of having our budget circle to begin from the month of the new year, then you can’t begin to hold it more accountable for not being able to do a few things. I want to be charitable enough to say they have not been long enough in office to be so harshly criticized like some people are doing. If I’m to proffer a time for very critical assessment, I would say I would give them one year in office. Yet we have a government that stayed for eight years, we had another one that stayed 16 years and people almost surrendered and gave up as if there was no answer. And a few days everybody thinks he has no answer to the problems of the country. I plead with my fellow Nigerians to allow this government one year to try to correct what they inherited. And they have not been busy blaming the past. They have been striking at solutions, finding solutions. That has impressed me. Don’t forget I’m in opposition. But my opposition is a credible opposition, credible in the sense that you have to criticize when there’s need for criticism, constructive criticism, when there’s reason for that. And constructive criticism also means you proffer an alternative solution not just to criticize when you couldn’t have done anything differently, if you find yourself in that position. Criticism can only be constructive if you are not in agreement with the government then you say this is how it would have been done, if you were in that position. Most of the criticisms we receive these days are basically from people who lost the election. I’m sure in a year’s time the issue of who wins or who loses would have been put behind us and we face the actual critical appraisal of government activities.
As the founder of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA), people would like to know the update about your struggle to recover the party. How far?
What has been happening to APGA is tragic. It’s so very painful especially to me that lost his own, the formation of this party. It was by 1996 that I realized, in fact, by 1995, I realized that no Igboman could become the presidential candidate of a major political party in Nigeria except the party zones that position to the Southeast. And no political party was ready to do that. And that was why the likes of Dr Alex Ekwueme, in spite of his eminent qualifications was not given a chance. Dr Chuba Okadigbo, Prince Arthur Nzeribe , Edwin Umezueoke, you can name them, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, who were eminently qualified, but there was no way the party they belonged to would have given them an iota of chance because the structure of Nigeria is such and the constitution deriving from that structure is that delegates will be drawn from all the local governments of the federation and Southeast has only 95 local government areas and if you bring delegates on equality of local governments, you are only bringing from 95 when the Northwest alone has 188 local governments. You can imagine the difference in the number of delegates coming for a convention to elect a presidential candidate and if you multiply it the Igbo man doesn’t have a chance. So, I began to conceptualize the formation of a national party based on Igbo initiative. I tried three times. In 1996, I tried and failed, in 1998 I tried and failed. In 2001, I tried and succeeded in 2002 registration. So, in seven years I made three attempts and we got APGA. And under two years, we immediately zoned the presidential ticket to the Southeast. I know the pressure I was brought under not to allow Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to become presidential candidate. He knew it himself even when he had come in. He saw it. And I resisted all of the offers, I resisted all the mouth-watering offers and also phased of those sponsored to come and defeat him at our convention. I did all of this single-handedly and raised his hand at the Old Parade Ground, Abuja on the 10th of January 2003 and that was the event that rehabilitated him politically and gave Igboman a place again to stand and contest like others. Only two years, after I had done that, less than two years , 2004, he became Presidential candidate in 2003. By 2004 December, they planned a political coup against me and all those who benefited from my blood and sweat from one particular section of Igbo land mobilized all their resources against me and it took me eight years and my associates to fight to re-save the soul of the party in various courts, until I surrendered voluntarily. I was never defeated. I took the certificate of the APGA and returned it to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and went ahead to form another party to give them a chance. And what did they do with the chance; they put APGA in one state for 20 years. That was why I started by saying that what is happening to APGA is tragic. Then when Chief Edozie Njoku and his group came to me and appealed to me to come back and help rebuild the party, to retrieve APGA from those who are holding it hostage and had kept on the fight even when I had left, I had no choice other than to oblige him. It was also not an easy decision to leave a ruling party and return to a party that was in crisis just to make further sacrifice for the Igbo people. But I did it. And that’s where I’m and I can tell you that by the grace of God, before this October (2023) will end, everything about APGA leadership will have come to an end and the rebuilding process will start. Chief Edozie Njoku will take his rightful place as the national chairman of the party. I as the founder, I’m satisfied with that legacy. There is no position again I’m looking for. I will be there as a father and guide them and by the grace of God I will be alive to see the party live its full potential.
When you returned the APGA certificate to INEC, did they continue to use the party without certificate?
I returned the certificate to the INEC with a letter. INEC officials were in cahoots with Peter Obi and Victor Umeh. Obi was providing the funds and INEC now invited Umeh to come and take the certificate, that I have returned it. He took press men to the INEC office and displayed the certificate, NTA carried it extensively. But many people comment as if I just ran away from APGA. But you have heard the true position. As at the time Peter Obi was going for the second tenure as governor, if I didn’t want him to go for the second tenure he wouldn’t have gone because the crisis was still on then and I was the effectively recognized Chairman of the APGA as at Peter Obi’s second term effort. It was an open thing. There was no way Umeh could have signed his (Peter Obi’s ) nomination form. It was the intervention of Prof Maurice Iwu and government of the day that all spoke to me and said please help Obi to go back, even though the government of the day was PDP government (under President Olusegun Obasanjo). The president surprisingly intervened because Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu had appealed to him to prevail on me to allow Obi to go for a second tenure. I said okay, but Obi had gone to obtain a court injunction that I should not sign anything and none of my agents should sign anything regarding APGA and the injunction was holding and time was running out. But when they pleaded, they said it could be handled, if I’m not prepared to make trouble. I said just to tell you I have no ill intention for APGA to die, let me get my secretary who was not included in the court injunction to sign along with Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu. Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu was not the chairman of the party, he was not qualified to sign, but I conceded that position for him to sign. The records are there with the INEC. That was how Obi went for the second tenure under APGA. Nobody is giving me any credit for that sacrifice which I made even when I was being battered and stabbed left, right and centre by the same people that benefited from my blood and sweat. But for the love of the people and for the love of the party, I did not rock the boat. Obi wouldn’t have gone for a second tenure, if not for me. Having gone for a second term, he was able to make the profile that is now propelling him to play at the centre. Who has given me a credit in all these. So, to Ndigbo I have just become a beast of burden carrying away all their burden and receiving nothing in appreciation. But I don’t mind. Everybody has a role to play. Perhaps God has created me to be the beast of their burden. After all who carried our burden, is it not our Lord Jesus Christ. I’m Just coming out from a church. So, if I carry the political cross of a small group of people under the universe, that’s my own portion. I’m happy I’m still alive to tell the story.
So, what you are saying in essence is that the body and soul of APGA will soon return to you, but there’s a thin layer holding it?
Yes, it’s a little thing because the Supreme Court has already given a judgment that Chief Edozie Njoku is the national chairman of the APGA. A trial court, a court of record, FCT High court has given an enforcement judgment, but the INEC has refused to obey. And that court gave order that the INEC should not participate in anything whatsover done by Victor Oye in the name of having a convention and ordered Victor Oye not to proceed to hold a convention because of the judgment given. But they went ahead and disobeyed the court. You know the country where we are. Institutions also disobey court order. The body and soul of the APGA will definitely come back to us very soon and the new national Chairman is Chief Edozie Njoku. Prof Maurice Iwu is qualified to be canonized a Saint compared to the present INEC chairman, Mahood.
What can you say about the forged certificate saga rocking the presidency?
It is uncalled for. One would say they have even done their worse. There is nothing more they can do since the university he attended has come out to release his transcripts. They say they are not into the business of certificate issuance. Not that they can’t do it, if you demand. In America everybody agrees to that. What’s important in America is the transcript. Certificate is a ceremonial thing. And it was proved that he passed through a feeder college from which he qualified for the university admission. And he graduated in flying colours. I don’t see how what they pursue now will benefit them.
