Anambra guber: Inability to organise peaceful primary may affect APC victory – Oji, party’s State scribe

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

The Secretary, All Progressives Congress (APC), Anambra State chapter, Mr Chidi Oji, has become a strong voice having proved his mettle in party administration and as House of Representatives candidate of the party.

He spoke ahead of the party’s primary for the Anambra State governorship election, assuring that APC will humiliate the incumbent governor, Charles Soludo after the November 8 poll.

Oji, equally noted that the death of a frontline aspirant for the position on the platform of the party, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, will not affect the party’s chances of emerging victorious at the poll.

How ready is your party, APC for the Anambra State governorship election?

I can tell you that APC is a beautiful bride in this coming Anambra State governorship election. But it will depend on our getting things right candidate-wise. Everybody has rejected the incumbent governor; and even those who made him are no longer with him because of insecurity in the state.

None of us can go home unless you have a truckload of policemen. I know you are very conversant with what is happening in the Southeast and how it is particularly in Anambra State. We cannot go home safely. We can’t sleep with two eyes closed, and that is supposed to be the responsibility of the government to handle such a situation so that the people can rest and sleep. Why did I tell you that APC is the beautiful bride? It is because APC is the party to beat in this election. People are tired of APGA rulership of over 20 years in Anambra State and they want a change and the only credible change, visible change we can see, is the APC. All I can assure you is that APC will humiliate the incumbent, Soludo after November 8. You will agree with me that there is no Labour Party, there is no PDP. You can barely hear those ones, or know where their leaderships are. I can tell you, it is only APC that is standing well to challenge APGA in Anambra State, and every other party, both PDP and LP, are behind APC to make a change in Anambra State.

The problem with APC Anambra State has always been the failure to get it right during primaries, what are the measures you are putting in place to ensure that the stakeholders agree to conduct acceptable primary?

I will be honest to admit that as a party, we are doing a lot to ensure the conduct of a free and fair primary. We are also trying to adopt an internal mechanism of resolving this by trying to agree on a consensus candidate. We also know that consensus is very difficult because we don’t have power to ask the aspirants spending their money, already dancing in the field, to sacrifice their ambitions. However, we will do our best to plead to their consciences and do our calculation of winning, because our interest is to field a candidate who can pilot us to success.

Winning is the utmost goal, which we are looking at, and when the party puts their permutation in place, we will dialogue and plead with them to drop. And if they don’t drop, then will address the party’s national leadership to decide who will take us to the Promised Land.

How peaceful is APC in Anambra State?

There used to be internal rumbling and wrangling previously, but it has been sorted out. The genesis of it was the APC Congresses conducted in October, 2021. APC dissolved their party structures a year before that Congress, but the Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Committee decided to carry along all the existing dissolved executive members as State Caretaker Committee, representing different wards, local government and State for that one year of Caretaker duration. After the one year tenure, he started his Congresses, did wards, local government, and states. But in Anambra, he pleaded that it should be shifted to January the next year because of the governorship election that year to avoid the post congress crisis consuming the party during the election. The request was obliged. And immediately after the governorship election of 2021, the national leadership organised congresses in Anambra State, resulting in the emergence of the current leadership. However, some people went to court claiming that the tenure has not elapsed. Yes the tenure has not finished, but the national leadership dissolved it and retained them as caretaker committee, which they served for one year.

That was the challenge we had. The crisis degenerated into litigation. They got a judgment at the High Court of Anambra State, and we went to the Appeal where it was pronounced that the High Court erred in its judgment and reversed it in our favour, as the newly elected executive.

The court ruled that these people, having been dissolved, should have gone to court when they were dissolved, but having accepted the caretaker committee, and having done it for one year, the mandate to which they existed for one year has elapsed

They did not challenge the ruling of the Appeal Court in our favour, nor did they go to the Supreme Court. And the matter ended there. So, there is no internal crisis in the party since all these things ended in 2022.

Is it true that the death of Ifeanyi Ubah has weakened APC, Anambra State chapter, ahead of the governorship election?

It is not true. Ifanyi Ubah joined the APC, and died within eight months of entry. So, how can his entry and exit affect the existence of a party that he just joined? It is not true and if it is true, I would not have boldly said that APC is the party to beat in this election. You can see the new entrants, other heavier personalities than him are joining the party. We have Obiora Okonkwo, the owner of United Nigeria Airways, Nicholas Ukachukwu, we have Sir Paul Chukwuma, among many others.

What are your deepest fears for APC ahead of the Anambra governorship election?

My deepest fear ahead of the election is our ability to get it right, as I said, candidate-wise. Electing candidate during primary has always been our problem in APC. The internal wrangling has always been the problem to whittle the success of the party in the main election. And that is why we are trying to be careful.

Don’t you think that people will accuse you of being overconfident in claiming that APC is the party to beat?

There is an Igbo adage which says that you don’t have any fear in dealing with a widow because you know where the husband is resting. Talking about PDP, I have no fear. I can tell you authoritatively that there is no PDP in Anambra State as at today. We can also claim that there is no PDP in Nigeria because of what is happening.

If the PDP will come back to life, definitely it cannot be during this election. I can clearly tell you that the likes of Obiora Okonkwo who left PDP, moved with more than half of the party members to the APC. I can beat my chest to tell you that Ukachukwu who moved away from APGA with the Edozie Njoku group has polarised the party.

Look at the cream of small, small boys working as Commissioners to the governor. They are new entrants who don’t even know their communities and villages. When I’m talking about APC as the beautiful bride, it is confidently. All we need to do, like I have told you. When I’m talking about APC as the beautiful bride, it is confidently. All we need to do, like I have told you, we need to manage these bigwigs through a successful conduct of primaries.

We need to manage these bigwigs because success, if not managed well, brings regress.

Do Anambra exco and the national leadership have any anointed candidates?

If we want to get it right, and be fair enough, if we dare opt into the direction of anointing a candidate, we will go into the problem of the past. The issue of the past is that in 2021 Senator Andy Ubah nearly clinched the governorship ticket, if not the mode of primaries that brought him and the fight that trailed it. APGA does not win Anambra, what it does is divide and rule. They will move money to APC, move money into PDP, instigate crisis there, collect some of their members, give them money, and move them to support them. APGA, as a party, has no locus to win elections on their own in Anambra State. It is only when our members get disenchanted with what we are doing that they turn against our party.

Why are you not considering Peter Obi and his LP factor in the Anambra election?

With what is happening in the LP, the party is dead. Peter Obi does not lead LP, he leads the Obidient Movement. He even announced that Obidients are not part of LP. He has pulled his Obidient group, waiting to negotiate where to land them. So, the remnants of what you see as LP today have no locus. They cannot even contest for a councillor seat, let alone going for a governorship election.

The two Senators they have are products of Obidient Movement. It was the movement of Peter Obi. He was a movement. His presidential election was a movement in Nigeria, let alone Anambra State, where he comes from. Once you are in LP, everybody will give Obi everything since he is going for president. Even though my mother voted against my party in the last presidential election, she told me she will vote for Peter since I was not on the ballot paper. That was the movement in the entire Igboland and Nigeria that Peter even won Tinubu in Lagos. If Peter can win in Lagos why won’t he win in Anambra?

Does it mean that APC members in the Southeast did not want an Igbo president? Why did you sabotage Obi in your voting?

No, no, no, it is a party business. I don’t believe in Peter Obi. I have worked with him when he was governor. I was part of his election and his emergence as governor of Anambra State, but I don’t like the kind of politics he is playing. He brought in religious politics in Anambra State, which I hate him for. He also made elections expensive in the State.

He moved money into the churches and used one church to suffocate the other church in a divide and rule format. If Peter contests for the governorship election in Anambra State today, he will not win.

He will not get one third of the total vote cast. People hate him that much. But if he is contesting for president, we can support, since no other person in the State is contesting against him, let him go there and do it with them.

As an APC member, are you happy with Tinubu in the face of  Nigerians suffering?

Yes, I know and totally agree with you that Nigerians are suffering. But for any good thing to come from a system, it must be overhauled, rebuilt and will require a gradual step. We saw what happened in the fuel regime. We saw how it went up, but it is coming down. Let me tell you, it will be like when MTN came in 2001.

We have to be patient with Tinubu because things are changing. He may not get it all right immediately, this country has been destroyed for over 50 something years. If you expect a man to rebuild it in two years, then you must be looking for somebody from the moon.

How does the APC Anambra State exco intend to manage the bigwigs aspiring to grab the party’s ticket?

That is what I will not tell you here, because we have an internal mechanism we have put in place to use, and it is going to be a shocker. It is not what I am going to tell you here, but before the primaries, who will emerge will be visible. We are going to invite all of them, bring together the whole stakeholders of Anambra State and table the matter before them. We will all deliberate on it, draw our conclusion and align on where we are going. If we appeal to you not to contest, or to leave it, and you refuse, we will not force you. You will leave you to go into the field, but you will see the tsunami from who is coming. Our interest is victory, and the person who will guarantee us the victory.