Soludo deceiving Tinubu with ‘progressive’ claim

● We’ll do whatever it takes to win 2027 polls

From Obinna Odogwu, Awka

Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State, Senator Emma Anosike has stated that his party has no working relationship with the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, and his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

In this interview with Sunday Sun, Anosike said that the governor’s frequent claims that ‘progressives are working together’ is simply deceptive, noting that Soludo is merely using that assertion to beguile President Bola Tinubu.

Anambra State governor, Prof Soludo, has always suggested that his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and yours, the APC, have a cordial working relationship. How true is that?

Some people will tell you that we are progressives working together. There is nothing like working together. If you are working together, you must work for Mr President. So we are going to send our first 11 to the National Assembly to work with Mr President. If you are working for Mr President you cannot come to the National Assembly with a different party. So, if you feel that you are working together, that progressives are working together, let those your progressives join APC, contest elections in APC and win. We will support them. You go to the local government arrangement; you can’t tell me that you are working with the APC. The government in power here has hijacked everything in the local government. How are we working together? We are not blocking any avenue. But as far as we are concerned, we are out for this election. We are going to do everything possible to win this election. And of course, to God be the glory, every other election apart from the local election is done by the Federal Government, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). So, the issue of manipulation cannot come in. We have to deal with what we see in the field. So, I am telling everybody that we are out to contest this election. Everything that it will take us to win this election, we are going to do it. APC is APC in Abuja. APC is APC in Anambra. APC is one. And there is no division in APC. Anybody that is creating an impression that APC is two, because you went and gave your own a baptismal name: progressives. You cannot just be an attaché to somebody. If you want to be part of the person, be part of that person. There is no point trying to deceive Ndi Anambra. You know we are going for a very tough election. How are you going to do it? The day you are having the presidential election is also the day you’re having the National Assembly election. You want to confuse us?

The APC in doesn’t seem to have a strong presence in the grassroots. What are you doing to improve on that and make it more viable?

We are very, very willing to make sure that the APC gets on ground in Anambra. If you have been following the activities of politics in Nigeria and the South East, particularly in Anambra, you will see that the APC for today has woken up seriously in Anambra. We have started. We have activities every other week; trying to sensitise our people. And for the first time, apart from one or two other states in Nigeria, we have created a situation where we identify ourselves. We all have our identity cards to tell everybody that this is no more the time you will be answering APC you will be hiding. We want to answer APC with pride. All our local government officers will also have their ID cards so that it is part and parcel of saying that we are strongly behind APC. And when you are strongly behind APC, you are strongly behind the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the performing Mr President. And as we speak today, there is nowhere you will go in the South East you won’t have the feel of Mr President. I also want to say that every member of our party that has made up his mind to contest in this election should please come out in full force to contest the election. We are very ready for this election. We are not looking back. We are not joking with it.

What are you doing to draw the President’s attention to your concerns?

It is the prerogative of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to make his appointments. And if you are a President of a country, you have something that is in your head while you make appointments. And when you look at that appointment you have only one that is an issue. Every other person in that appointment in the federation is a member of the APC. And of course, if you have a dog that you feel might be aggressive, you throw bones to it. And I believe that what the President has done was just to throw bones to some people; to send a signal that APC is open because that thing he did was to make people know that APC is open; anybody can come and join APC. APC is not a party that is greedy. Let me say that it is an open party. And to put it across to you very well, it is impossible for the people that are not APC in SEDC to do any operation without carrying people in APC along. It won’t work. Sylvester Okonkwo is APC. Okey Ezenwa is APC. Every other person there is APC. So, there is nothing to worry about. I believe that the President wanted to throw a kite on that note. You talked about the deputy governor taking pictures with our governors in Abuja. If you are a good footballer or a celebrity, people will always go to you to take pictures. That is what is happening to them. The deputy governor went to the governors’ forum meeting. Why didn’t he go to other governors; governors that are not APC to go and take pictures. It is because we are celebrities. If you want to sell your pictures you have to deal with celebrities. The governor went to Abuja and after seeing the National Chairman, he took pictures. Celebrity! He has been meeting other party chairmen. Why is he not taking pictures with them? He has to take pictures with somebody that can score goals. He wants to associate with those people. If you are also in his position, you will do the same. If you go to the airport and see celebrities, you see people carrying cameras. They want to take pictures with them. That is what is happening; to send signals that they are close to the system; not that they are close. This is because if you are close to the system, you don’t need to take pictures. You don’t. All they are doing is marketing that will boomerang.

How prepared are you for the tasks ahead? What are your plans to ensure that, this time, APC will record good results in Anambra?

You can see the way APC is today. By their movement you will know them. By what we are doing you will know them. By our activities you will know them. There is no ward now in Anambra that will say that they do not have a party office. Our flags are all flying. We are up to date. And we are going to show capacity to Mr President. We are ready. In the next few weeks, that music that most of us thought was not playing well will be super music now. So, we are ready to go. We have all the support from our National Working Committee (NWC). We have all the support from our National Executive Committee (NEC). We have all the support from Mr. President, Asiwaju Tinubu; the man to beat. We have all the support from the leader of the party in the South East; the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma. There are people when you enter a football field, when you see them in the football field, you go home and rest; you know that that march must be won. Our young governor in the South East, the governor of Ebonyi State, is also doing his own game very well; even the governor of Enugu State. Everybody is working to make sure they give Anambra adequate backing. And I want to tell you; in life, those children you call orphans are the people that do the greatest things. And so expect what is going to happen in Anambra.

As an opposition party in Anambra, how do you intend to keep the state government in check?

What we intend to do differently is what you are seeing now. If you go to your ward, your local government now, you will see flags flying; you will see people talking about what is happening in the APC. I came in from Enugu today. From Enugu to Awka took me only 30 minutes. What else do you want to see? Do you want to see spirits to accept that you are seeing a human being? You go to Lagos now, the roads are fantastic. What is the thing that the party in the state is using to campaign for Mr. President by calling themselves progressives? Is it not what we have done? Is it not what the APC has done that they are using? So, on the issue of the opposition party, what are we doing now? Are we not talking about them? But the difference between us and them is that when we criticise, our eyes are open. The last election, you saw where we got to; even when we knew that there was a lot of ‘the more you look the less you see.’ If not for that ‘the more you look the less you see’, you would have seen massive confusion. And we are coming. We are moving. This is a moving machine. We are coming. All of us are from this state. We know ourselves; we know our capacity; we know what is happening in the state. We are coming gradually. Whatever that we are going to use to tell the federal government that those people that are trying to create an impression that they are working with you, are not very open. How is it happening? How? Okay, let us think about it. If you are working for Tinubu, it means you are working for us, right? But you are not talking to us. So how are you working for us? You jump up there to go and take pictures, to send signals; to create the impression there that you are working for us. How? If you want to work with us, come to us, our doors are open. Come and sit down with us; let us plan on how to do it; so that on the Election Day, I will be in my polling unit; you will be in your own polling unit doing your marketing and I will be doing my own marketing. So what kind of working together is he talking about? We are all politicians. We understand all those things; those magic; those ‘the more you look the less you see’ people talk about. And unfortunately for them, our two major players are skilful. Mr. President is a Maradona in the game, and Hope Uzodimma is a Ronaldo. So they understand all these things you are talking about. They know how to score the goal. So, they understand it; that is why as we speak today, we have been given the mandate to come and work and show that the APC has capacity in Anambra.

The APC has concluded its e-registration exercise. What is its current numerical strength in Anambra?

There is nobody that tells a blind man whether there is meat in the soup or not, because by the time he puts his hand there he will identify that it is there. Our registration now has never been like this before. The operational aspect is terrible. The amount of people that have registered in Anambra, that is why I told you that when you see celebrities, people are going to them to take pictures. It is what is happening down that is making these people to go up, to go and take pictures. So, we are ready. When we get to that bridge we will cross it.