Chief Victor Umeh, the national chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA has come a long way from the political trenches having helped to reshape the political configuration of the Southeast. Even with the control of two Governors and two State Houses of Assembly, Umeh in this interview says two is not enough as he asserts his determination to fully stamp the imprint of the party on the Southeast.
Umeh equally speaks on the single term proposal for the President and Governors and the party’s performance during the recent general elections.
He spoke in Onitsha last weekend on the fringes of the thanksgiving by the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly, Senator Joy Emodi, a member of the party he avers is ably qualified in content and character for her new job.
Excerpts:
You are here for the thanksgiving of Senator Joy Emodi on her appointment as Special Adviser to the President. Do you consider this as a fall out of the government of national unity between your party and the PDP?

Well, I must tell you that the Federal Government of Nigeria never said that they were forming a government of national unity, but the president decided to extend some appointments to some political parties that supported his presidential ambition. That is how Joy Emodi, who is a member of our party, became appointed as Special Adviser and we are credited with that as one of the things that the president has done for us as a party for supporting him. And we feel obliged.

Strong member

She is one of us and a strong member of our party at that. So, if you see it from that prism that is it.

Do you see her as ably qualified to do this job?

Well, like I said before, Senator Emodi is somebody who richly deserves this position. When she was at the Senate twice, she was a very strong voice in the national assembly and she related well with the entire leadership of the National Assembly. So, in this appointment, she will excel because of her demeanour, her conduct as a person, someone who can make even an enemy be at peace with her. So the President requires these attributes of her to be able to engage the National Assembly.

So, this is an appointment she would have even gotten without the consideration you have even touched on; whether she is representing APGA in the government of national unity.

Despite the enthusiastic support you gave to the PDP presidential candidate, the party does not seem to have gotten much out of the federal government. Are you satisfied?

Well, there is no human being that can be satisfied with very little, but it is our lot; we didn’t give any conditions to the President for our support. We gave him unconditional support; we did not negotiate with him that if we supported him and he won, that we would get so, so, so and so.

So, we left whatever he would do for the party to his own discretion. So, what he is presently doing is purely an exercise in his own discretion and I don’t see why anyone would be complaining. Our party members are not happy, I must tell you but I don’t see how they would be complaining because if you negotiate before a battle, you don’t negotiate after the battle has been fought and won, it doesn’t matter what your contributions in the battle might be. If the person chooses to ignore you completely, there is nothing you can do.

Again despite the enthusiasm that shadowed your campaign in some parts of Eastern Nigeria, it didn’t seem to have reflected in the election results. What happened?

No, I will tell you that APGA did very well in the last election. I say this because if you look at the last election, take a look at where we were before that election you will agree with me that we have done very well. Before that election, we had only one state government and we had nobody at that state assembly, that is, in Anambra.

But after the elections, we won 16 seats in the House of Assembly in Anambra and took the majority at that, producing the house leadership, all the principal officers of the house of assembly in Anamba are members of APGA . We also won 5 seats in the House of Representatives out of 11, you know, despite the fact that we are still challenging some other declarations in court that will still increase the number at the end of the day.

Then in Imo state where we were not at all, we won the governorship, we won a senatorial seat, some House of Representatives seats and also we won about 11 members in the House of Assembly and through cross carpeting from some PDP members we took over the Imo state House of Assembly.

So, this is no mean feat, given the circumstances of Nigeria. For the fact that we were able to unseat an incumbent governor in Imo state, it is a very herculean task unseating an incumbent governor anywhere in Nigeria and comparatively speaking, you will see that ACN that is applauded for having swept the south west, only gained two states in the 2011 general elections, they won Ogun state and Oyo state; two states, and APGA won one state. So, if you compare it, you will see that it’s not a bad performance by the party. Action Congress had already taken Ekiti state, Osun state and Edo state through the court. So, comparatively speaking, we did well.

So are you saying that the results as declared were reflective of the voting trend? Are you saying you were beaten?

No, we had to contend with incumbent governments. Like I told you, it is not easy to unseat them. For the fact that we uprooted one incumbent government at a huge exertion of energy and resources, it goes to show you that it’s not an easy feat.  So, in subsequent elections, we will be able to do better than we did in 2011.

Is your target limited to the east?
Everywhere in the east and beyond the east, if we sustain credible elections in Nigeria in 2015, APGA will win everywhere in the southeast.

Serving governors

I’m telling you that, because the other three PDP governors will be serving out their second term, they won’t be as desperate as they were in 2011 and if INEC performs better than they did in 2011…the voters in the south east have always been for APGA.

What is the party’s view on the proposal for a single term for the president and governors?
Well, the president gave his reasons, one; to cut down the cost of the elections, incidental to second-term struggles. But with the greatest respect to Mr. President, single term of six years will do more damage to Nigeria than four-year term renewable once as it is presently in the constitution.

I say this because a single term of six years will alienate the person who has become governor or president from the electorate. The people will no longer have any recourse to the electorate, you know, because when you are serving the first term of four years, and you know that there will be payback time, you will go back to the electorate to renew your mandate in four years time, you will be forced to do some good work, to endear you to the electorate.

But if you take up office for a six-year term that is not renewable, you have nothing to do with the electorate again. They can decide to start from the blast of the whistle, abandon governance, nothing would happen to them, the next election is in six years time and they are not qualified to contest. So, the fact that the mandate will be renewed is a major safe guard in our democracy; it will put people on their toes to work.

And secondly, there is no difference between six and eight. If somebody will do well in four years to get another four years and you tell him to go for six years straight, then, there is nothing to work hard for again.

I was coming to ask you for your assessment of your governors.
The citizens will assess them, not us; they are only serving through our party. We have to allow the people they are governing to assess them and us, we can’t assess ourselves, most especially our governors.

All this speculations about Dim Ojukwu, what is the true situation?
He is sick because he is a human being. Human beings take ill, he is sick and is in the hospital and is being attended to and is recovering, though slowly, because of the nature of the sickness.