Chief Ubakasi Ojukwu is the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). In this interview with OKEY MADUFORO, he talks about the strides the party is making through its only governor and why it lost Imo and Abia states, which were once in the fold of the party.
How do you access your new leadership after your National Convention?
There is no gain saying the fact APGA has done well so far though under this short period of time. Meanwhile APGA has been doing well since it joined the politics of this country. For the new leadership it has been interesting under the stewardship of our National Chairman Sylvester Ezeokenwa . Our party has won the governorship election of Anambra State producing governors’ back to back .in Anambra State. The party is also well known in the coun- try and also has presence in all the states of the federation.
Before APGA had governors in Imo, Abia and Anambra states but today it is only in Anambra State why?
It is not that it is difficult to produce governors in the five states of the South East. You see elections come and go and we are moving on and that doesn’t mean that we are losing momentum. APGA is not just a political party but a movement that has been sustained over the years and is still running. No matter the pockets of noise here and there APGA has remained in the minds of our people. I keep telling people that it is not a question of the South East alone but a National party. If you go to the North Central, we have a very strong position, if you go to the South South we have a strong presence, if you visit the North East, North West and South West you will discover that we are everywhere. As I speak we have our members at the National and State Assembly and when you look at it you can agree with me that APGA is the third largest political party in Nigeria and not the flash in the pan performance that happened in the last general election. We play National politics and not local politics as some people are thinking and we have our challenges and we have moved on.
But the Labour Party almost took the shine off APGA during the last election?
I don’t want to discuss another political party but if I must I will tell you that it was a flash in the pan and that is what it is. After that election where is the Labour Party? When we were talking about structure people thought that we were joking and since after the election where is Labour Party in the committee of political parties? Apparently what took place was that there was a vacuum of not having the youths factored into politics and the La- bor Party cashed in on that and told them what they wanted to hear. But today the youths have come to terms with the realities on the ground that it was a flash in the pan and they are returning knowing that there is no guarantee of a promising future in that platform. Despite all that happened our party has remained intact and is coasting and cruising with lots of more people, mostly the youths joining us in droves. That is the mark of a party that is on ground and a party that has remained focused and consistent.
Your National Chairman talked about reaching out to the likes of Chekwas Okorie and Peter Obi to return to the party?
That is the brand of leadership that we have in APGA. Our National Chairman is a young man that believes in inclusiveness and that is already working for the party. Our National Chairman is poised to- wards bringing back everyone to our fold and so far the process is yielding great results and in due time you would be put in the know about the progress made so far . You know in politics you agree to disagree and after you harmonize and move on and that is the beauty of politics. Already we have been winning back souls and big stakeholders have been trooping into the party and that is the vision of our National Chairman and it is commendable.
The APC appears to be the major threat to your party are you not worried?
To answer your question, let me ask you, are those people that joined APC there for what? Of course their intention is to send the people of Anambra State back to those days when our people were held by the jugglers. Those days of locusts when our people were in Egyptian captivity and I want to tell you that Anambra cannot return to Egypt and we have passed that stage. They want to stop our people from enjoying the good governance provided by our able governor Prof Charles Soludo and let the state nose dive into oblivion.
Where do I start? Is it the one youth two skills program that has empowered over 4,000 youths in the state; is it the employment of 5,000 teachers?
Take a visit across Anambra State and you see massive road construction going on including my local government area Anambra West or the rural electrification projects going on in the rural areas. That is what those people that left their former parties to join APC want to do but our people have become wiser and they are not strangers to the people of Anambra State. We know their common practice and that is if the APC would give them a ticket to run for the election and already their presence has erupted an internal crisis in the party and has already created factions in that party. These are the kind of people that want to be governor of Anambra State and be it known to you that we are not worried and we are not losing sleep over their plans because it is dead on arrival.
But the governor has a crisis on his hands with the latest problem with the Traditional Rulers?
Governor Charles Soludo has great respect for the traditional institution and there is no doubt about that. He has always seen the Traditional Rulers as fathers and elders who are custodians of our culture and traditions and he cannot be said to be having issues with the traditional rulers. Whatever may have happened has already been resolved and the governor himself is at the top of the moment and whatever that may have happened are now in the past and those who have gone to town with that erroneous impression are fifth columnists who are out to justify their benefactors.
But the letter by the Obi of Onitsha Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe speaks volume?
The Obi of Chinedu is a First Class Monarch with great respect globally and if you read that letter you would discover that he did not attack the governor nor did he accuse him of insulting the traditional rulers. That entirely, he said, borders on certain gray areas which have been taken care of though negligible. We salute the governor for his intervention into the issue and we are happy about the understanding that both the state government and the Tradi- tional institution have among themselves. It is expected that some people would want to over blow the issue but they have lost their investment and they should be leaking their wounds at the moment. We don’t want to be distracted by those people because they are apprehensive that the good works of the governor are speak- ing for him and they cannot have their way in the state.
