APGA’s disgraceful race to extinction

12th November 2018

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APGA has always stood on the pedestal of Igbo nationalism. The mantra is, “Nkea bu nke anyi”, meaning this one is our own.

Casmir Igbokwe

Prince Ifeanyi Ezeabasili’s confidence was infectious. His ambition was to represent Oshodi-Isolo Federal Constituency II, Lagos, in the House of Representatives. He went on road shows and did some other things to mobilise his constituents to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). To him, no party would beat the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in that constituency in the 2019 election. His calculation was based on the fact that the area is populated mainly by the Igbo.

READ ALSO: Bianca, APGA and Ndigbo

However, the primaries in Lagos developed some hiccups. Ezeabasili believed he won and the state party chairman reportedly agreed with him. But when it got to Abuja, the story changed. The national body gave the party ticket to another fellow. Since then, Ezeabasili has been counting his losses and naming them one by one. And it has surprised him what the party has done.

Miraculously, Dr. Okey Okoye escaped a similar experience. He had won the APGA primaries for Aguata 2 state constituency in Anambra State and had got certificate of return to that effect. But surprisingly, another candidate emerged with same certificate of return some days after. Dr. Okoye battled his nemesis and eventually got back his mandate.

The experience of Bianca Ojukwu, the widow of the revered Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, was particularly interesting. Bianca wanted to represent Anambra South in the Senate. Ifeanyi Uba and Nicholas Ukachukwu also had the same ambition. And so, they came for primaries at Ekwulobia in Aguata Local Government Area. Firstly, the party disqualified Uba who joined not long ago from the PDP for not obtaining a waiver to contest the election.

Secondly, gunmen invaded the Ekwulobia Township Stadium, venue of the primaries. People ran helter-skelter as sounds of gunshots boomed. Bianca also ran. Hardly had she got back to Awka when the news filtered in that Ukachukwu had won the primaries. Ojukwu’s widow thundered, “As a member of this party’s Board of Trustees, I am deeply concerned that mercenaries appear to have hijacked the operations of our party machinery. APGA is today facing an existential threat and the overall image of our party is in tatters.”

Sorry madam! You may take solace in the fact that in Imo State, about 15 aspirants emerged with one tall ambition: to oust Governor Rochas Okorocha and his in-laws from government house, Owerri. But from nowhere, the party granted waiver to Ifeanyi Araraume who just joined the party and he miraculously became its standard-bearer for the 2019 governorship election in Imo. I’m not too sure why the party granted this waiver to Araraume but denied same to Ifeanyi Uba.

Nevertheless, APGA has always stood on the pedestal of Igbo nationalism. The mantra is, “Nkea bu nke anyi”, meaning this one is our own. The great performance of the party in the last governorship election in Anambra State is a testament.

Unfortunately, the party has greatly derailed. And greed is part of the problem. According to a former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, the travesty in APGA shows that what the party leadership was doing all along “was a ponzi scheme, a scam of the highest order, to defraud fellow Igbo men and women of their hard earned money…APGA which had less than N5 million in its account before primaries, now hires private jet for the use of the National Chairman.”

Ohakim accused the leadership of APGA of demanding and collecting various sums of money from members, delegates and aspirants which ran into billions of naira. This is in addition to the abhorrent “abuse of many female aspirants in our own hotels and yet denied the tickets.”

He said betrayal had always been part and parcel of APGA, and described both Governors Willie Obiano of Anambra State and Rochas Okorocha who rode to power on the back of APGA as agents of monumental betrayal of Ndigbo. As he put it, APGA has failed and must die.

But did Obiano actually betray or intend to betray APGA as alleged? Two months ago, about eight governors accompanied President Buhari to China. All, except Obiano, are members of the APC. Last Friday, he again accompanied Buhari together with two other APC governors – Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and Aminu Masari of Katsina – to Paris, France, for a peace forum. Could this just be a mere coincidence? Or is it that the President has found in Obiano a son in whom he is well pleased? Only the Anambra Governor, who is the national leader of APGA, can answer this.

In any case, the shenanigan in APGA is not peculiar to it. Other parties, especially the two dominant ones, have their fair share of the perfidy called party politics in Nigeria.

For instance, the ruling party, APC, is still reeling from the recent primaries held across the country. In Ogun, Imo, Zamfara and many other states, it is crisis galore. Currently, Governors Okorocha and Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State are at loggerheads with the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole. They want him removed.

As for APGA, the die is cast. I hear a certain Major General John Gbor (retd) is the presidential candidate of the party. APGA National Chairman, Victor Oye, had boasted that the party would produce eight governors in the 2019 elections and that the party would soon take over from the APC and the PDP.

“APGA is well repositioned to spring surprises in the future elections,” Oye spewed.

I laugh. Of course, part of the surprises is what we are seeing with the party now. So far, the best Oye has done to pacify his aggrieved members is to offer a tepid apology. But mere apology will not suffice here. The anger is deep. The national chairman in consultation with the national leader of the party should compensate people who spent so much for the party’s abracadabra called primaries. Otherwise, nkea aburozikwa nke anyi o (this one is no more our own o!)

CULLED FROM DAILY SUN OF MONDAY,NOVEMBER 12TH,2018