In this very hot opinion written by the wife of the former Biafran warlord Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Bianca Ojukwu took her time to narrate the challenges APGA faced during the last election and advised that doom awaits APGA if the current chairman is re elected back as national chairman. READ FULL OPINION;
APGA IS DANCING DAINTILY INTO THE TWILIGHT
The founding fathers of APGA set out to create a platform from which the aspirations of Ndigbo could be propelled and which could offer them a political pedestal upon which they could favourably compete on the national stage.
In 2006, after a long 3-year battle over the 2003 elections, APGA took over the Governor’s seat in Anambra State and holding the reins of government in this state till date. APGA also won the 2011 gubernatorial election in Imo State, and had representation across multiple states and ethnicities.
Sadly, today APGA is a shadow of its former self, a fact which laid itself bare during the 2019 General elections. APGA’s performance was nothing short of abysmal, with the party losing all senatorial elections in the South East.
The party had barely a year before recorded a landslide victory during the Anambra gubernatorial elections. APGA became a beautiful bride with most aspirants in the South East and beyond queuing up to vie for various political offices on the party’s platform. The party’s greatest challenge, however, proved itself in the management of the dreams and aspirations of its teaming new members. Those dreams quickly turned into nightmares in the event of the Party’s 2018 primary elections. Selfish interests, greed and other unmentionables grew like thorns and strangled the good wheat in the field.
The party leadership had assured all aspirants under the APGA banner of a credible and transparent process but ended up conducting what turned out to be mega auction sales for the party’s tickets which were invariably sold to the highest bidders. Mercenaries came to the helm and with the arrogance of people without conscience, proceeded to make merchandise of the collective dreams of so many, but most especially, their Igbo brethren who had run to the party for refuge, believing that here at last, was the place to aspire in an honest and fair manner. ‘Nke a bu nke anyi’ became the cover under which unsuspecting men and women were fooled into buying nomination forms, exorbitantly priced delegates forms and parting with various sums of cash under different guises.
The primaries were neither free nor fair with most aspirants being subject to a ‘wetin you carry’ process which saw many of them having to sell their lands, having to borrow money or even being sponsored by their communities but were nevertheless denied the chance of being voted for in a fair competition. There were cases where multiple certificates of return were issued to party candidates in the same constituencies. In several instances no primaries actually took place, and since so much money had been collected from so many aspirants, there was a dilemma as to who to deliver. APGA aspirants in Imo State were worst hit by this situation, which they were later to label a ‘ponzi scheme’. This resulted in a mass exodus of our party members and APGA in Imo State today lies in ruins. Sadly, we lost another golden opportunity of expanding our frontiers beyond Anambra State. The situation of the party is not much different in Enugu, Ebonyi and Abia States.
My own perspective regarding this state of affairs is simply that the script for the destruction of APGA was written by certain merchants within our party in cahoots with their hidden masters; and that in October 2018, the planned, orchestrated destruction of APGA was put in motion at its party primaries in a series of brazen betrayals that were designed to create so much chaos, disenfranchisement and dissent that the party would implode before the 2019 elections.
Even worse, the party chairman and his cronies exhibited nothing but scant disregard for the widescale dissatisfaction and outrage among party members and aspirants over the sham processes, callously flaunting wealth generated from their despoliation.
The grotesque images of APGA National Chairman Victor Oye and his cohorts relaxing in private Jets which had then become their new mode of transportation as well as their acquisition of state-of-the-art bullet proof jeeps amongst other things was a further affront to the sensibilities of the afflicted. These political vultures fed on the collective pain of their kith and kin and flaunted their spoils at the funeral of those they had plundered and killed. As the hapless aspirants lamented their betrayal, the APGA election merchants rolled out a media juggernaut that sought to obliterate any opposition with virulent attacks, lies and inane excuses. Nothing was held sacred and nobody was above abuse.
The same National Party Chairman later boastfully claimed that APGA generated over a billion naira from the scandalous primaries. It is against this backdrop that aggrieved members of the party across state lines demanded redress – REFUND FOR THE SHAM PRIMARIES AND THE RESIGNATION OF VICTOR OYE for having superintended over a process which was characterized by such widescale extortion, rank impunity, and for turning APGA into a synonym for ‘Ndi wayo’.
The embattled National Chairman, rather than heed the calls for his resignation, albeit dishonourably, has continued to trample upon the sensibilities of the disgruntled aspirants and embittered party faithful.
The situation on ground now is a case of APGA versus APGA; our party is hemorrhaging, our members leaving in droves while many who remain are watching silently in bewilderment as events unfold.
This state of affairs has been made even worse by the highhanded and autocratic attitude of the embattled party chairman who has embarked on a suspension spree of party members without due process and without recourse to the provisions of the party constitution. Their only crime would appear to be their temerity to criticize his system of party administration. Party stakeholders (my humble self included) who commit the cardinal sin of proffering useful contributions to help in ameliorating the monumental damage that has been wrought on the party are continually harassed with threats and vilification.
As we head towards the APGA National Convention, it is the overwhelming desire of our party members to bring some closure to the painful memories of the 2018 party primaries and to rekindle the hopes of a brighter future for the party. An APGA with Oye at its helm and which does not address the grievances of the party’s aggrieved and enraged members as well as its major stakeholders will not be anything to reckon with come 2021 when the next gubernatorial elections take place in Anambra State. This is why I make this impassioned plea to the National Leader of our party, His Excellency Chief Willie Obiano, to intervene before the situation gets much worse. Your Excellency, I call on you to rise up to the test of justice, integrity, and exemplary leadership in the interest of the survival of APGA. Our party currency has been devalued, and the party itself ridiculed before the entire nation. We are now branded a ‘cash and carry’ party wherein unless any aspirant on our party platform, regardless of his or her qualification to serve is prepared to borrow, beg, cheat or bribe, he or she has little hope of clinching the party ticket.
I enjoin you, as leader of our party, not to align yourself with the orchestrated moves by Chief Victor Oye to perpetuate himself in office. It is imperative that I bring it to your attention once more, that the largely discredited APGA primary elections completely shattered the comforting perceptions of the combination of stability, fraternity and decency that have always rallied our people behind APGA as ‘nke anyi’. It is time to heal the injuries of the walking wounded, and in order to do so, you will need to align your perspectives and ultimately your decisions with the greater aspirations and expectations of majority of APGA faithful, many of whom have laboured hard and made great sacrifices for the growth and advancement of our beloved party.
Your Excellency, most political pundits are of the opinion that the process at the forth coming APGA national convention is one that has been orchestrated ostensibly to reinstate Chief Victor Oye, a party national chairman who lost his polling unit, his ward and his local government to another party during the February 2019 general elections. I warn that we continue to stagger blindly towards a self-inflicted deadline whilst clutching at each other’s throats. There is an urgent need for you to demonstrate that you do not support and neither do you condone those gross violations and impunity that took place during the last APGA primaries under the chairmanship of Chief Victor Oye. Propriety and posterity demand that you withdraw your support for Oye’s second term bid. Failure to do so would be tantamount to poisoning our political landscape yet again and opening the flood gates of litigation and unending crisis within the party.
Finally, and most importantly, Your Excellency, I implore you not to allow this legacy of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu which he spent his last years on earth nurturing, to crumble in your hands. Kindly do not avail history of the opportunity to record you as overseer in Chief of the last APGA administration in Anambra State. The time to act is now, because APGA is dancing daintily into the twilight.
Amb. Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu
Writes from Nnewi, Anambra State
