The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) founder and pioneer National Chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, discusses the impending Anambra State governorship race, Governor Charles Soludo’s chances, and other national concerns in this interview with CHIBUIKE CHUKWU. A few excerpts
APGA, APC, and Labour Party are the three contenders in the November Anambra State gubernatorial election, you previously stated. Does this imply that you don’t count with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was once the state’s and the country’s ruling party?
I have no idea who the PDP’s candidate is in the same November gubernatorial race as I speak to you. I am also unsure of the number of individuals who are familiar with the PDP candidate running in the race. Therefore, the focus is on the present reality rather than the celebration. We are discussing today, but the PDP ruled Nigeria for 16 years. To the best of my knowledge, the PDP is still in existence in Anambra State today. I have several friends who are well-known members of the party, but none of them appear to care about the events there; some of them are even unaware of it. They don’t know who is financing whom because of the PDP conflict. Therefore, even the PDP mainstays in Anambra that I am aware of are not participating in the campaign since they are unsure of their target audience. Therefore, I have a valid reason and am not acting maliciously if I exclude the PDP from my counting before the election. And if you ask anyone in Anambra, they would tell you that they are likewise unaware of the PDP’s involvement in the campaign for that office.
Although you are not a member of the PDP, what do you think is wrong with the once-dominant PDP, considering your extensive background in party management and the Nigerian political system?
They ought to have built on the 16 years that they dominated the nation. Basically, as someone who has run a political party for a long time, I can tell you that the PDP’s issues are a lack of discipline and party control, which again verges on a lack of internal democracy. PDP disregarded the fact that a party is revered when it has complete control. The party is paramount in a system of political parties. Therefore, regardless of your perceived position or the amount of money you believe will allow you to get away with certain behaviors, the party’s goal is to place each member in their proper place. You are free to depart if you do not choose to be a member of that same party. It is entirely voluntary to join and leave a political party. But this party (PDP) sat down and catered more to the wealth of their members who were misbehaving. Furthermore, there have been (and continue to be) blatant instances of anti-party activity, which even as party chairman at the time would never have been accepted for a day. They proceeded to turn the other face, nevertheless. The PDP was there when the former Rivers State governor assembled a group of five governors, whom he dubbed the G5. Additionally, it was evident that they rejected the party’s bid for the president in the 2023 election. The former governor of Rivers State had the most notable effort, yet they all worked against their party. Nothing occurred, and he never made a show of his anti-party activities. Thus, in the PDP, indiscipline became the norm after that. When that occurs, a party starts to fall freely. Additionally, the PDP has been in free collapse. The PDP as a whole is now going to beg people to come around; they are everywhere, sending prominent figures like Professor Jerry Gana, appearing on television, and pleading with Peter Obi to come and accept their presidential ticket. Who would have guessed that this would happen? Formerly a popular choice for president, the PDP is now pleading with Peter Obi. The governor of Bauchi State is one of the people pleading with Peter Obi to come and accept their ticket. They are telling him that he will undoubtedly become president if he accepts the ticket and that no one will be able to defeat him. He is obviously being used to support the party’s image. Thus, the PDP has declined to this degree. Everything is taking place in the open. Everyone is aware of it, including themselves, but regrettably, they haven’t begun to solve it. While some of them think they are making progress, their issue will not be resolved as long as they are unable to enforce their will and hold those stubborn party members accountable, which is necessary in a party with any semblance of discipline and control. And 2027 is coming up soon. It’s unfortunate that some who don’t want the party to continue can still be found there, covertly engaging in anti-party activities.
The All Progressives Congress has been wooed by Governor Charles Soludo, particularly for the presidency. Some have said that it stems from a desperate attempt to win reelection. Since Anambra is the only APGA state, what do you think about this?
Anambra State could be lost by APGA because to Soludo. This is due to Soludo’s chance to reconcile with APGA. The party was already in crisis when he joined APGA, so I went to him directly. You’re entering at a very fortunate moment, I told him. You did not initiate the argument in APGA, nor are you a party to it. There isn’t a faction that you belong to specifically. You have thereby assumed the role of the party’s de facto head as the sole governor. Additionally, you may utilize your position to your advantage in order to invite these divisive figures to the roundtable for a discussion. I informed him that the house split against itself could not stand, so if you want me, the party’s founder and previous chairman, to also contribute to that reconciliation, I would be available. We had a really good and fruitful talk, in my opinion. That’s what he said before I left him. We went over all of these for three hours in his Enugu home. In the final paragraph of my book, I essentially praised Soludo and the prospects for APGA’s future expansion. That chapter’s caption, “A New Vista Beckons,” essentially praised Soludo for his qualities, his background, his profile when he took office, and the anticipation that he would not only succeed as governor but also bring about peace in APGA. He spent an unimaginably large sum of money on this, however, and rejected all of those things in favor of setting up camp with one of the groups. After everything, what has he done with the party’s soul that he cornered? “It was intended that you seek a second term,” I informed him. As an incumbent governor, you have the right of first refusal, so you can run for a second term without having to spend this type of money. No one will take it away from you. No rational member of the APGA will oppose the only governor, which would serve as a springboard for more election triumphs. All of that, however, did not appeal to him. By the time he finally gained control of the party, nothing had changed, and the chairman he had elevated to the position of chairman had reverted to his official role as PA to him. He’s also stopped talking and bouncing around television houses. As a result, they have all returned to their cocoon in Awka, and the party has not advanced or improved. Instead, the party is split up into a number of dissident factions in Anambra. What would you like to do when your home looks like that? During his visit to Anambra, the president announced that the party had endorsed him out of the same desperation. In fact, he was the first to endorse President Tinubu for a second time, even before the APC. Of course, I know that Tinubu cannot be duped now because the president is a party man. He is aware that it is not the responsibility of an elected official to support any individual on behalf of a party. The national chairman of the party, not the governor, should make such a statement if the party has made such a decision. He was aware that his performance was merely for the audience. Therefore, if he wants to, let him go and live in the Villa. The president is committed to running for a second term, and playing around and gambling with a state like Anambra will make him appear less politically adept than he has been given credit for.
Do you think the governor has done enough to persuade Ndi Anambra to reelect him in November, aside from the fact that the ruling APGA in Anambra is divided?
Well, I’m not getting very positive information from that place. And when I gave advice, I was aware that the November election this year might not go in Saludo’s favor because most of the roads are in poor condition, the rainy season would have arrived, as I had long predicted, and some of the roads I saw being put into service would be washed off because I didn’t think they would withstand a serious one. And with the rain coming down, the majority of these roadways are crumbling. It is being used against him by his adversaries. There have been some roads constructed, but they are so bad that not even the rain can save them. And the only infrastructure the administration can truly take pride in is this one. Just the same as what Peter Obi did and said about health, education, and everything else. There are only those roads, and they aren’t surviving the season. That’s why I don’t think he’ll win in a free and fair election.
Since Soludo has been a harsh critic of Peter Obi, Obi’s detractors have had something to discuss. As the previous chairman of the party that provided the two guys with a platform to become governors of Anambra, what do you think about this?
Soludo’s attack on Peter Obi is detrimental to his own political standing. I mean, why is he criticizing Peter Obi? I fail to see what political rationale he has for attacking someone who has become so well-liked. Therefore, Soludo has no reason to attack Peter Obi. Obi has advanced from being a local champion to a prominent position in Nigerian politics at the national level. When you attack someone like that, it’s like when someone attacks Nnamdi Kanu or when you attack Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu. The names of these individuals are already ingrained in the public consciousness. As a result, targeting such individuals becomes politically naïve. Don’t fight them; you can choose to ignore them and carry on with your activities. Therefore, he cannot receive more votes for that attack. It will instead deduct from whatever he would have received.
How do you feel about the ADC coalition now that you’ve left Anambra? Some claimed that since Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, and Atiku Abubakar are all supposedly vying for the presidency, personal goals could destroy the alliance before the 2027 election.
First of all, I honestly don’t know that Peter Obi is an ADC cardholder. If he is, the PDP wouldn’t have been pleading with him to visit.
Nevertheless, defection is possible.
(Interlude) You can’t sign up for a party overnight, and before you can say “Jack Robinson,” you’re defecting once more. At that level, some people stay for a while before they have good cause to quit. Instead, you arrive now and depart tomorrow. He is therefore not a card-carrying member of ADC. I still consider him to be a freelancer. It is still expected of him to be a worker. He has not registered with any other party, nor has he actually resigned from the Labour Party. The PDP and other groups that have been pleading with Peter Obi to come and run won’t have been showing up if he is an ADC card-carrying member, therefore I’m not sure. With their current chairman, David Mark, the ADC has made it plain that there will be no preferred candidates and that the convention will be free and fair for everyone to attend and run. These are affirmative statements that democratic practices will be permitted to unfold. Naturally, the presidential primary of a party is a delegate election. Therefore, in order to win, one must put in a lot of effort to secure as many delegates as possible in order to secure nominations. That is my perspective.
Do you, as a participant in Nigerian politics, have any faith in INEC in the run-up to the general election in 2027, considering that many people think the electoral umpire tampered with the last election?
Although I can’t say I don’t trust, the word trust is too strong for someone like me to use. I say this because technology was given a fair amount of leeway to play out in the most recent election. However, the next thing we heard at the presidential level was that there was a malfunction. And the fact that the presidential election and the National Assembly election were held on the same day and at the same time, and that this error only happened at the presidential election level, raised many questions. The average Nigerian has no doubts regarding the purpose of that particular malfunction. Here, the National Assembly has a responsibility. The updated Electoral Act is not yet available. I am aware of the changes made to make sure that issues like glitches don’t happen again, that the elections are resourced, and that the results are broadcast straight from the polling places so that voters can see the results instantly. We have not yet seen several of these, but if they are implemented, the next election may have greater legitimacy. We simply hope that more people would vote once more, as the previous election’s turnout was not particularly strong. One thing was evident from the most recent election: according to INEC data, Peter Pbi and Atiku Abubakar received up to 13.7 million votes, regardless of who won. Tinubu then received 8.9 million votes to win the election. The most straightforward answer is that a greater number of Nigerian voters opposed Tinubu’s election to the presidency. Our system has to be reviewed, as evidenced by the fact that only 8.9 out of 13 million people cast ballots for him. He didn’t have the majority of the population, so that triumph was, in all seriousness, illegitimate. For this reason, I agree with a previous vice president who stated—and I have been suggesting—that our election should be conducted according to the norm in multi-party democracies, which states that the victor is the candidate who receives 50% plus one vote. In other words, you have received the majority of the votes. There is no possibility that someone with 8.9 million votes will be in charge of 13 million people who rejected him.
