Barr Ben Nwoye is a former All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman in Enugu State. He also serves as the secretary of the Forum of Former Party Chairmen in the 36 states and the FCT. In this exclusive interview with Editor Emmanuel Uzodinma, he discusses the issues limiting the ruling party’s positive growth, the emergence of Abdullahi Ganduje as national chairman, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s three months in power, among other things. Excerpts!
After the first eight years, your party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has regained power. Do you believe the party has grown in terms of having a strong system and institution, in your opinion?
You made an excellent point about separating the party from governance; the simple answer is No. We formed as a party in 2013, and from 2013 to 2014, we ran a major campaign. By 2015, we had seized control of the majority of the states, the House of Assembly, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and, of course, the presidency.
In terms of a party’s formation, the merger method actually gave it the strength that led to victory; unfortunately, it is the party’s bane, which is why the party, in my opinion, is weak. Because people from various segments, we call them the legacy party; for the most part, they see themselves as members of the legacy party before seeing themselves as members of the APC, whether they are CPC people, ANPP people, New PDP people, or ACN people. Some people who have no business being in positions of party leadership are appointed to manage the party in order to carry one legacy party or the other forward. As a result, it has weakened the party to the point where, nearly ten years later, we are still learning how to sit and are not even crawling as a party.
There are numerous examples, and as a founding member and founding party chairman of one of the states, it pains me because the party is subject to external control. The government controls the party, and those in power decide what happens in their own best interests. As a result, the party’s influence shifts to the governors, who now control the party for their own benefit; everything is viewed through the governor’s eyes; the party will remain weak. The party is now weaker than it was when it was founded. It is supposed to be a growth, but it is a negative growth, a downward growth.
Every year, the party loses strength because it is now almost like a puppet, controlled by outside forces. So, if you are not in government, more specifically, if you are not a member of that exclusive club of governors, forget it; governors are in charge of the party, and they are not in charge in the interest of all members, they are in charge in their own interest, so you see negative growth year after year.
When we had a major crisis, the governors had to take over, and a sitting governor became the acting, they said, chairman of the caretaker committee, to midwife a new convention; and when the new convention occurred, the entire party structures were left for the governors to the detriment of the party; not to those party members who are telling the truth; they were excluded. If you are not a governor, you are not allowed to speak, and regions where some states did not have a governor were ceded to the governors, to the detriment of the party. My zone suffered from this, where no other viewpoint was taken into account, and you know that with power comes the governor’s omnipotence ideology. If you become a governor today, you become omnipotent, to the point where no one can talk to you, and even if they do, their idea is not sellable, acceptable, or reasonable. So, in most states where the party does not have a governor, the party is weak. It is even weaker in states with governors, where the leadership of the party has puppets installed to become party managers.
Why do you believe this?
The governors despise strong personalities; they despise strong personalities who could help unify the party and discipline those who need to be disciplined. So, if you go to the South-South, South-East, or even some States in the North-East and North-West, you will see where the party has declined due to the excessive interference of those in power, where the actual party managers, those who know how to organize the party and win elections, are not taken into account. The same thing that is happening in Adamawa is happening in Zamfara; it is also happening in Rivers, Oyo State, and even Edo State, if you take statistical measures, you will see similarities throughout the region, that where core party men and women are relegated to the background, the party never moves forward. The same thing happened in Kano; in the end, we lost Kano. Our leaders in Lagos managed the situation, but consider this: we lost the presidential election in Lagos; why should we lose the presidential election in Lagos? If we have a party where party managers are allowed to make decisions and play their roles, we should let the government deal with governance and let those in the party manage party affairs and party issues. It is so entwined that they see the party as merely a vehicle through which we gain power.
When a governor says, “If you don’t do this, I will leave the party,” everyone melts; the other people, whether you are a senator, a founding father, popular people in their community, they are forgotten, everything is about state funding, but they forget that party is supposed to last longer than any of us. Any governor, the highest term is supposed to be eight years; you can destroy the party and once you are gone, you are gone and that becomes the end of the party; we saw it in Kano, Rivers, Oyo, and we can go on and on; we saw it happen even in Edo State, and it almost happened in Imo State in the days of Rochas Okorocha if not for the divine intervention that brought in Senator Hope Uzodinma; there would have been no APC Look at it, why did it happen in any of these states I’ve called? You don’t eliminate certain people from the party because you’re a governor; you’re supposed to build the party as an institution; that’s why the party as an institution exists in the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa; we don’t.
In the case of President Muhammadu Buhari, those of us who voted for him were excluded from the system. They went about selecting technocrats, and instead of remaining in their various ministries to do their work, the technocrats left, came and destroyed the states, as happened in Enugu State; they felt they were in government and should run the party as well; this does not work.
In terms of the people they are choosing, I believe the new government led by President Tinubu is already looking different. I haven’t seen many outsiders, and the majority of those I know are party members. What you need to do is strengthen the party, knowing that the next step is to figure out how to win the next election. Yes, you are not campaigning, but your eyes must be there, those people in the party must go and sell the policies, they must be involved, you must figure out how to use the party to talk about those policies, like subsidy removal, unlike what they did under Buhari, where they allowed all social interventions to be in the hands of state governors; states without governors suffer, morale suffers; school feeding, NPower, and the rest, state governors use
With some people complaining that he lost his state, Kano, now that Abdullahi Ganduje is there, do you think he is the right person to fix the APC?
I disagree that he lost his state; Ganduje was not on the ballot–the presidential ballot, the gubernatorial ballot, or even the senatorial ballot–so his absence had an effect. Any defeat in Kano should not be blamed on him. It will be unjust to hang it around Ganduje’s neck because he was not on the ballot. It is the responsibility of those who were on the ballot to put together the structure required to win their election; remember, you can’t win everywhere, no matter what; sometimes, it was about who has more strength.
Then let me say this: the 2022 Electoral Act Amendment is the best legacy Muhammdu Buhari has left for the country. People voted and their votes were counted, so popular people won for the first time. Was there rigging and manipulation? Yes, but it was so minor that no one will come out and say, “I was rigged out,” because you can’t do it everywhere. You can cry all you want, but those who were prepared and popular won elections. States that if you have people on the ground, you will win, or that an election will be held, but if you have no one on the ground, you will not win, and manipulations may occur. Nobody could manipulate wards or units where people are on the ground because people will vote, count the votes, and accept your result.
Kano is a large state, so we can’t hold Ganduje responsible. Now, as for the other question, can he–he is now the chairman, so let’s give him a chance. Whether those who supported him to be or not to be, that debate is over; what they need to do is pray to God to help him lead the party, support him to lead the party, but second guessing, blaming him will be unfair; he just took over the party.
So, what do you think he should change?
He was a governor, so he knows what the governors were doing with the party and what they are still doing with the party; there must be separation because control does not come from the presidency, but from the governors. Yes, technically, the governor is the party’s leader in each state, and the president is the national party’s leader, but the day-to-day running of the party should be left to those appointed or elected to do so. Allow them to take responsibility for their jobs; allow them to think; allow the constitution to function; we have a process; we have written rules and regulations; let them work; don’t manipulate things.
Not only are they having difficulty finding replacements for Kogi, but there is also the Cross River issue, which is being handled by Ganduje. No, it is a matter for the governors. As a result, this will continue until the power of the governors’ interference in the party is discussed and dealt with. It’s been how many months since we had resignations? The Abia State man, Nwosu, died, and there was no replacement; then the National Secretary, the National Chairman, they all left, and they were hurriedly replaced because the governors agreed, and they found time to agree, but wherever the governors disagreed, it stalled. Now, we don’t have a Deputy North, which I hope will be resolved soon, we don’t have a Vice Chairman, North West, we don’t have a women leader, we don’t have a Deputy National Publicity Secretary and one of the Organising Secretaries of one of the zones, we don’t have a national welfare secretary, and we claim to be the largest party…we must admit there is a problem in the party. Follow the rules, but the governors are fighting; in Kogi State, it is between governors and some other political heavyweights; in Cross River, it is between the governor and some powerful people; follow the rules regardless of whose interest is at stake.
Consider Enugu: Is your party still active in the state after the state chairman, Barr Ugo Agballah, expelled all stakeholders?
Absolutely. The Ugo Agballah situation relates to what I said about governors controlling the party. When a state does not have a governor, it is given to one or two governors in the zone to control; they share states for them to control. So, Ugo Agballah was given leadership of the party at the time, I forget how he came in, he is the chairman of the party, but he simply did not understand party management. He compared it to whatever he did while running for governor, the Oganiru era, when he believes he can just abuse people. He was abusing and attacking people, and he was fighting with then-governor Chimaroke, for whose government he had previously worked. So it’s a carryover, albeit an emotional one.
When he became chairman, he carried over his unresolved emotional turmoil with the Ebeano from the PDP where he came from, and he carried over his then failed gubernatorial ambition to APC chairmanship, the result of which was that he misinterpreted the process, insulting and fighting was what he thought was necessary for him to prosecute the electioneering. And then, when the results came out, he saw the disastrous results he got, in all spheres, not even in the APC’s formative stage, when they were calling us Boko Haram and all that, when we were running against a Goodluck Jonathan and those of us were called all manner of names, we didn’t score that low, we were able to sell our ideology to the people.
Aside from the outcome, we were able to attract new members to the party; people who came and registered; personalities, men and women of substance. I was the chairman of the party at the time, and I didn’t do it by abusing people; instead, we approached people and begged them to join the party so that we, the Igbos and Christians, could be part of the mainstream and make our agitations. We did it through reasonable means; that is how His Excellency Senator Jim Nwobodo and his wife joined the party; I registered them; we did not insult these elder statesmen; that is how we saw Senator Fide Okoro, a well-known household name in Enugu North, Nsukka region, join the party; I went to his home; we did not insult him; he joined. The same thing happened with Distinguished Senator Ken Nnamani, the President of the Seventh Senate; he joined us; even the wife of the former governor of old Enugu State, His Excellency, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Dr Dorathy Nwodo, joined us; even when the husband said he wasn’t joining, I was still approaching the husband, a former national chairman of the PDP.
Furthermore, we were very close to convincing the then Enugu State governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, to join us; we can talk about it now that he is alive; I told him that he would not do well as opposition alone; you are not cut out for that; let us have this marriage. Those who didn’t get it thought it was anti-party; how can you get a PDP member to cross over if you don’t talk to a PDP member? If you are abusing the PDP individual. Of course, Gbazuagu Nweke Gbazuagu are household names. These individuals were approached, including Rex Onyeabor, former PDP national secretary. I even approached Chimaroke Nnamani about running in 2015, and he agreed, but he said he would run on his own party, PDC, but that if he won, he would join, which was an agreement we had. I didn’t approach him by abusing him; Chimaroke is now almost an APC member. The heir of the Onoh dynasty, GB Onoh, former two-time Speaker, Eugene Odo, and at the climax, the then-immediate past governor, Sullivan Chime, the party’s national chairman, Oyegun, came to Enugu to receive him, and we rallied thousands of people; he couldn’t believe it.
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By 2017, our party had become the party that everyone in Enugu State wanted to join. We held a local government election in which the PDP fled and took result sheets to the government house to write on. His Excellency, John Odigie Oyegun, came to Enugu and went straight to Oji River for the grand finale of our campaign; it was historic; President Muhammadu Buhari was watching on NTA; he couldn’t believe what we did; we called it the broom revolution; we were changing Enugu from umbrella to broom and we didn’t do it by abusing people; we did it by interacting, appealing to people, and talking about the APC change mantra. Unfortunately, Governor Ugwuanyi did not buy into it; he tried but did not succeed. David Umahi took the bait, and look at David Umahi today. Look at Ebonyi State today; even when they are discussing the Obidient Movement, the APC has retained Ebonyi State, and the APC has taken three senatorial seats because people saw the work David did with the top and was able to turn Ebonyi State around, and the people of Ebonyi saw it. Look at the infrastructure that he built in Ebonyi and compare it to Enugu; PDP almost lost all three senatorial seats because it became a question of performance; at the time, there was nobody to properly advise my friend Ugwuanyi, people around him were just there not doing their job; David enjoined the benefit of good counsel and was able to deliver most of the House of Assembly, most of the House of Representatives, and all of the Senate. Ebonyi is the only state in the zone that has attained that level and has a governor.
So, the crux of the matter is that when you abuse people, we built the party; you are a stranger in the party; I am not beefing with him, I wish him well, APC is my party, I want him to do well, but he needs to come down; leadership requires a lot of willy-nilly, a lot of patience, and a lot of humility; he has to humble himself; the question of ‘I have arrived, I am the chairman’, you are So Ugo Agballah believes he can accomplish everything without these leaders. Politics is a local game; he is from Udi; Udi is not even a ward; it is two communities- Udi-Agbudu; he is only from one of the two communities, and we have 260 wards; you must have someone in all 260 wards; not just a sycophant, not just someone you think you can control, but someone who is strong and can represent the party.
For example, you can’t get to Ukehe ward in Igbo-Etiti and say you can go there and form APC without Eugene Odo and JOJ Okoloagu and push them aside. You can’t say you can do APC and Eugene, two-time Speaker and one-time gubernatorial candidate, that he’s a nobody; you can’t go to Nsukka and go to a ward in Opi and call Hon. Ike Ugwuegede is a nonentity, and you will run the APC without him. Look at what happened: APC supporters who fled Ugo Agballa’s oppressive attitude went to LP and won or assisted LP in winning.
People who worked for Okey Ezea, especially in the engine room, were all APC employees. Okey Ezea was the APC’s first gubernatorial candidate in 2015, when no one wanted to hear the party in Enugu State. He is now in the Senate, where he defeated His Excellency Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Ambassador Ejike Eze of the APC. People believe he won because of Obidients, but this is not the case. No, the people of Nsukka galvanised and chose him; anyone thinking that Okey Ezea is an Obidients product, think again; he ran election, went house to house, and all the APC people, including some I know who were running for election under APC, voted for Okey Ezea and worked for him to win, because we have a strong structure. You can check the people who were organizing his stuff in all six LGAs; they were all APC supporters.
Former Ambassador, General Eze, these are the key people that made sure Okey Ezea won; he was the Secretary of APC; when you run such a person out, those of us who are self made, confident people, we don’t need a party to survive, we don’t take certain insults; people come to us to join their party; somebody like me, constantly the PDP people will love to have me as a member of the party, but I will not go there at least for now. The same is true for LPs, who know that if nothing else, I am capable of delivering my ward.
If Ugo Agballah comes to my ward and brings anyone else to challenge me- I am a crown Prince, and my people love me. By the grace of God, we produced a Senator through LP from my own ward, and many of those who worked to produce him are APC members. Just as Buhari said and President Tinubu reiterated, vote people with capacity; that is what is happening now; someone will say- you did anti-party, No; you vote those with capacity to lead; you work for people with capacity to lead; if APC as a party produces as candidates people without capacity because one governor or the other influenced the will of the grassroots people, the grassroots people will move and work for someone with capacity, not agains. So, people are wise now; if you give me a gubernatorial candidate who clearly has no program and tell me it is your party’s turn to work for him, my grandchildren will rely on that, and whatever policy affects them. If I see a candidate from another political party with a good program, I will vote for people with capacity, as Muhammadu Buhari and now President Bola Tinubu have advised. We worked for Tinubu because he has the ability; I know this from his past.
The APC is present in Enugu, but much work remains to be done to bring everyone back to the party. You say you sacked all of those people who are now being chased out, but there is a standing order from the then-national national chairman that invalidates all of that. Though, I still hold Abdullahi accountable for what happened in Enugu State; he didn’t speak when he needed to speak; he refused to be a father to all; he was only a father to one side; he was the chairman of the reconciliation committee; he is aware that there was no congress in Enugu; that’s behind us; but when people went to complain, even if you don’t do, I am not among those who say remove Ugo Agballa If you tell a voter to “go to hell,” he will be happy to do so, and if that voter has other people following him, he will line them all up and they will all go to hell. That is why the LP people who won had the majority of APC people working for them; those who won Reps; by the way, Prof Nnamchi was an APC member; it was almost like what happened in Anambra; Tony Nwoye is an APC guy, and all the people who worked for him are APC; people are not stupid. So, if the party continues to act in the manner of Senator Abdullahi, things will not go well.
I believe Ganduje should investigate what Abdullahii did wrong and what he did right; when it came to managing the crisis in the states, Abdullahi did nothing, at least in Enugu. Every attempt to get Ugo Agballa to advise him on which buttons to press was futile. You can’t insult Ken Nnaman, you can’t insult Sullivan Chime, you can’t insult a serving minister; these are all the people you said you suspended in an election year, former speaker, immediate past chairman, your predecessor, and you expect to win; the result is 4772 votes, which all my efforts to get people contributed to, just for His Excellency Tinubu, but you saw what happened with the others. All of the people who do beauty parades on billboards end up in shame. People are in court with less than 1% of the vote counted, and you are telling them that you won the election. It is only in Enugu State that every APC member claims to be the election winner; if the winner scored over 80,000 and you are at around 8,000 claiming to be the winner, it is amusing.
Overall, the Enugu APC is present and strong; my supporters are waiting to be summoned. Things can happen when Ugo Agballa changes and calls people together; electioneering is over; we are now in governance; by God’s grace, His Excellency chose the guber candidate as a minister; he is not an outsider; and anyone who ran for governorship automatically becomes a member, even if he joined the party recently. He must rise to the occasion and reach out. I’m not sure if he supported pushing people away on purpose, but he needs to reconsider now that he is representing Tinubu; he needs to call everyone back; he needs to reach out to people because once the election is over, governance begins, as does preparation for the next election. He can’t start two years from now because in about a year or so, we’ll be talking about congresses, which means another round of fighting; those who want to run, so he needs to start now, call and ask everyone for forgiveness, and those who offended you will also ask for forgiveness, because these things are about interest. He is now the minister, and Ugo Agballa is the chairman; they must come together, call a meeting, and include everyone.
You were among those who vigorously campaigned for President Bola Tinubu; based on his policies thus far, do you have any doubts about his ability to reposition the country?
President Tinubu is a maverick; I campaigned for him based on the good plans he has; I have followed him for a long time, dating back to the legacy party, when we all came from the ACN. I kept up with his activities even while I was in the United States; forget about all the nonsense people are saying; incidentally, I lived in Chicago, he lived in Chicago, and I am a Chicago boy. We have some pieces, and I believe he can replicate what he did in Lagos here in the country. I’ve never had any doubts about his ability to succeed or the decisions he’s made.
However, the specific decision that everyone disagreed with was the elimination of fuel subsidies. Anyone who understands what happened and how subsidies were used to fleece Nigeria and Nigerians will agree that it was the best decision. However, one could argue that it was done too quickly, because we are all affected. My cost of living has risen because I am a Nigerian. If you ask me personally, because I now spend a lot of money on gas, the answer is No, but it is a sacrifice, and I still see it as part of that campaign. You may recall that I gave up a lot of my belongings, including my house, for the election, finance, and all that, and converted my Enugu home into campaign headquarters; Tinubu’s only campaign office in the State was the one I gave him; he didn’t ask for it, but it is part of my belief that I will make the sacrifice required for this man to be elected, because he has everything it takes to turn this country around. I spent a lot of my personal money on billboards and advertorials, going to radio stations to talk about his plans and policies, and buying and branding vehicles; it was a sacrifice, and no one told me to do it. I wasn’t doing it to get anything in return; I was doing it as a patriot; I hung up all kinds of clothes, gave them to people, and adorned them in order to sell his candidacy. I went on Channels TV the first morning after he chose his running mate, his vice, and I was slammed left and right on the issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket.
When I left the Channels, I received terrible words from some very close people; they challenged even my humanity, even my existence, whether I was okay; from all over the world, from the UK, from the US, and of course the country; again, it is sacrifice, because if we agree that this thing is wrong, we are enriching a few to the detriment of this country, it is not sustainable, read a snippet of what Okonjo Iweala said; the issue of subsidy is
They have distributed funds to the states; is Tinubu the one with the N5 billion per state? You will not be able to distribute N5 billion to every human being in Enugu State if you distribute one million to each. Let us form a line in Enugu so that N5 billion can be distributed to every human being in Enugu State. I am now speaking on a state-by-state basis, and I believe the same thing will occur in other states; they estimate that we have around 200 million people. Let us begin lining up by any means possible. My trip to Warri will be partially funded by my own money. I’m not suggesting they go out and share money; I’m simply highlighting the reality. Tinubu got the money in less than three months from savings. This is what the overfed babies used to collect.
So, as for his policy, we must be patient; he has a four-year mandate, and we are only in his third month. He has directed the governors to go and do whatever they can to alleviate the people’s sufferings; if you ask me, if I am a governor, I will also participate in money sharing; we have the population, we have means of knowing it; we have NIN, BVN, voter’s cards, and so many other options. Are some people going to be missed? Yes; are some people likely to collect more than once? Maybe; are these reasons to stop sharing money? No. Udoji did it; they did it in America during the COVID; they shared money; they did it in the United Kingdom; it is hardship; it is called hardship fund; make it available; people should access it; share it through banks, apply and anybody is qualified to apply; if you share it through banks, we have the record of everybody, we did it during COVID here in Nigeria, Buhari did it through special project; there was no special project, they shared money; they shared N60,000; this one is It’s a simple task. If there is any fraud, you bring the paper to a few eggheads, who will sit and show you where the fraud went. They’re too busy talking about using it for agriculture and other things that it won’t reach the majority of people. But President Tinubu has done what he can; my hope is that when these governors return from their leadership training in Kigali, they will have learned that there is a need to share some of that money; if not all, share some of it; even the governors will benefit politically; it is not about Tinubu.
Some members of your party have suggested that some of the ministers from the South-East are weak forces, and that this was done on purpose by the governors…what are your thoughts on this?
It is an unfair assessment because those individuals were screened, and prior to screening, the Senate reviewed their qualifications and determined that they were qualified. There isn’t a single one of them who doesn’t have a special skill or knowledge; is it the Enugu minister? What else could he possibly require? It is unjust. What other qualifications do you need to run a business successfully for so many years and remain consistently successful? Is it Ebonyi-Umahi, a two-time governor, a one-time chairman of a political party, the PDP, a two-time Deputy Governor, and a one-time Senator? Is it Anambra, a lawyer and successful real estate mogul, a woman who ran for president of this country? Do you know what it takes for someone to stand up and say, “I want to lead this country,” and then run strongly only to step down…how many women have ever done that? She used her own money or money she raised to buy the expression of interest form, which costs around N50 million; they can make up whatever story they want. The woman has the qualification. Before becoming a commissioner, Imo worked as an investment banker. She came from the private sector, the banking sector, a successful individual on her own, for her to rise to that level in the banking sector, that is not something you just walk up and they say you have become a manager, and then went on to become an Imo State commissioner; is it the Abia woman, three or four times member of the House, former Whip, she holds a doctorate degree, a barrister at law, solicitor, so what are the criteria?
People who say such things should be specific about the ingredients or content that are lacking in any of the five ministers. People who are dissatisfied are the ones who come up with stories; thus, those who say this are the dissatisfied sore losers; anyone mentioning any of those people and undermining their credentials is a sore loser. These are people who may have believed that they would be the minister but were pushed out for some reason or another; there are stories that people bought it, then go and buy; if you couldn’t buy, then allow those who have purchased. For the first time, we have three women from the South-East; women think differently; give them a chance; people attack them because they are women; but I want you to know that women are not weak; we believe it is a men’s world- No!
Nobody complained when we had one over six, one woman, and five men during the Buhari administration. People will start talking rubbish now that we have three women and two men; give them a chance; if anyone talks of qualification, they should come up with a specific area of lack and compare them with the other region; they are even over qualified if there is such a thing; pick any zone and compare the credentials, and you will find that there are not many places that match the credentials of those coming from the South-East. So I disagree; everyone wishes to be one thing, but it can only be one person at a time, ‘na turn by turn’, power comes from God. If you tried and it didn’t work, don’t worry, it’s only been four years; besides, Tinubu can decide to reshuffle and increase the number, right now they are only 45, they may get to 48; South-East has been crying and agitating, Tinubu may consider any of them, but they should calm down and support those God has given a chance.
Could you assess your party’s chances in the Kogi, Imo, and Bayelsa governorship elections in November?
You know I’ll be biased, so we’ll win all three as a biased party man. But, in all seriousness, I can tell you that it will be a difficult election in all three. It all goes back to the governors’ power, which is where we started this conversation. If you go to all three states, you will find that the APC grassroots are divided in all three states, including the top contenders in each state and their supporters. So there is a lot of work to be done and there isn’t enough time. Governor Ganduje has a lot of work ahead of him.
Why was the National Secretarial in Kogi boiling the other day? Some vacant positions will be filled. Then, the person who resigned as deputy spokesman is now running on a different platform, the SDP; his supporters are APC; he did not go there to meet massive SDP supporters; they do not exist in Kogi. Since Yahaya Bello’s arrival, Kogi has been solely APC; they have not shared power with anyone until now; now, the APC grassroots are divided; we need reconciliation, and we need it quickly. Many things are destroyed when the winner takes all. You may be a governor today, and you may be powerful, but this will not last. It’s APC versus APC.
Nobody is even talking about the PDP in Kogi State; Melaye was an APC member, so the three people running are of APC extraction; his members, those supporting him, and the APC. When you look at the whole thing, it almost seems like it could go either way. It is a difficult election to prosecute, but our party needs to rally everyone, start talking to powerful people, former this, former that. If we lose Kogi, we will take a significant hit.
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Then there’s Imo State. The AA members are still present; they are APC members. I was glad to see the picture trending of Governor Hope and former Governor Rochas Okorocha reconciling; I hope that reconciliation touches the heart and not just the lips. Because I am also aware that the people supporting the two groups in the LP are APC members–the Nathan group and the other group are APC members–there is trouble, but the advantage is that Hope is on the ballot, unlike Kogi, where Bello is not on the ballot. The opposition may eventually band together. Right now, the fight is a three-way or four-way fight, but the opposition may unite at some point, as was the case when Rochas Okorocha came to power–when ACN and APGA united; that’s how PDP got off. If the ruling APC fails to unite, the opposition may do so. We can’t keep mentioning the power of incumbents. Rochas Okorocha defeated an incumbent governor in Imo State; you can’t let fights rage on, you have to appease certain people, and you can’t undermine people who clearly have a following. The PDP is there, the AA is there, the APGA guy is there; the only thing the LP is missing is a candidate. However, because multiple people are campaigning for Labour, they can win and let the court decide who is the candidate, as there is no name on the ballot.
Then there’s Bayelsa. You can see how the primary went; it left many people dissatisfied; the party must go and reconcile those people. If there was no election, as claimed by the camps of those who lost, including David Lyons’ camp, you must go and bring those people back. David won the election the last time, and he can do so again; it is not a question of whether or not I can do it alone. In an election circle, you can’t push people away. So, I believe they will all be difficult battles, but I am confident that we will win all three. But my advice is to reconcile, reconcile, reconcile–bring back as many people as possible into the system and fight with them.
