Chief Edozie Njoku is the National Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) recently recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission. In this interview with EMEKA NZE, he blames Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state of undermining his leadership and causing more crisis in the party
How far have you gone with peace and reconcilation and in your party and how achievable are they?
When we are talking of reconciliation, there are different layers of reconciliation. Like a few minutes ago, we talked about reconciliation in Ebonyi where we were able to come up with something, because most people on the other side and our side are all members of APGA, and really the struggle looks at struggle at the top. But the clear thing that happened is that we had two conventions, one in Owerri and the other in Awka. Once Njoku wins, it looks like all the other people will have to go out, it shouldn’t be like that. We should be able to reconcile the people and try and bring some of our people to come down and we accommodate the other people so that we can enlarge the party because it’s electioneering, it’s a game of numbers. On that game, we are doing quite well with reconcilation, even in Anambra, most of the people there are already across with us. But the only place we are having a major problem is with the governor. I have sat with him, we’ve talked but he has a notion, I don’t know whether it is his people that are telling him that he’s going to get to the Supreme Court to get a judgement. But what I told him is that the Supreme Court had made it clear that I’m the national chairman and it went down to the lower court to be enforced and the lower court enforced it and he said no. He said bla bla, that the enforcement was not correct. You with Oye took it up to the Court of Appeal and the Court of Appeal looked at it and enforced and said yes, we agree with them at the lower court, three to zero. And they are now trying to get leave to go to the Supreme Court. They have not filed anything in the Supreme Court yet but they are saying we will file, we will do this and that. The governor is not helping the party. The people believe that the governor will be able to do something but he’s not doing anything because he knows where the truth lies, he knows. Why he is doing what he’s doing, I don’t know.
Can you evaluate that damage that has been done to APGA with this leadership crisis?
I won’t call it a damage, I will call it a setback. APGA has been setback. Let me define APGA again. APGA is not an Igbo party. It’s a national party which the Igbos have a very big affinity and love for. Even if you go into the villages, you go into the markets, the market woman believes in APGA more than anything. APGA is literally a movement and when it comes to things that are movements, it’s so difficult to say it’s damaged, it’s being setback. The movement will suddenly ignite again. You know, Nigeria is a place where regional politics is very much at play. If you check how Buhari became President of Nigeria, he has to go back to form CPC got governors of CPC and went into an alliance with ACN. If you saw how Tinubu became president, he’s been certain things in AD, went backwards again, they created the ACN, with ACN, they moved in and formed larger party to be able to get power. But other regions have to be organised, sit down and ask themselves very, very important questions, what do we really want? And the easiest party for us who are south easterners must be APGA because the masses have a very special love for the party.
Do you see you see yourself in this position of taking it upon yourself to harmonize and galvanize the South East region to be united and perhaps extend that unity to other regions?
I wouldn’t really want to say that. The most important task I have at hand is what you said earlier on harmonizing and building APGA to become that force or that party which that person in the village or in the market would believe in as the group that represents them, the group that speaks for them, the group that fights for their own interest. That’s the first thing first. When we are able to achieve that, the rest will fall into place, you tidy from inside before you come outside .
How do you see Mr Peter Obi’s performance in the political landscape?
I think Peter has done very, very well as an individual, it’s not easy. But my style is a bit different. I believe in establishment, I believe in group interest. I have always believed that if we are talking about an Igbo man being the president of Nigeria, I believe that charity begins at home. That’s what I said about Buhari, he went back tidied up the CPC and came out with his governors, his House of Assembly and National Assembly members and moved across to South West. When the South West Tinubu finished everything he did with AD, AC and ACN, he moved across to the north. It’s very very difficult, that’s why I said what Peter did in the last election was commendable, it’s very very difficult and yet possible when you have not built any major structure. Power cannot be gotten without dialogue. The north has to agree, the West has to agree, the South East has to agree. No one can just go on their own and take it. There has to be a proper understanding because there’s so much distrust in Nigeria. Every tribe, every area has so much suspicious of the other area. So you’ve got to build some sort of group understanding, to show that you are you’re not after the other person and you don’t carry it for our own selfish interest and everybody will come together, it becomes easier. When such things are not in place, it becomes very difficult, it kind of looks like a mere success syndrome.
Still talking about APGA, at one of your press conferences, you talked about being more confrontational should the governor of Anambra state and other lawmakers elected on APGA platform continue without recognising you as APGA national chairman. What do you mean by that?
What I mean is that as you can appreciate, for example, as preparations for the local government election are underway, we are having our candidates and that illegality they (governor’s side) are doing there, will produce some candidates, let’s say their candidates are eventually foisted and there and then these people will say no. It’s the same thing that is still at play. But of course, I’m reconciliatory, I’m very peaceful. I have always been a proponent of peace, saying that let’s not bring APGA into any crisis again, any upheavals of going to court because all of them have sharpened their knives ready. But the wisest thing the governor should have done should have been to immediately brace them. The only thing that brings quarrel in this country is when you ignore people and they go out and start reacting. If he had called the people and say please please, everywhere would have been calm by now. When you sit down and you say they are not going to do anything, they will do something.
Are you blaming the Anambra state governor for the crisis in APGA?
Not just the Anambra state governor, we have a senator in Abia but we had a candidate in Abia, we have federal house members in Anambra, we had candidates there. What they should now do is say let’s come home, we are all one family, we’re already there, things will move on. But when you threaten that you are going to come defeat them at the Supreme Court l, they would come up with their own actions and start fighting
But how far can you go resolving this crisis in view of the governor’s continued disregard of your leadership?
That’s why I’m telling you that there’s a limit to what I can do. If you noticed, everything that I have been talking since the day I was recognised by INEC is peace, peace and reconcilation. But that man feels that he should be sitting in that House of Assembly seat, does not quite enjoy the peace I have been preaching but he derives life from us in the party. If at the end of the day, people are not being carried along, what would you expect them to do. So that’s why I said they should grow up and know that politics is about engaging people, not just fighting them. PDP had been in a lot of crisis at the national level but as soon it was pronounced that this person is the lawful chairman, the other people and the governors pledged their loyalty, even if they were still fighting, at least they agreed that he was their national chairman. Why should Soludo’s own be different?
How much of this loyalty have received from other party members across the country since INEC’s recognised you as the party chairman?
So much. When you go to Anambra state, so much loyalty. Our reconciliation meetings was great. On the side of the people, we have so much loyalty but the other side is the side of the big men but APGA is not a party for the big men but a party for the masses, it’s a grassroots party. APGA has been muffled. I give you an example. Alex Otti was two-time candidate of APGA in Abia state. We all know what happened in 2019 when we had 17 of the best aspirants who came in from different walks of life, my friend Stanley Amuchie who came from Zenith Bank and CFO, my brother Frank Nneji from ABC Transport. There were a host of them. At the last minute, they just went and brought someone from APC and collected money from him and scattered the party and that’s when people said “enough is enough, we are tired of this rubbish they are doing in Anambra”. And thank God I had the stay in power to save the situation.