The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), no doubt, is one of the political parties that are entering the 2015 electoral duel from a position of strength. From the fringes and the margins, APGA has manoeuvred itself into a position of political strength. The party, which started its political skirmishes on the outskirts, has through dogged efforts of its robust leadership over the years established itself as one of the tripod of Nigerian politics.
In 2003, APGA was all but dead. It was schemed out of political power by the bullying People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in almost all areas it was winning save Anambra. At the end of a three-year epic legal battle, APGA wrested Anambra State from the iron jaws of the PDP. By the calculations of the powers that be, APGA was not intended to exercise power but to look over power for a few months pending the emergence of Obasanjo’s favoured servant. PDP suzerainty over Anambra seemed almost like a fait accompli. The next gubernatorial election was just months away; the House of Assembly was peopled by the PDP; an almost lawless president declared the election a do-or-die affair. The political atmosphere was turbo-charged. But APGA weathered it all. Impeachment did come and go but APGA remained on the throne. The APGA government went ahead to complete its rightful four-year tenure, broke the jinx and for the first time in the history of the old and new Anambra State did indeed win a re-election. The usual political noisemakers were there. Mischief makers and name-droppers worked overtime. Yet, APGA floored them all. The challengers were giants. Yet APGA carried the day.
Enter 2013, the year of gubernatorial election in Anambra State. The hawks gathered and the vultures hovered above. There was a manifest plan to collapse APGA into the PDP. The resistance to the plan by the substantive national chairman of APGA, Victor Umeh, led to the emergence of a factional national chairman via a midnight voodoo convention. The cloud thickened for APGA. The APGA-elected governor of Imo State migrated to the APC while the then incumbent governor of Anambra State was already halfway into the PDP; he merely fell short of formerly collapsing APGA into the PDP. The stout resistance from Ohamadike Victor Umeh culminated in paradigmatic victory at the Enugu division of the Court of Appeal. The hasty reconciliation and belated emergence of a hitherto relatively unknown candidate appeared to competitors to portend the immediate demise of APGA. How dead wrong they were! The shock was seismic and the victory thunderous. Willie Obiano thrashed the PDP as represented by Tony Nwoye thoroughly. Ngige, a household name, was shocked to the marrows as the hitherto unknown Obiano thrashed him roundly. That is the power of APGA. It is not about the person but about the party. APGA is a spiritual movement. It is embedded in the psyche of every Igbo man. APGA is the only political party that strikes the emotive chord in the heart of the average Igbo man. The leadership of the party has successfully sold the party to the grassroots. Hence, the name ‘APGA’ wins election any day, anytime. No political party can win the presidential election today without reckoning with APGA.
The exit of the former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, ushered in a new lease of life to APGA. Obi as a governor had, in accordance with an alleged agreement with the PDP, kept the party down. In all his over seven-and-a-half years in power, Obi never campaigned for any APGA candidate outside Anambra. In fact, he neither supported nor aided any APGA candidate within Anambra save the late Dora Akunyili who failed precisely because of Obi’s association with her campaign. There was neither any local government election nor any empowerment or oiling of the party structure. Obi spent over six-and-a-half years fighting to remove his national chairman. Simply put, he was decaying the party from within. Pundits were therefore unruffled when he joined PDP, his natural habitat, after the expiration of his tenure. Contrary to his expectation, however, no single member of APGA followed him into PDP.
Today, less than six months into Obiano’s administration, APGA stands tall in Anambra shining in its full yellow and green glory, looking brightly at the beautiful future ahead. Through ongoing massive transformation in every sector, Obiano has retired Ngige politically and consigned Peter to the place of delete in the memory of Ndi Anambra. The mantra in Anambra today is “Willie is working”. The APGA leadership piloted by Victor Umeh has stood out. There are said to be Seven Wonders of the World, but how Umeh held APGA together, steering it amid heavy political tempest and piloting it to glory, remains the eighth wonder.
Umeh’s leadership has continued to attract high political worth individuals to the party. One of them is Chuka Obele-Chuka, a radical lawyer and good governance crusader who brought the notorious administration of Chinwoke Mbadinuju to a standstill. Obele-Chuka was among the thousands of people who joined the party as Peter Obi left. Chuka, who had remained apolitical all these years, said he joined APGA because it parades men of integrity and represents the best of governance our people can ever dream of. He is said to be poised to lead Victor Umeh’s campaign for the Anambra Central senatorial seat. His entry into the party has continued to send jitters down the nerves of the opposition. His decision to direct Umeh’s campaign is already scattering the equations of the contenders for the senatorial seat.
Today, all things being equal, the election of Umeh into the senate seems a done deal. The favoured PDP aspirant is an obvious feather weight while the incumbent, Chris Ngige, has lost steam. Ngige remains a man whose time has passed. It will be easier for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for APC to win a major election anywhere in the Southeast, let alone in Anambra where the party’s perception is quite unpalatable, and politics, they say, is a matter of perception. Moreover, the last remnant of APC in Anambra joined APGA not long ago. So, requiem APC!
The PDP in Anambra remains a Fuji House of Commotion. The internal contradictions in the party remain perennially insurmountable. The Abuja-favoured aspirant remains a woman who could not get 10,000 votes in a state-wide election. She is at the National Assembly today courtesy of APGA. Challenging the engine room of APGA in Anambra State is audacity taken too far. Surely, Abuja abracadabra might work at her party’s primaries, but the era of ‘Abuja-made’ elections in Anambra is long gone. She has to face the challenges before her: confronting the national chairman of the party that put her at the National Assembly, a popular and performing governor whom she attempted to topple through the courts not long ago, a governor with personal axe to grind, who is not contesting any election anytime soon, seething with political hurts inflicted by her. How is she going to surmount these? Your guess is as good as mine.
Oliver Okonkwo
