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National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Chief Victor Oye, speaks with TONY OKAFOR on the outcome of the general elections and the future of the party
How has APGA fared in the last four years?
APGA has done well, beyond the expectations of our traducers. God has granted us the grace to pilot the affairs of the party. I didn’t do it alone. There are men and women who have helped us to do this. We have worked as a family and carried one another along in prayers.
When we came in, we needed to up the ante. We set out to make sure we achieved that. And the first election that we won was the Gwagwalada Area Council in Abuja. That is a local council that no opposition party had ever won. Throughout the period of the Peoples Democratic Party, no other political party was able to win election in that local government. But we broke the jinx by winning the second largest municipal council area in Abuja, which is Gwagwalada. We followed that up with victories in the local government election in Niger State, where we won five council seats. We even defeated the governor of the state, Sanni Bello, in his ward and he said they should leave it for us. As if that was not enough, we followed it up with victory in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly election. We won Sagbama 11 state constituency. The man who won the election is Watson Belomonte. I sponsored his matter in court. That was how he became a member of the House of Assembly. As if that wasn’t enough still, we won a second seat into the Taraba House of Assembly in a bye-election. And it was in the midst of all these that the Anambra governorship election came, where our party produced an uncommon feat, winning 21 out of 21 local government areas in the state – a sterling record that will take another century to beat.
In January 13, 2018, we produced the first senator for Anambra under APGA. We had no single senator in Anambra before then. But we produced one and he was sworn in on the 18th of January, 2018. We are all aware that the Peter Obi/Atiku Abubakar factor affected the fortunes of our party in the 2019 presidential and National Assembly elections. But after that, our party picked up again and got 24 out of the 30 seats in the state assembly. Before then, in the National Assembly election, we won five House of Representatives seat, out of 11 in the state. If it was not for the impact of the backlash of Atiku/Peter Obi, which affected the fortunes of the party, we would have won all the National Assembly positions in the state. The five we won was an improvement over the two we had previously.
In the 2019 general elections, we made a foray into the North – with very strong statements, winning three seats in Benue (House of Representatives). We won one seat in Taraba; one in Abia, all into the House of Reps. It has been one victory after another all over Nigeria.
What are your projections for the party?
The first thing we will do is to build confidence in people about the party; unite our people; it is very important. We want everybody that feels aggrieved to bury their hatchet; let us work together; it is very important. We are not bragging about it; we need everybody. And in fact, APGA is sweeter when we are more. Some of the people who felt aggrieved have their reasons. But I use this medium to ask them to sheathe their swords and let’s work together. The future is very rosy. Some of the people who won elections this time never won in the past. But when their time came, they won. We will win in future. We are going to look at the welfare of our members. That is what we call stomach infrastructure. We believe that this party has reached a level where it should be able to take care of its members; it is not politics all the time. This is something we have been doing silently, without announcing it. But this time, we are going to promote it, so that it would reflect our overall vision.
We are also looking at the intellectual capacity of the members. I believe that as you are giving to the party, the party is also giving to you, by ensuring that our members get the opportunity to go for intellectual development abroad, and the party will sponsor them. We have a whole lot of things we set out to do, which I cannot espouse in this interview. We have very big plans for this party.
Meanwhile, our expansion plan will continue. We want to come out with a more elaborate plan on how to begin to win elections in Nigeria in a more concrete form. One of the ways to do that is building confidence in the people; building cohesion and synergy here and there. We want to invest in our indigent members as a welfarist party and instill discipline in members so that when we give instruction or directive, it will be carried out religiously. That is the kind of thing we want to do. We have other things we want to do. We are working with some agencies on how we can send our 36 state chairmen and others abroad for leadership programmes, so that they get developed intellectually and even administratively.
Some people are of the opinion that Igbo lost woefully in the 2019 general elections. Do you share this view?
The last election was a tragedy for our people. I was among those who spoke against putting all our eggs in one basket. My idea was that if we could give President (Muhammadu) Buhari about 40 per cent, then, the balance could go to anyone who we so much loved. But today, we have lost out. It was that mistake that we made on February 23. That is having serious impact on our people in Lagos. The people there voted for a party they saw as theirs and didn’t want Ndigbo to do otherwise. When you go to Rome, behave like Romans.
Your party has started shopping for the next governor of Anambra State. But Governor Willie Obiano is reportedly bringing in a top executive from a new generation bank to succeed him in 2022. How do you react to that?
As the national chairman of the party, there is no way the governor will have such a plan and he will not let me know. I can’t answer that question for now, but I know Governor Obiano is a man that strategises ahead of time. As far as I am concerned, it is still a rumour because no official statement has been issued. It is within the realm of speculation. It is still a rumour because you can’t say it with any tone of finality. I was discussing with the governor the other day; I told him that his shoes would be too big for anyone who would take over from him. He said that in the fullness of time, God would bring a man whose feet would be the size of the shoes.
Is true that a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Charles Soludo, has been promised the Anambra State governorship ticket of the party in 2022?
This is just a rumuor. There is no official statement for that. You don’t just go about promising people anything. Usually, we hold primaries, and the candidate of our party is elected through the primary election. If during the primary, the people decide it should be Soludo, why not?
Then why did Soludo suddenly start campaigning for Obiano’s re-election in 2017?
He didn’t come into the campaign suddenly. He started by supporting Obiano and asking “if it is not broken, why mend it”. The truth is that Soludo looked at all the candidates and decided to support Obiano. Remember even before then, he had been a member of APGA; he is not a new person in the party.
Having worked for the re-election of Obiano, don’t you think it will be appropriate to support him to become the next governor of the state?
Has anyone told you we are not bringing Soludo, or that it must be Soludo? Four years is still a long period. What we are saying is that before that time, things will show up; you will see it because it’s never hidden. Politics is like a pregnancy. The conception of the Anambra governorship baby has not even taken place and you are here talking about Soludo and a certain bank chief executive.
But do you think APGA can produce the next governor of Anambra State?
Everything about our future is in the hands of God. I don’t want to play God. Even prophesies are also inspired by divine connection; if God doesn’t give it to you, you cannot say it. He speaks through his creations. For me, I believe that APGA as a political party will do very well in 2022. No party can face APGA in Anambra State. This is the home of APGA. The party has come to stay here, and APGA government has been doing very well. When people talk about Peter Obi’s achievements, they should be talking about APGA. Peter Obi was an APGA governor, and all his achievements were recorded under APGA. We are very proud of what Peter Obi did as governor; he made APGA proud. Now, Governor Willie Obiano has come; he is doing better. We are also proud of the incoming governor, who will be of APGA too. A benchmark has been set and he must meet that benchmark of delivering the dividends of democracy; he has no option. That is why APGA government is different. (Punch)
How has APGA fared in the last four years?
APGA has done well, beyond the expectations of our traducers. God has granted us the grace to pilot the affairs of the party. I didn’t do it alone. There are men and women who have helped us to do this. We have worked as a family and carried one another along in prayers.
When we came in, we needed to up the ante. We set out to make sure we achieved that. And the first election that we won was the Gwagwalada Area Council in Abuja. That is a local council that no opposition party had ever won. Throughout the period of the Peoples Democratic Party, no other political party was able to win election in that local government. But we broke the jinx by winning the second largest municipal council area in Abuja, which is Gwagwalada. We followed that up with victories in the local government election in Niger State, where we won five council seats. We even defeated the governor of the state, Sanni Bello, in his ward and he said they should leave it for us. As if that was not enough, we followed it up with victory in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly election. We won Sagbama 11 state constituency. The man who won the election is Watson Belomonte. I sponsored his matter in court. That was how he became a member of the House of Assembly. As if that wasn’t enough still, we won a second seat into the Taraba House of Assembly in a bye-election. And it was in the midst of all these that the Anambra governorship election came, where our party produced an uncommon feat, winning 21 out of 21 local government areas in the state – a sterling record that will take another century to beat.
In January 13, 2018, we produced the first senator for Anambra under APGA. We had no single senator in Anambra before then. But we produced one and he was sworn in on the 18th of January, 2018. We are all aware that the Peter Obi/Atiku Abubakar factor affected the fortunes of our party in the 2019 presidential and National Assembly elections. But after that, our party picked up again and got 24 out of the 30 seats in the state assembly. Before then, in the National Assembly election, we won five House of Representatives seat, out of 11 in the state. If it was not for the impact of the backlash of Atiku/Peter Obi, which affected the fortunes of the party, we would have won all the National Assembly positions in the state. The five we won was an improvement over the two we had previously.
In the 2019 general elections, we made a foray into the North – with very strong statements, winning three seats in Benue (House of Representatives). We won one seat in Taraba; one in Abia, all into the House of Reps. It has been one victory after another all over Nigeria.
What are your projections for the party?
The first thing we will do is to build confidence in people about the party; unite our people; it is very important. We want everybody that feels aggrieved to bury their hatchet; let us work together; it is very important. We are not bragging about it; we need everybody. And in fact, APGA is sweeter when we are more. Some of the people who felt aggrieved have their reasons. But I use this medium to ask them to sheathe their swords and let’s work together. The future is very rosy. Some of the people who won elections this time never won in the past. But when their time came, they won. We will win in future. We are going to look at the welfare of our members. That is what we call stomach infrastructure. We believe that this party has reached a level where it should be able to take care of its members; it is not politics all the time. This is something we have been doing silently, without announcing it. But this time, we are going to promote it, so that it would reflect our overall vision.
We are also looking at the intellectual capacity of the members. I believe that as you are giving to the party, the party is also giving to you, by ensuring that our members get the opportunity to go for intellectual development abroad, and the party will sponsor them. We have a whole lot of things we set out to do, which I cannot espouse in this interview. We have very big plans for this party.
Meanwhile, our expansion plan will continue. We want to come out with a more elaborate plan on how to begin to win elections in Nigeria in a more concrete form. One of the ways to do that is building confidence in the people; building cohesion and synergy here and there. We want to invest in our indigent members as a welfarist party and instill discipline in members so that when we give instruction or directive, it will be carried out religiously. That is the kind of thing we want to do. We have other things we want to do. We are working with some agencies on how we can send our 36 state chairmen and others abroad for leadership programmes, so that they get developed intellectually and even administratively.
Some people are of the opinion that Igbo lost woefully in the 2019 general elections. Do you share this view?
The last election was a tragedy for our people. I was among those who spoke against putting all our eggs in one basket. My idea was that if we could give President (Muhammadu) Buhari about 40 per cent, then, the balance could go to anyone who we so much loved. But today, we have lost out. It was that mistake that we made on February 23. That is having serious impact on our people in Lagos. The people there voted for a party they saw as theirs and didn’t want Ndigbo to do otherwise. When you go to Rome, behave like Romans.
Your party has started shopping for the next governor of Anambra State. But Governor Willie Obiano is reportedly bringing in a top executive from a new generation bank to succeed him in 2022. How do you react to that?
As the national chairman of the party, there is no way the governor will have such a plan and he will not let me know. I can’t answer that question for now, but I know Governor Obiano is a man that strategises ahead of time. As far as I am concerned, it is still a rumour because no official statement has been issued. It is within the realm of speculation. It is still a rumour because you can’t say it with any tone of finality. I was discussing with the governor the other day; I told him that his shoes would be too big for anyone who would take over from him. He said that in the fullness of time, God would bring a man whose feet would be the size of the shoes.
Is true that a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Charles Soludo, has been promised the Anambra State governorship ticket of the party in 2022?
This is just a rumuor. There is no official statement for that. You don’t just go about promising people anything. Usually, we hold primaries, and the candidate of our party is elected through the primary election. If during the primary, the people decide it should be Soludo, why not?
Then why did Soludo suddenly start campaigning for Obiano’s re-election in 2017?
He didn’t come into the campaign suddenly. He started by supporting Obiano and asking “if it is not broken, why mend it”. The truth is that Soludo looked at all the candidates and decided to support Obiano. Remember even before then, he had been a member of APGA; he is not a new person in the party.
Having worked for the re-election of Obiano, don’t you think it will be appropriate to support him to become the next governor of the state?
Has anyone told you we are not bringing Soludo, or that it must be Soludo? Four years is still a long period. What we are saying is that before that time, things will show up; you will see it because it’s never hidden. Politics is like a pregnancy. The conception of the Anambra governorship baby has not even taken place and you are here talking about Soludo and a certain bank chief executive.
But do you think APGA can produce the next governor of Anambra State?
Everything about our future is in the hands of God. I don’t want to play God. Even prophesies are also inspired by divine connection; if God doesn’t give it to you, you cannot say it. He speaks through his creations. For me, I believe that APGA as a political party will do very well in 2022. No party can face APGA in Anambra State. This is the home of APGA. The party has come to stay here, and APGA government has been doing very well. When people talk about Peter Obi’s achievements, they should be talking about APGA. Peter Obi was an APGA governor, and all his achievements were recorded under APGA. We are very proud of what Peter Obi did as governor; he made APGA proud. Now, Governor Willie Obiano has come; he is doing better. We are also proud of the incoming governor, who will be of APGA too. A benchmark has been set and he must meet that benchmark of delivering the dividends of democracy; he has no option. That is why APGA government is different. (Punch)
