READ NONSENSE FROM VICTOR UMEH. After the introduction, read his APGA: THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF PETER OBI What you are about to read was written by Sir Victor Umeh, The National Chairman of APGA, the Publicity Secretary, The APGA National Conference Delegate, The Chairman of APGA BOT, the leader of the party and only man with Automatic ticket to contest as Senator under APGA. Victor Umeh forgot to tell us that he demanded N500,000,000 ( Five Hundred Million Naira) to organize a convention that will ordinarily not take more tham N20,000,000. And what he does is to go to Eke Awka and get as many house people as possible, quarter them in hotels and pay them N3,000 pay day as hausa delegates from the States in the north. He is presently deceiving the present Governor, assuring him he would be the greatest if he delivers the three senatorial seats, because he is contesting. As it is now, the present Governor has been tricked to accept to finance his senatorial ambition. Meanwhile he is paid N40 Million every month to mange APGA, which he eats alone. As we speak, he is building two giant edifices in Enugu, even when he is doing nothing. Please, who is fooling who? APGA: THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF PETER OBI Late 2013 and early 2014, prior to the Anambra State 2013 Gubernatorial elections and after, Peter Obi persistently called the National Chairman of the ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, requesting to be made the Leader of the legally and INEC recognized Party. The National Chairman in the same brotherly spirit he had earlier demonstrated after the Appeal Court judgments in his favor - by agreeing to cohese with the only APGA Governor to find a befitting replacement for the Governor from Party, despite the Governor’s history of open rebellion against his regime, agreed to extend this hand of amity. The APGA National Chairman and his executives would go on to make Peter Obi the Leader of the Party and Chairman of the APGA Board of Trustees, given Peter Obis general presentation as the only visible standing APGA Governor irrespective of faction, also his recent momentary efforts at providing the necessary support to aid the APGA party return to the Government House, Awka. All past misdeeds were forgiven in light of this current presentation. Brotherly communication was to be encouraged. The party would and should be seen to have emerged stronger and in unity after all the strain. That would be the way forward in APGA, with all members and keen observers following. There will be calm and camaraderie in the land. The Party and its faithful were grateful in no small measure and here was the evidence to show. The National Executive of the Party wasted no time in following thru on this notion and passed a unanimous resolution to have Peter Obi as Leader and Chairman Board of Trustees during their meeting sometime in January 2014, to the chagrin of most steadfast members who thought that this current presentation was uncharacteristic given Peter Obi’s antecedents with the Party. A Governor who had supervised the destitution of the Party was now being made its Leader. What changed? The leadership of the party had to drag most faithful kicking and screaming to endorse the move. Peter wanted the appointment ratified and asked the APGA Party leadership to effect same. Peter was informed that it would take an act of the National Convention of the APGA party to ratify his appointment. The convention could easily be convened if he so desired. The National Secretary of the Party was then directed to go ahead to draw up protocols for a convention. The APGA National Party Secretariat through its National Secretary – Alhaji Dr. Abdullahi Shinkafi, informed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of its intention to hold a National Convention of the party for the 15th of February, 2014. INEC was asked to observe and monitor the convention as scheduled. The APGA Party Leadership submitted the protocols and budget estimate proposal for a National Convention on the 15th of February, to his then Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi sometime in January this year, and awaited word for a go-ahead. Peter did not respond till date. To the Party leadership’s chagrin, a Nigerian Federal High court ordered the Chief Victor Umeh regime to stop all operations designing that they had not been legally mandated. Given the Umeh regime’s understanding of a previous Appeal Court order which superseded that of the current Federal High Court order, Umeh’s administration continued the APGA Party operations while awaiting a feedback from His Excellency - Mr. Peter Obi, on the convention budget and go-ahead as proposed. February 15 was fast approaching. Peter Obi procrastinated and deigned. Afterall, he had already been made the Deputy National Leader of APGA by a convention of a faction of the party which he had overtly fostered. Why go ahead with the burden of another convention when the previous had just been deemed legal, given the recent court order purportedly recognizing the other faction?. His previous appointment now carried the force of Law. Peter grinned. He could eat his cake and have it, too. A political masterstroke. Really?. At the APGA National Headquaters in Libreville Crescent Abuja, Chief Umeh and his officers waited for response. None came. Unbeknownst to them, their Convention proposals rested permanently in Peter’s cooler. While they waited, word of the Umeh regime’s ouster gathered momentum, despite the existing Appeal court ruling. A press war ensued, armchair critics wondered the difference between a Federal High court and a Federal Appeal Court order. Which took precedence and which was superior?. Even the Secretary to the Federal Government – Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, asked the Attorney General of the Nigerian Federation for an interpretation. A legal quandary was here. Chief Umeh took this latest affront in stride. He would head to the Appeal courts to ask for an interpretation of their ruling and assure the sanctity of his mandate, as the duly elected National Chairman of the ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA). A legal case was made to the Nigerian Appeal courts. Motions were submitted, heard, upheld and dismissed. 5 months of legal wrangling ensued, with the Umeh regime emerging victorious again. The treachery was too obvious. Something had to give and someone had to absolve themselves from their presentations. Peter knew he had to go. Abdication was the only option left. He had lost the trust of the Party hierarchy, and there could only be mutiny awaiting this current treason. Peter resigned as Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Leader of the party. He was not pushed. The voice of Esau and the hand of Jacob were one and the same. Even the leader of the Faction he had once encouraged openly came out to add that “Peter was a failure as a political leader”. He was neither here nor there. The ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA), had gone thru thick and thin for the first Executive Governor produced under its banner. A singular war had been waged to have Peter become Governor. It took 3 years of hard judicial turmoil. His emergence was a triumph which re-energized an electoral base. Yes!. One way or another, this electorate had a voice. Whether Peter knew that was another matter. But his electorate knew. That continues to be the singular sustaining force for APGA. And that is why APGA will continue to thrive, despite individual betrayals. Like one of the political sojourners through APGA aptly noted, “We are APGA before any Party.” That is a truism. Deep down, the Nigerian electorate are very mindful of what goes on with APGA. APGA is the wrong party to be mischievous with. Peter’s emergence as Governor and De facto Party leader had seen the party lose a lot of its bigwigs who simply decamped to other parties. When asked why this was so as we now had an effective base to spread our message and needed all, Peter replied “Politics is like where you are making money, While you are doing so, some of the money you made will inevitably fly with the wind. Your job is not to ask the money that flew with the wind why it flew away, Your job is simply to go ahead and make more money.” This rationale may explain Peter’s general Political and life Philosophy. This apathy and insensitivity to the emotions following what was politically toiled for, may be Peter’s bane. A Governor whose singular influence stemmed from the power of the purse – Government purse, Peter would use same to cajole, harass, whip friends, foes and the party faithful to align with his perspective, or nothing. It was not even a take it, or leave it option, as very few ever made it to his presence. It was really trying times for the Party faithful, as they became disillusioned with the party progress. There was mumbling, not outright revolt. Afterall, he was our first APGA Governor. Who knew what else he was really going through?, was the consoling thought. Events gradually unraveled under his emergence as Governor, as Nigerians across the nation flocked to join APGA. They waited in the wings for APGA to throw open the gates and receive them with fanfare, this never happened. Rather a Governor who shunned the spotlight emerged, also shunning the Party faithful, political accoutrements and encomium. Unfortunately, this is politics, not Philosophy. If this was a new political strategy, the Nigerian electorate which had endured all kinds of political and policy distress was prepared to wait this one out. This was APGA. Their own political party. If any Leader/Governor’s opinions had merits, they will know, after 8 years. The 8 years are over. The political misadventures and shock continue to reverberate. APGA and its electorate never recovered from a Peter Obi Governorship and de facto leadership. A Governor who refused to understudy the Nigerian political terrain to the benefit of his electorate, also refused to mobilize the electorate regarding their yearnings, starved his party of funds, refused to energize the party base or its chieftains, refused to provide support and logistics for campaign elsewhere in Nigeria which would have greatly energized the party, demonstrated a difficulty with campaigning for its candidates in local elections, but rather tried to reduce the party to a spineless corollary of the ruling party, offering the ruling party allegiance in return for nothing in particular, saw such political calculations boomerang openly in his face and made any followers seriously doubt his political strategies. A Governor who asked the APGA hierarchy to adopt the ruling President- Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, as its Presidential candidate without any formal or subsequent accord, believing that good faith was enough. Peter later found out that their verbal agreement was not worth the paper it was written on. Yes. The PDP won the presidency. APGA which campaigned heavily to its electorate on behalf of the President had nothing to show for it. Not a Federal Board or, a Ministerial Appointment. Peter rather encouraged PDP members to assume spots on behalf of APGA. Telling them “We are one”. No. The PDP gravy train did not feel the same way. They could not believe this windfall. What a waste of APGA electoral effort? As APGANS and deserving party members watched their electoral largesse shared without them? What manner of political felicity was this?. Poor man dey suffer, baboon dey chop. Strange. Very strange. A Governor who was denied the Chairmanship of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum by the ruling Party, even though he was perceived as their lackey and had a gentleman’s agreement with them. Peter was summoned to Abuja and openly told by the Vice-President – Arch. Namadi Sambo, that the ruling PDP party was not receptive to have someone outside its ranks mount the headship of the Nigerian Governor’s forum. Same scenario played out 2 months ago with the Governor losing out to a relatively unknown Chidoka as Minister of Aviation, after being openly wooed at Ekwueme Square, Awka, Anambra State, that he was needed in Abuja as part of the President’s exco. The APGA Party leadership had had enough of this presentation and disgrace. The shame of the above repeated treatment led the Chairman of the ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA) Chief Victor Umeh, to warn the ruling PDP party, that there must be an effective agreement between the parties for any future alliances. We at the APGA cannot continue to waste our electoral efforts. A leader who had supervised and encouraged internal bickering and quietly funded rebellion in the ranks, creating 3 different factions of APGA under his watch including The Nwobu- Alor group, The Massalla group and the Maxi Okwu Group, silently reduced APGA to a Fiefdom where all awaited his silent design and nod. A leader who lacked the ability to welcome, cohese and increase camaraderie amongst the party ranks has to have a sense of what disaffection such ineptitude may engender. During his 8 years, Peter Obi never mapped out a general agenda, or encouraged the Party leadership to develop one, or even acknowledged any protem agenda developed by the APGA party hierachy for posterity. Expedience was no strategy. It was not that Peter could not develop one, he simply could not draw a difference between a personal agenda and a political or electoral agenda. There lies the Achilles. APGA was simply an interruption in Peter’s individual ambition. Being Partyless would have helped. That way, he would account to nobody, and would not be blamed for any miscalculation on behalf of the Party, public, or electorate. That is non-politics. The APGA would suffer greatly for Peter’s leadership. Assuring allegiance and seeking benevolence had not worked as a political strategy. With this latest development, APGA has again been left high and dry by an entrusted leadership, who lacked the ability to sustain a consistency sorely required to move the party ahead. The lesson of Peter Obi is that strong parochial sentiments and persistent advocacy drive Nigerian Political alignments. Make no mistake about that. No Jetsam and flotsam here. The Government and the electorate will only listen and respond to sections, not individuals who have strong sentiments for, or against it. The ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA) has one. Its representatives must do a better job of embodying, representing and propagating those core values its electorate stands for, including sentiments on domicile security, population census, inter-state trade, road networks/transportation, economics, Trade and industry, education, Public health and sanitation, delivery of healthcare services and the Diaspora. No shaking. That is the APGA agenda. Any Leader of APGA must find effective ways to present the above opinions while not compromising the electorate’s fortunes, as at the APGA, we remain our brothers keeper.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 11:28:06 +0000
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