National Chairman of United Progressive Party (UPP) and founding National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), CHEKWAS OKORIE, is still passionate with his dream of Nigerian president of South East extraction. In fact, he sees his UPP as a viable platform for the agenda, even as the party is relatively new. Okorie also laments developments in APGA and the fate of Ndigbo ahead 2015 general elections, in this interview with Special Correspondent, OKEY MADUFORO.
You were a participant at the recent World Igbo Congress (WIC). What actually transpired at the forum?
I participated actively at the political forum of the congress in Houston, Texas, on Saturday, August 30, 2014. The political forum is usually the most attended event in the one-week annual convention of the WIC.
Among 2,000 delegates of mostly Igbo professionals and intelligentsia, there was a very strong contingent of top Igbo political leaders especially of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), some traditional leaders and leaders of Ohanaeze Ndigbo who came from Nigeria to drum support for the 2015 Jonathan presidency.
Incidentally, the event was presided over by Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, who was also the leader of PDP delegation from South East. It would appear that the major objective of PDP political leaders was to secure a motion to endorse President Jonathan for the 2015 presidential election. My speech altered all of that.
Without being immodest, my speech was so well received that an endorsement for President Jonathan was immediately dropped. In a nutshell, I reminded the audience of the benefits that accrued to our people when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe led the NCNC in the First Republic to form alliance with the NPC, and the benefits also derived from the NPP-NPN Accord in the Second Republic. I told the audience that we were not against alliances or negotiations, but that those in PDP were already disadvantaged to enter into any negotiation with their party that would be of any meaningful benefit to our people.
I confirmed to them that UPP had zoned the 2015 presidential election to the South East zone, and that it was from that pedestal that the UPP, as in the cases of NCNC and NPP of old, would enter into an alliance with any political party that would give our people respectable and meaningful accommodation in the scheme of things. The message was clear and well received with resounding ovation.
But why do Ndigbo choose to hold the conference outside Igboland?
The World Igbo Congress was established in 1994, specifically to mobilise Igbo-speaking people of the South East and South South living in the United States of America and Canada for the purpose of uniting them and to make useful contributions and interventions for the welfare and development of Igbo people in Nigeria.
WIC will lose its essence if it shifts its base from the U.S. to Nigeria. I have attended the event since 1995 which has been rotated from state to state in the U.S. It has always been a thing of joy to behold many Igbo men and women who usually will be meeting one another for the first time in many years at such occasions notwithstanding that they all live in the U.S.
However, a more global body called Igbo World Assembly (IWA), which has branches in over 37 countries led by Dr. Nwachukwu Anakwenze, holds its annual convention in Nigeria. The Igbo World Assembly rotates its annual convention from one state to another in Nigeria. The recent one was held at Awka, Anambra State, on Saturday, September 27, 2014. I was invited and I delivered a well-received speech in the presence of prominent Igbo leaders and leaders of Ijaw National Congress (INC) and a large audience of Igbo men and women.
Your party, the UPP, is relatively new in the country. How do you intend to win in 2015 general election?
Indeed, UPP became two years old only on October 2, 2014. As you said, it is relatively a new party, but the leaders are not new in Nigerian politics. You know it is public knowledge that I founded APGA, and when circumstances led me to found the UPP, a cross-section of APGA members that believed in my vision across the country joined me in the formation of the new party. So UPP took off two years ago with a solid nationwide political structure. The strategic initiative of the party to zone the 2015 presidential election to the South East geo-political zone immediately altered the political equation in the country. What is certain is that the UPP, PDP and APC shall lock horns in an epic democratic encounter for the presidency of Nigeria.
That strategic initiative has already placed UPP as the third party to be reckoned with, even before the first ballot is cast. Let it be noted, however, that we are not ruling out the possibility of an alliance with any of the major political parties that will be of mutual benefit to the parties in alliance. What is current in the democratic world today is that most stable democratic government have been founded by coalition of two or more political parties.
UPP will either win the 2015 elections or be a critical factor in the formation of the government of the next dispensation.
APGA, which was your brainchild, has passed through several crises since you left. Do you think it still has a future?
As you rightly noted, APGA was my brainchild that became a victim of political kidnap. The kidnap of APGA was masterminded by Peter Obi, the former Governor of Anambra State, and Victor Umeh, former national treasurer under my leadership who incidentally are kinsmen from Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State. They did not share in the vision of the founding fathers of APGA. They enjoyed the support of the presidency in Abuja that had reasons to seek the destruction of the party. It was intended at the formation of APGA that its presidential slot will remain in the South East geo-political zone until the objective of an Igbo president of Nigeria was achieved.
This cardinal objective was well known by Nigerian political leaders and the presidency under Olusegun Obasanjo was most uncomfortable with this. It is in the fulfilment of the understanding between Obi and his kinsman, Umeh, on one hand and the presidency on the other hand that resulted in APGA adopting the PDP presidential candidate in the 2011 election and the yet to be conducted 2015 general election.
The relationship between Obi and Umeh later nose-dived.
The bitter and acrimonious relationship between Obi and Umeh, erstwhile close allies, in the conspiracy of destroying APGA can only be described as retributive justice. These two characters set Ndigbo politically backward by several years. By what they did, they murdered sleep. They will live with moral burden for the remainder of their lives except they do an appropriate restitution.
How do you see Umeh’s declaration to contest a Senate seat, with APGA members grumbling that he cannot remain as national chairman and go for primaries?
When Umeh mounted a political coup d’etat against me, his benefactor, and received the blessing of the Nigerian establishment about six months after to transmute from the position of treasurer to national chairman of the party, without going through the process of a national convention as required by law, he showed how inordinate he could be in pursuing his ambition. It should, therefore, not be surprising to anybody that he will give himself the slot for the senatorial seat of his zone in 2015 general election while still clinging to the office of national chairman of APGA. How far this his latest adventure will carry him will be seen sooner or later.
How would you place the position of the recent confab as regards the interest of Ndigbo?
I must admit that the recent national conference met some of the Igbo aspirations. Since national dialogue of this manner is a continuous process, I wish to express some measure of satisfaction with the decisions reached at the conference. I just hope that President Jonathan will take immediate steps to implement the recommendations of the conference as presented to him. In the same token, I urge the National Assembly to do whatever that is necessary within its powers to give legislative backing to the recommendations of the conference when they will be presented to the Senate and House of Representatives.
How did you see the performance of the Igbo delegates at the confab?
At the commencement of the confab, the Igbo delegates were quite lackadaisical compared to the activism, vibrancy and robust contributions and interventions of their counterparts from other geo-political zones.
Igboezue, a socio-political association of Igbo people in Nigeria and in the diaspora, did not hesitate to express its disgust with the non-performing Igbo delegates. Shortly after the criticism, which was widely published, the Igbo delegates rose to the occasion. Igboezue did not hesitate to recognise their improved performance. I must commend the delegates to have come out of their apparent stupor to make Ndigbo proud in what turned out to be a sterling performance.