Still waiting for Umeh in Senate

By Oguwike Nwachuku
Two Anambra indigenes that I have worked closely with in the newsroom – Fred Chukwuelobe (Champion Newspapers) and Tony Onyima (National Interest Newspaper) – recently wrote and posted on the social media what I personally considered a masterpiece on the contentious Anambra Central rerun election billed for this Saturday, January 13 as it affects the man in the eye of the storm, Chief Sir Victor Umeh, OFR. Their pieces came from minds anyone can proudly refer to as mature minds.
I could not but adopt their views wholesale in this my final intervention in the series of views I have held since Chief Umeh, Ohamadike Ndigbo, and the man whom providence has chosen to represent the good people of Anambra Central at the highest law making body of the country as their senator entered into the fray in 2015.
First, let us consider what Chukwuelobe, also a former Chief Press Secretary to former Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State wrote which he tagged, “Victor Umeh and the lynch mob.”
He said: “Chief Victor Umeh has every right to aspire to represent Anambra Central Senatorial District in the Senate. He has every right to campaign in all the towns that make up the district. And he’s doing that so responsibly and maturely.
“He’s one politician you can’t fault on his style. Easily recognisable with his unusual red cap, towering over a head filled with ideas and an ever smiling and dutiful wife, always willing to give a helping hand.
“He has faced many court cases and has won every legal challenge thrown in his direction. In our days at Government House, Awka, when the former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi was asking for His mandate, Victor Umeh was the rock behind the legal tussle.
“It was he who provided most vital documents for the lawyers, and he took the witness box to give unassailable evidence and helped in no small measure in ensuring that the tribunal delivered judgment in Obi’s favour.
“Although I was on the other side, I couldn’t help but marvel at his loyalty and doggedness. I never wanted them to win, but they did. That he fell out with Obi later should not obfuscate his prowess in that era.
“For those, especially Obi’s aides fighting hard to stop his ambition, don’t forget he helped you realise yours. Come January 13 he will realise his because he’s paid his dues. Except God says otherwise, there’s no stopping him. I like the guy. I like his style. And I support him. I just felt like chipping this in.”
I had hardly finished reading Chukwuelobe’s piece when I stumbled on that of Onyima.
Onyima was a former Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Publishing Limited and worked with Governor Willie Obiano as the pioneer Commissioner for Information in the first term of the governor.
Onyima’s own write up was captioned, “Victor Umeh’s Long Walk to the Senate.”
He wrote: “What’s really in a name? Everything, some will say. Names create an impression about a person and many times we form opinions about people based on their names.
“Take Chief Victor Umeh for example. At birth, his parents gave him two names – Chukwunoyelu (God be with you) and Victor. These two names seem to have profoundly defined his life and politics. His politics, on face value, appears to be controversial but like the mythical phoenix he has always emerged victorious and stronger from each crisis surrounding him.
“The intrigues, conspiracy, fabrications and treachery that have dogged Umeh’s travails since March 28, 2015 when he contested election to represent Anambra Central at the nation’s Senate can be likened to late Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom after spending 27 years in prison.
“The title of this piece is therefore a paraphrase of Mandela’s odyssey. Like an Ijele masquerade, he stands out in the Anambra State’s political landscape. What you see of him depends on what you are looking out for and where you are standing at the time.
“Many love him with their hearts. Some hate him with venom. But love or hate him, Chief Victor Umeh, OFR, Ohamdike Ndigbo is a passionate patriot, consummate democrat, formidable and intrepid politician with resilient and unwavering sense of justice and equity. His political sagacity is peerless. He is easily the generalissimo of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). With his towering red cap, he has created a unique physical identity for the party.
“Born on July 19, 1962, Umeh was providentially brought to national limelight on December 15, 2004 when the National Working Committee (NWC) of APGA elected him as acting national chairman of the party following the suspension of the then party’s leader, Chief Chekwas Okorie. The suspension and later expulsion of Okorie resulted into the longest and most protracted crisis in the party.
“Between January 31, 2005 and March 25, 2011 when the Supreme Court upheld the suspension and expulsion of Okorie, a record number of no fewer than 23 lawsuits were instituted in various courts across the country. It is remarkable to state that all the cases were decided in favour of Umeh.
“His legal victories were manifestations of his deep knowledge of the political process, sound insight into the labyrinth of law and respect for rule of law. His resistance against reactionary forces has ensured that today his name is permanently etched in the nation’s jurisprudence.
“Okorie’s challenge was resolved on March 7, 2012 when he returned the certificate of registration of APGA in his custody to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“By April 2013, another crisis spearheaded by Hon. Sylvester Nwobu-Alor erupted. Encouraged by state power, Nwobu-Alor created factions in APGA with the election of Chief Maxi Okwu as national chairman.
“The Okwu faction instituted no fewer than 20 lawsuits across the country with most of the suits resolved in favour of Umeh.
“On January 15, 2016, the Supreme Court upheld Umeh’s leadership of APGA despite the fact his tenure as national chairman had ended six months earlier. Under his watch, APGA soared; winning many positions – three Federal constituencies; Chief Peter Obi’s re-election in 2010; in 2011 general elections APGA won Imo governorship, one senatorial seat, seven seats of House of Representatives, a good number of State House of Assembly members, produced two Speakers, and three ambassadorial appointees.
“In 2013 APGA also won Anambra State with Chief Willie Obiano emerging as governor. Umeh was also the chairman of the Obiano Re-election Campaign Organization, which ensured that the governor was re-elected with a historic mandate on November 26, 2017.
“The Anambra Central Senatorial seat, which Umeh is seeking to occupy, is perhaps the most contentious election in Nigeria. Since March 28, 2015 when the election was first held, litigations arising from the outcome had moved from the election tribunal to Appeal Court and Supreme Court.
“Today there are tribunal judgment, three Appeal Court judgments, two Supreme Court pronouncements and no fewer than four Federal High Court judgments. Majority of these judgments particularly the ones at the appellate courts were again in favour of Umeh.
“The November 20, 2017 Appeal Court judgment which ordered INEC to conduct a re-run election within 90 days, in the view of many legal analysts, is final. This has led INEC to fix Saturday, January 13, 2018 as the date for the re-run. These legal twists came as a result of the brazen impunity of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State.
“It is pertinent to point out that since 1999 PDP in Anambra State has remained problematic so much so that today while PDP at the national level is making strenuous efforts to reposition the party, the Anambra State chapter is retrogressing.
“The chapter couldn’t organize a credible state congress to enable it participate at the concluded national convention of the party. But in Victor Umeh they found a formidable match.
“With the reassurance of INEC that the January 13, 2018 re-run will hold, it would seem that the people of Anambra Central will finally have a senator representing them at the red chamber of the National Assembly.
“And from all indications and the grace of God, it would also seem that Umeh’s long walk to the Senate, which he started two years and six months ago would end on a victorious note come January 13, 2018.”
On December 13, 2015, yours sincerely wrote in this column what I termed “Waiting for Umeh in Senate.”
From every indication, that piece appears more relevant now than two years ago when it was authored.
What probably has changed is that the Appeal Court which invalidated Uche Ekwunife’s election on December 7, 2015 and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct another one within 90 days in Anambra Central zone reiterated the same judgement when the characters that rigged Ekwunife in and Umeh out ab initio thought they could approach the court again using all manner of political gerrymandering to subvert justice.
Below is a paraphrase of yours sincerely’s thought after the initial Appeal Court’s ruling.
“Thomas Alva Edison is variously considered one of America’s most prolific and successful inventors. Edison did not only invent the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb, he also invented the automatic telegraph.
“He did all that after wading through the vicissitudes of life from childhood to adulthood when he became the first person to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
“While growing up, Edison had challenges that made his teachers regard him as not focused and constantly ignoring their instructions. He was hearing-impaired but his teachers thought he was slow to learn and probably retarded.
“The frustration was enormous that his mother withdrew him from school and decided to educate him at home.
“But that is not the issue here. The big deal is what Edison said: ‘Many of life’s failures are men who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.’
“What fired Edison to success could also be likened to the determination that made Morton Downey Jr., an American talk show host famous for his trash-talk-show, to blaze the trail in his career even after he was socked by rejections from the high and mighty due to his dress code – wearing red socks and brown shoes.
“In fact, Joe Kennedy, father of former United States President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy, once told Downey that he had never met ‘anyone wearing red socks and brown shoes who ever succeeded.’
“Kennedy’s comment was not lost on Downey who, after examining his journey to success, said: ‘As long as a person doesn’t admit he is defeated, he is not defeated – he’s just a little behind and isn’t through fighting.’
“The quotations credited to Edison and Downey fit appropriately into the circumstances surrounding the political career of the former National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Umeh, whose quest to represent Anambra Central in the Senate is gradually becoming realistic.
“On Monday, 7 December, the Appeal Court sitting in Enugu nullified the election of Uche Ekwunife who ran on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election within 90 days.
“The three-man appellate court, led by Justice A. H. Yahya, in nullifying the March 28 election of Ekwunife, described the decision of the Anambra Election Tribunal that originally upheld her election as perverse.
“The Appeal Court agreed with the reasons Umeh advanced for the verdict of the tribunal to be quashed. ‘The perverse decision of the lower tribunal cannot stand. This appeal stands and the INEC is hereby ordered to conduct fresh election in Anambra Central Senatorial Zone within 90 days,’ the court ruled.
“Many people had looked forward to how Umeh’s appeal would play out.
“With the mass nullification of the polls by the courts it is no more in doubt how fraudulent most of those who claimed they won elections emerged, including Ekwunife.
“It is unfortunate that electoral manipulation and malfeasance have dominated our political landscape for too long that representation in elective offices across the nooks and crannies of the country is messed up by criminals who ought to be far away from politics.
“I wrote in this column on December 7, 2014 on the subject, ‘Obiano, seize the moment’, that I have interacted with a cross section of Anambrarians and what they are telling me about Victor Umeh, Ernest Ndukwe and Dubem Obaze’s senatorial candidacies is quite encouraging and raises hope of a stronger APGA and better Anambra State under the party. But Obiano has to seize the moment…
“Umeh in particular does not need introduction, having fought through thick and thin as APGA national chairman to ensure it remains a party the Igbo are proud to identify as theirs ….
“It is not enough for Obiano to nickname Umeh Ogbunigwe (Biafran weapon of war known for its potency in mass destruction).
“Obiano should find out why that name has stuck with Umeh in the past few years that he has been one of the minders of APGA.
“I have never seen a man who believes in the supremacy of the rule of law like Umeh and this he demonstrated all through his tenure as APGA chairman and continues to demonstrate to date.
“That his request was granted by the Appeal Court is heart- warming and shows the hand of God in his quest to go to the Senate.
“Apart from the Igbo needing strong voices like Umeh at the centre, his presence at the Senate will be a moral booster to the APGA family wherever the members are located…
“Umeh going to the Senate will be the best thing to happen to Obiano today and he must do well not to blow the opportunity.
“I entertain no fear that Umeh will represent Anambra Central, and well too.
“What the court has simply done is in line with an adage that he who takes what belongs to a kid and raises his hands above that of the kid, whenever that hand starts hurting he will bring it down.
“By hook or crook, Ekwunife and her co-travellers took what does not belong to them, raised their hands up, and have brought down those hands for the owner of what they stole to have it back.
“Who says patience, endurance, doggedness, perseverance, perceptiveness and faith in God-ordained destiny, the way Umeh is going about his politicking does not pay?”
Those who are working day and night to truncate Umeh’s reelection knowing full well that it is more or less a walk over are simply wasting their time.
Well-meaning people of Anambra Central senatorial district should treat such persons as enemies of the zone. They should isolate such persons as champions of underdevelopment who have shown how dastard, selfish, greedy and foolish they are.
The fact is that Anambra State as a whole and Umeh’s Senatorial zone should be proud of a person like him. They ought to celebrate Umeh as a worthy son, and one who cannot fail them if he gets the opportunity to represent them.
Politicians who are resolved to stop Umeh know he will diminish their relevance when he gets to the senate because Umeh knows what they are not doing right that should have been in the interest of the people.
And by the way, the stop Umeh by all means possible campaign is not about Umeh per se, but about the common people of his senatorial zone in particular and Anambra State in general who Umeh is out to serve from the depth of his heart.
If they are perceptive enough, their intuition should have reminded them that when God says yes to a course nobody can say no as Umeh’s journey so far to the Senate to represent Anambra Central Senatorial zone seems to be pointing to.
That is why regardless of the permutations to stop Umeh, well-meaning Nigerians at the Red Chambers are still waiting for him at the senate as January 13 has divinely been set aside to open another chapter in his political journey. We shall all be alive to serve as witnesses to how it all started.