By Tochi Onyeubi
Friday, 2nd November 2018 will remain a memorable day in the minds of APC stakeholders in Imo State. On the said day the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC scheduled as last day for submission of candidates name for governorship and House of Assembly elections, the NWC of the party, according to the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole narrated how the name of Senator Hope Uzodinma was shortlisted for INEC against that of the preferred choice of governor Rochas Okorocha and his followers.
Oshiomole in a press interview, the video obtained online in youtube states;
“First, is that I watched my dear friend, Governor Rochas Okorocha saying that 5million members have left, I didn’t know he was also a statistician, now the entire membership of the party in Imo State as far as I know, they are under a million, to put it generously.
So with where we are coming from, if people have left us because we are not able to help you get a political dynasty, then it lies on them to give further details about the origin, the location of the people who have left. You could see someone with one hand, wanting to run down his party, on the other hand, claiming to be loyal to that party, but the truth is that, Nigerians have become more and more sophisticated. At the heart of this challenge is the trauma of going through change.
If you know of any addict, like the people addicted to drug or alcohol for example, there’s something called withdrawal syndrome, when you diagnose them and try to stop them from that way that they have been addicted to.
Of course you know, most Nigerians have worried about how we can have a democracy in which only few kingpins dominate and that party membership does not carry any meaning and it is so called godfathers that anoint it, you hear of anointment and godfather in position.
Now my task has been to consciously work to steer APC away from this very heinous past, which PDP created, to open it up so that it can be membership driven. Now those who have survived so far, courtesy of this kind of impunity so far creating dynasty from their privileged position to accept the logic of participatory democracy, of bottom to top approach because, nothing explains the frustrations of these few people, very few and the fact that they cannot understand how in the primary, whether direct or indirect, the vote of the governor is only one, and the vote of the sweeper in government house who is a member of APC is also one, they can’t reconcile this reality.
So if you have 200 sweepers voting for a candidate and you have one governor, two commissioners, five special advisers voting for another, the logic of our own preferred democracy is that these sweepers will defeat these powerful governors. Some have not come to accept these ultimate logic of people driven democracy and what I have simply refused to do, is to insist that, having consciously chosen change as our slogan, that change must begin with u. It must be reflected in what we do, how we do it and we should learn, however frustrating, to reconcile ourselves with the reality that, we are in democracy.
“There are no emperors in APC and anyone who decides to invest himself as one, it will be an exercise in futility.
Certainly with all sense of modesty, not under my leadership because I’m clear about our rules, I’m clear about power and I’m clear about the limitations of those powers.
Yesterday I watched on national television where the Chief Judge of Imo State, I emphasize Imo State, where Gov Rochas heads the executive branch and the judge who holds the judicial branch, that judge in his wisdom having heard prayers by those who are before him, including the seating deputy governor to Rochas Okorocha, that order directed me not to tamper or have anything to do with any so called second or repeat primaries in Imo State.
And so in line with the advice of my dear friend Governor Rochas Okorocha, we will have nothing to do with the so called second governorship primaries that allegedly produced, Rochas Okorocha’s son inlaw, Mr Uche Nwosu. And for this, I thank Gov. Okorocha for such a wonderful advice and I hereby accept it in toto and in good faith.
On the issue of court order, Gov. Rochas Okorocha, Chairman of Progressive Governors Forum, is a beneficiary of that process, he followed the due process to rescue him, because in this country, nobody is ready to face the very fact.
The congresses conducted under my predecessor completely swept governor Okorocha out of the system from ward, to local government and to the state, but in abuse of the process, NWC deflected their rules and I am happy that we find courage to review what was wrongly done, and we summarily conducted another election which has now given him teeth to bite and lips smile and I’m happy for him. What I’m not able to do for Governor Okorocha is to assist him with the instrument of APC, even at that will border on abuse of power on my part assuming I have some powers, to help him create Rochas Okorocha political dynasty in Imo State in which Rochas will be the APC senatorial candidate and Rochas son inlaw, Uche Nwosu, (everybody echoes) “we all seem to know the name”, he said, will be APC candidate.
I do not have the power to help you create a political dynasty in Imo State. I am convinced that this is where many of my friend governors fail to understand me. If there is conflict between the known interest of the great people of Imo State, who have reposed confidence in us, by voting us to power, as they did in 2015. I will resist any pressure, particularly an unlawful pressure, on my part to assist to undermine the wishes of the good people of Imo State, at this stage, the wishes of APC members in Imo State who do not want a political dynasty by the way in which they have voted.
“We conducted the first governorship primaries that was headed by Mr Gulak, NWC has met, we have reviewed the report of the Gulak committee.
Because we found out it was in subjectial compliance with the guidelines guiding the conduct of gubernatorial primaries that it was mandated to do.
And we have upheld it and we have done the needful, also ensuring that, we have submitted the name of the winner, Senator Hope Uzodinma as the APC, candidate for Imo State.
If Governor Rochas choose to relocate to the villa, and use the ground of the villa to try to intimidate me to create a dynasty, I will, even on one leg, in my truth and conscience uphold the best interest of APC members and indeed APC people in Imo State.
I have also adviced him, and I need to say this, that, we as a party, just like we respect the rule of law, we also respect our religious leaders and so, Rochas personal battle with the Christian community in Imo State, is a matter between him and the catholic church and all the Christian community.
We as APC, we are not a party to that, and we do not want our party to be dragged into such contestation, because it5 will be unhelpful to us. We are party of the people our road to power, is election by the people, we are not antagonizing people, even the ordinary man in Imo is entitled to respect, not to talk of leaders of the Christian community, and so we distance ourselves from all of those things that Governor Rochas has done which sometime have been a huge embarrassment to our party, but we have tried to manage in house.
Yesterday, he said I should obey law, I stand here to say I am obeying laws in full, including laws of our party. He obtained what was a hateful exparte, searching for protection, but when you build something on a sand, it doesn’t stand.
That temporary order, has since expired and the judge that issued it, has since transferred the case to another judge. You do not have to be a seasoned legal practitioner to understand that exparte order has a limited life span.
It is not an interlocutory order, nor a sitting judgment and if that is what he is parading, then he will need superior instrument to be able to help him sustain his political dynasty, which I am not able to help to build”, he concluded.
