I have a different perception about the ongoing political feud between Governor Rochas Okorocha and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). I do not intend to hurt some of my good friends in APGA, but as a social commentator who has monitored political development in APGA for a long time, it is important certain issues and factors bedeviling the party are espoused.
I watched with keen interest last week, renewed hostilities between Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and his former political party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) .
APGA led by Victor Umeh, its national chairman, announced that the party has up of a 29 man committee headed by veteran broadcaster, Chudi Onuzo, to reclaim the carcass of APGA in Imo State after Rochas Okorocha ditched it for the All Progressive Congress, APC.
Since the advent of democracy in the country, APGA has recorded sweet electoral stories to tell especially in Anambra State. The party has remained a huge political factor in that State as they have been holding forte the affairs of governance in Anambra for a long time.
In Imo State, the fruit of APGA’s labour has not germinated to a bountiful harvest. It is not a sweet tale for the party at all. Since 1999, the party has been a victim of political robbers. In most electoral contests in the State, it has snatched victory from the PDP only to sulk and weep like a weeping child weaned of the mother’s breast milk whenever the political octopus called the PDP snatch its electoral victory.
In 2003 and 2007, APGA made considerable political impact on the electoral map of the State. The okokoroko slang was the driving force that attracted Imolites to the party. Despite its its rag tag colouration, scarce funds to prosecute its campaign, a disorganized structure on ground, it was a party with the face of an Igboman and was attractive to all layers of the Imo society.
There is no doubt that the entrance of Owelle Rochas Okorocha into APGA enhanced the situation of the party. It gave it fillip and energy. Okorocha’s entrance brought in charm and hope in a party struggling to leap beyond winining elections and being robbed of it thereafter.
Okorocha’s coming coincided with the yearning for change and expectation expressed by Imolites who wanted a new government in 2011. At that time, Rochas and APGA were rightly or wrongly seen as the new faces of change by the Imo electorate.
If APGA had been winning elections and robbed of it thereafter, it must not forget that the entrance of Rochas into its fold could be said to be a huge propelling factor that earned it the seat of power in 2011. Rochas brought in that element of luck it craved for decades. This time, its victory was not stolen as it realised its age long dream of retaining it is electoral sucesss.
What I highlighted above was the post election era in Imo APGA.
Presently, the wine has gone sour. The groove has ended and painfully, on a sad note. Rochas and APGA have parted ways and what we see are political missiles flying in from the Rochas and APGA camps. The rythm or tempo of the suregede dance between Rochas and APGA has changed. And it has changed for the worse.Things have indeed fallen apart.
It is painful that at a time APGA should be reaping the gains of its political sucess in Imo State, it is back to square one, crying and lamenting that what it strived for decades to get has gotten off its grip again. Poor Thing!
I admit this is sad and unfortunate for a party that has laboured for decades to entrench itself as a major political force in Igboland. For a party that has wandered in political wilderness desperate to grab the entire five South East States to send signals that it is in charge of Igboland, Okorocha’s exit from the party is another sorry tale that is discomforting to those who have nurtured the party for decades, especially in Imo State.
However, I maintain my non-alignment with political parties whose pre occupation is to remain a regional, ethnic oriented political party, including APGA.
I had written on this colunm that regional political parties have a timeline to exist. Some political pundists argue that such parties do have an expiration date. Because as political dynamics shape the nation, such parties are unable to cope with such evolving political trends. Infact, the political tentacles of such political parties are restricted and confined within a political enclave.
This is what we are seeing in APGA, especially in Anambra State where Governor Peter Obi, Chief Victor Umeh, Lady Bianca Ojukwu have constituted themselves into mere domestic appendages to President Goodluck Jonathan led PDP.
I remember vividly the confession of a top APGA chieftain who alleged that the party was hugely funded by the PDP during the last general elections as precondition for support for Jonathan’s re election in 2011. The deal, I was told, was brokered by APGA chieftains of Anambra stock without the knowledge of their partymen and women from Imo State.
This startling revelation has manifested with the on going political smooching between some APGA henchmen and the ruling party. It is only Anambra members of the party that are huge benefactors of the crumbs from the ruling party’s table. Today, Bianca Ojukwu enjoys a juicy Ambassadorial position in Jonathan’ administration!
This is not the way to go for a party that prides itself as the cock that crows for Ndi Igbo. Will the party be taken serious if it insists it wants to produce the president if it keeps on dancing for the amusement of the ruling party?
In the South-West,Bola Tinubu, understood the changing political dynamics of the country and the need to include all shades of political interests in Yorubaland in his defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.
Despite Tinubu’s perceived dictatorial grip of ACN, he never restricted the largesse and benefits accruable to the ACN only to his wife and kinsmen from Lagos State alone. The broom revolution, which was the overall guiding philosophy of ACN permeated the nooks and crannies of Yorubaland, thus overshadowing the ruling party in the region.
In his determination to spread the tentacles of the ACN, Tinubu considered it necessary to expand his political fortress by merging with other progressive oriented political parties to form a national political party such as the All Progressive Congress(APC) .
Why can’t APGA leapfrog above being a regional political champion? Or are some persons feeding fat on it regional status? Can it produce the nation’s president without a handshake across the Niger? I wonder. Could it say it has fared well and better since it has remained a regional party ? Or is the crumbs falling from the table of the ruling PDP that has benefited a few in its fold translate to the fact that the party is doing well in its South East enclave?
This lend credence to insinuation in some quaters that the party is suffering from Anambrasation syndrome.
