Basking in the euphoria of his victory at the recently held Anambra State governorship election, former CBN governor, Prof Charles Soludo, last week gave the assurance that as governor, he would work hard to drive the popularity of his party, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), in other parts of the country, adding that the party would no longer be regarded as a regional party.
The governor-elect, who made the commitment while speaking on Arise TV last Wednesday, said the APGA would “mainstream” its neo-progressivism and get Nigerians to buy into its ideas.
The last few days have been eventful in the life of Soludo, whose victory at the November 6 election poll is an expression of the people’s confidence in his ability to govern the state and proof that APGA is still the party to beat in Anambra.
As most Nigerians would agree, the governorship election was a make or mar battle for the party, a platform that has been in charge of Anambra for the past 15 years. A loss for the party in the election, which looked, at some point, like a looming possibility, would have meant the end of its existence. This possible outcome was not lost on Soludo himself, who had noted, during his campaign that his loss at the polls would mark the end of the platform.
The party’s survival was the key issue in that little speech. APGA had continued to hang by a thread, amid recurring internal crises. Soludo’s resounding victory meant that it survived its latest threat and would continue to survive for another four years, at least.
Although the governor-elect’s victory is a welcome relief and his commitment to drive its popularity would warm hearts, its future still hangs precariously in the balance.
Founded in 2002 by Chief Chekwas Okorie, who subsequently invited Chief Emeka Ojukwu to assume its leadership, Ojukwu became its candidate in the 2003 presidential election, but he lost the election to the then incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo, coming third behind Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, who was second. The idea behind its foundation was to have an South-East oriented political platform that would take charge of the region and challenge for power at the national level.
It did a good job of it initially, taking Anambra eventually in 2006, the year Peter Obi reclaimed his 2003 mandate and with Ojukwu, a widely respected figure among the Igbo, as its founding figure, it looked destined for greater exploits.
In the same 2003, the party’s governorship candidate in Enugu State, Mr. Ugochukwu Agbala, was denied victory by then governor, Chimaroke Nnamani, who deployed the state’s power apparatus to retain his seat. And in 2011, the APGA took over Imo State, with Rochas Okorocha as governorship candidate.
The party’s fortunes quickly went downhill, not helped by Ojukwu’s death in 2011, Okorocha’s decision to abandon it in 2013 to join the All Progressives Congress and the subsequent uninspiring and merchantile leaders that emerged, following Okorie’s ouster as national chairman.
Today, nearly 20 years on, APGA’s dream is closer to evaporation than actualisation. Now the onus of responsibility rests squarely on Soludo’s shoulders to turn this story around, especially as the country prepares for another general election in 2023.
Come March 2022, Soludo take over from Obiano as the party’s leader and his biggest task would be to take APGA beyond its present level. According to Chief Okorie, who does not see the party as being in total control of Anambra State, this will not be an easy task.
Both former governor Peter Obi and the incumbent Governor Willie Obiano, who should have succeeded Ojukwu as the party’s leader, failed to push it beyond Anambra. Although it is believed within the party’s circles that Obiano has done relatively well, even ensuring that the party made inroads in neighbouring Benue State, each time it spreads beyond Anambra, it quickly retreats into its shell.
This is perhaps due to the fact that, as many have posited, its successive leadership departed from its original mandate of being a rallying point for Ndigbo to become, like most other political parties, a place where positions go to the highest bidders. The consequence of which is the alienation of many, who had invested their emotions and resources, including those that initially saw it as a platform for the rekindling of the Igbo spirit.
Soludo’s emergence as governor is seen by many as another opportunity to reposition the party, a project he has now promised to undertake, but one that won’t be, by any stretch of the imagination, an easy undertaking.
Soludo’s commitment may sound refreshing to the ears of many who have watched the party stagnate in the hands of leaders that saw no need to actively drive it beyond its original enclave. Okorie welcomes the vision with open arms and promises to help to reposition and restrategise the party, even as he has full confidence in Soludo’s ability to make a difference. According to him, this should be done urgently because 2023 election is fast approaching and neither the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nor the All Progressive Congress (APC) is likely to present a presidential candidate from the South-East.
With this commitment made, Soludo has his job cut out for him. First, he would have to think beyond Anambra. His status as governor of the state puts him in a position to lead the South-East. Regardless, it won’t be an easy task.
Starting from Anambra itself, Soludo’s emergence as party candidate a few months ago nearly tore the party apart. It triggered a wave of defections, one capped by the defection, with just a few days to the election, of Dr Nkem Okeke, the state’s deputy governor, to the APC.
Okeke’s defection, perhaps more than anything else, regardless of the suggestions that he was lured by APC, spoke to the degeneration of the party. Before him was Sunday Umeoduagu, erstwhile Board of Trustee member, who also pitched tent with the ruling party. Six members of the Anambra State House of Assembly also left for the APC.
Soludo’s first task would be to reconcile aggrieved APGA members in Anambra, and perhaps encourage Mr Peter Obi, Obiano’s predecessor who left to join the PDP shortly after handing over to the incumbent governor, as both men fell bitterly apart, to return to the party.
Party chieftains are, however, upbeat, confident in their leader-in-wait’s ability to make a difference. One of them insists that the governor-elect must, however, look beyond Anambra to rebuild APGA.
Noting that many southeasterners have very little or no confidence in the mainstream political parties, except the APGA, the party chieftain believes this is an opportunity the party to grow beyond Anambra.
They want Soludo to do things differently. They want him to put an end to the undemocratic practice of selling the party’s tickets for elective positions to the highest bidder and to address the threat posed by the party’s Anambra centric leadership, which has operated like overlords over other states, in order to achieve sustainable progress.
For a successful tenure as governor of Anambra State and leader of the APGA, Soludo must understand that to attract other southeastern states to the APGA ideal, he has to allow homegrown leadership to emerge. In other words, it won’t be a case of somebody sitting down in Awka and dictating who becomes a candidate for an office in Imo or any other state.
*** By Obi Nwauball
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