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| * Uwajumogu |
Uwajumogu, a businessman and former Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly got his first political break when he was elected on the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA and later decamped to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN which fused to form the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.
The legislator in this interview with theledgerng.com editorial team talks about how he won the re-run election, issues in the highly volatile Imo politics, his fears and other issues. Excerpts:
What has changed between the General Election, 2015 when your opponent, Athan Achonu had
the upper hand and the re-run election where you emerged victorious?
In that General Election, as a matter of fact, there was no election in two Local Government Areas
in Okigwe zone, Ehime Mbano and Isiala Mbano where my opponent gathered the so called 48,000
votes with which he claimed to have won the election, election didnt take place in Ehime Mbano for
example.
The ballot papers that were brought for the election there were ballot papers meant for Imo East.
Imo East is Owerri zone. And on that day of the election, that was the ballot papers
that was brought for the election.
And by the time the proper ballot papers were brought, it was over 630pm in the evening. It was
agreed that the elections will take place the next day, being Sunday. The next morning by the time
we came for the elections, the results had been written for an election that never took place. Same
thing happened in Isiala Mbano where results sheets were not brought to the polling centres. But
results sheets were manufactured.
So there were no elections. It was not a change or shift of voter preference. I want to put on record
that at no time did Athan Achonu ever defeat me in an election.
These explanations seems fine and proper, but you just left the Imo House of Assemby as Speaker,
besides the All Progressive Congress, APC is in power in Imo State, so does it mean things were
taken for granted or the party was not vigilant.
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| * Uwajumogu |
It is not a matter of being vigilant, you had a situation where an incumbent President was standing
for an re-election, and the election was on the same day. And the South-East, SE and South-South, SS
was considered the home of the President. You had a situation where the security forces and all the
coercive powers Mr President had were deployed very openly against other parties. If you observed,
the APC did not win any Senatorial seats in any of the other States, they did not win in the five SE
states and they die not win any seat in the SS states, except in Edo North. Aside from that, you cant
tell me that in these other States there were no strong candidates, it was just an election that was
rigged by the powers that be at that time.
There is also this thinking by the PDP that Imo is still their territory even though the party had
been out of power for over eight years now, what do you think of this?
I want to state clear that is totally false. As a matter of fact, lets not allow our memory to fail us.
In 2003, elections were reportedly won by APGA. And everybody knows the elections were
manipulated in 2003.
In 2007, the elections that was won by Ohakim was initially won by APGA. If you recall
Martin Agbaso was running and the entire Imo had been convinced, even by Mr President to vote
for the APGA candidate, you had as situation where elections were cancelled for the governorship
and those for the House of Assembly. You had a situation where the same election, same location
was adjudged free and fair, but the governorship was no longer free and fair, and that was what
happened in 2007 and so PDP lost.
In 2011, PDP lost again to Rochas Okorocha and in 2015, PDP lost again to APC. So where is the PDP strength that is so dramatised and so talked about? And we have had elections in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 out of which the PDP only won in 1999 and 2003. The rest, even the 2007 was a clear manipulation. The fact is that in the PDP, we have a loud, vociferous minority, and lots of
moneybags, and of course they have access to media.
They are what we call urban guerrillas, they make all the noise, but the fact is that in all the election
that have taken place in the recent past, the APC have proven that they are capable, it is not true,
Imo is not a PDP state.
Today in Imo State, there are 27 LGAs, APC controls all the LGAs in the Okigwe zone. APC controls 21 LGAs out of 27 in the House of Assembly. What other things constitute a landslide, if this is not a
landslide? In the last election, PDP won only three LGAs, they won in Aboh Mbaise, Ahaizu,
Ezinihitte. In Ngor-Okpuala, they defeated APC with less than 2000 votes. And Ngor Okpuala is a
catchment zone in Mbaise. And the other place they won is Ohaji Egbema, which they won by
default. Aside from those four or five, six LGAs, APC cleared the other 21 LGAs, so who is more on
ground in terms of grassroots. All these happened in a time when the Army was owned by the PDP,
the Police and INEC was owned by PDP. There is no gainsaying the fact that Imo
State is politically dynamic, there are very strong politicians in Imo State, within the PDP and outside
the PDP, there are very strong politicians, and you cannot take away from them. But it is wrong to
conclude that Imo State is a PDP state.
One of the controversies that emerged from you victory is that the former governor of the State,
Chief Ikedi Ohakim declaring that he is retiring from politics, that he is disillusioned with the way
politics is being played in the State.
I dont know why Ohakim should be disillusioned about politics in Imo State and I dont think it has
anything to do with my victory because if I remember Ohakim was not on the ballot on the day of my
election. If he is disillusioned, it must be about something else. You cannnot take panadol for
somebody's headache. I know and I have monitored the former governor of Imo State, chief Ohakim,
he makes hyperbolic statements that do not really have anything to do the the actual situation and
circumstance.
If you recall in the last governorship election, the candidate that Chief Ohakim backed posted results
that read like 57,000 votes in Aboh-Mbaise where the voting population is in the neighborhood of
something like 58,000. In Ezinihitte, 47,000 where the registered voters is about 52,000, in Ahiazu,
27,000, this was the kind of votes that they manufactured. And then somebody is talking about
being disillusioned, I thought if somebody is talking about being disillusioned, those numbers would
have disillusioned him then.
The fact is that he was boasting that he was going to deliver Okigwe zone to the PDP before the
re-run Senatorial election.
Well, he did not deliver the PDP. If Chief Ohakim would reflect back, he would recall that in 2007, he
did not win his governorship on the platform of the PDP. He won it on PPA. This also buttress what I
was saying earlier that after 2003, PDP had never won the governorship election in Imo.
You are now the only APC Senator from the South-East, what are your expectations, what are your fears and what difference are you going to make?
I would start with my fears. My fears are that there are very high expectations from my people, Imo
North, Okigwe zone, my friends, family, colleagues and indeed Imo people and the South East. My
fear is that it may be near impossible within the circumstances of this country today to bring about
what people expect from government. The truth is that the government does not have the money at
this time to pursue the projects and the promises they made during the electioneering campaigns.
My fear is that our people still think that being in office or being in government is still business as
usual. People are yet to understand that there is a new style of governance which emphasises
transparency and accountability and of course the economic situation if this country today does not
give you the latitude in which to play as it were like in the past. Those are my fears.
Am grateful to God that I represent that that shift in the thinking and in the reality today of politics
in the South East being the first and only APC Senator from the SE, and indeed from the former
Eastern Nigeria. It imposes a huge burden on my shoulder, I recognise the importance and burden
that I had to bear. And it also goes to show a manifestation of the support that the SE has for the
administration of Muhammadu Buhari. Of course this government inherited a very terrible economy
and a lot of our people tend to associate this government with creating the recession we are facing.
But the fact remains that what we are facing today is just the reality of many years of bad leadership
at the top of the last administration.
I hope I can be one of those that can bring about solutions to how this country can be saved,
solutions to how we can change this country for the better. I believe in Nigerian and I believe in the
ability of Nigerians to soar above the current challenges. I look forward to working with my
colleagues in the Senate to help steer the country out of this rough waters that we have found
ourselves. It both a privilege and an honour to be elected by my people to be the first SE APC
Senator and am aware the entire country is excited about that
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| * Uwajumogu |
When your victory was announced and your certificate of return was given to you, the Imo
Governor Rochas Okorocha flew a kite that the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who is of the PDP should prepare to hand over the position to you. You are aware the APC had never been comfortable with the PDP holding that position. Are you warming up for the Deputy Senate
President seat?
I have addressed this issue before and by the grace of God, Sen. Ekweremadu is the Deputy Senate
President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was elected for that position. I had
been a presiding officer of a legislature and I understand and know how presiding officers are
elected and how they can be removed from office. I do not think in this situation that there is any
vacancy in the Senate and I do not think that I am here for any other job other that the job for
which I have been elected which is to represent my people of Okigwe zone. I am coming to the
Senate ready to work with the existing leadership of the Senate and be loyal to the leaders of the
Senate while supporting the programmes and policies of my party and the administration which is
headed by the leaders of my party. So I have no interest whatsoever of taking anybody’s position
and I am not here to take anybody’s position. All that talk is mere speculation and it has nothing to
do with me.
Are you playing safe sir?
I don’t understand what you mean by playing safe. I have told you that as somebody who had been
a presiding officer, I understand the power structure. Its not something you speculate upon because
it does not happen that way. There is only one way to elect a Senate President and Deputy Senate
President, DSP and it is by election by their colleagues. Even an APGA candidate can be elected to
be Deputy Senate President, and nothing stops anybody from being a DSP. And the only way way you can remove them is by impeachment and I don’t think the Senate is considering impeaching the
DSP for now. Laughs
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