''I won’t want my daughters to start serving the children of the scavengers in APC, Uche Ezechukwu (Exclusive by www.odogwublog.com)

 www.odogwublog.com reports exclusively that the Director of Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari during his presidential electioneering campaign in 2003, Chief Uche Ezechukwu, gave reasons why he joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra State amidst pomp and pageantry penultimate Month.

Chief Ezechukwu who is also the Chairman of Editorial Board of Authority Newspaper had served Gen. Sani Abacha as a media adviser while he was the military Head of State.

Ezechukwu who was never a party man until recently said he is determined to unite APGA and UPP to form a common front for 2017 and 2019 if given the chance.

His reasons in this Excerpt:


Chief what was your motivation that you joined a political party?

My motivation is not complex only that I have not been in a political party, even though I have always been a facilitator of political parties and their candidates. I don’t want to go very far, but when Buhari was running for presidency in 2003, I was his first ever Director on Media and Publicity even when there were all these cabals running around him, we belong to a group, called TBO. I was Media Adviser to General Sani Abacha, I wrote his biography and as you know, Buhari worked in Abacha’s government as chairman of PTF.

 So, when I was launching the Biography of Abacha in the biography called “Abacha, the Myth, the Man”  Buhari was the chairman of the occasion and the N1million naira he donated as the chairman of PTF, I was surprised that he paid this money because in the North, if a big man makes a pledge, you have to find the person nearest to him before you get the money. 

But to my surprise, some people came to my office and say that they want to remind me that chairman donated N1million yesterday and that the cheque is ready. I went to GTB bank and cashed the cheque. So, from there, the thing changed my perception about Buhari because I don’t know him before then.

So, each time people talk of integrity, I categorize him as someone that has integrity. When I was writing a column in a Yoruba paper called, Tribune, I wrote a column with the caption, “What Buhari is Not” It has part one to three. That my article was a turning point about how Buhari was perceived in Nigeria. This is because the Media was against him the time he wanted to contest for presidency because of what he did in 1984.
I was approached to Manage Buhari’s information desk as Director Media because of the article I wrote. This happened in 2003, I was the Director of Buhari/Okadigbo campaign Organization. I was able to make Buhari marketable and touched by everybody.  It was not easy because everybody was against him but showed him a new light and eventually, they rigged us out. I broke out with Buhari in the last other elections because of the way they killed those corps members in Bauchi.

Out of this principle, I said no because of the blood of dogs and baboons earlier threatened. We never had a quarrel, we still have that relationship. Over time, I came and managed Andy Uba’s campaign here in Awka.

I have never been involved with APGA except sentimentally, because I worked with Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, I wrote his biography when he died. Obviously, I am an Igbo man to the marrow, if the things of Nigeria should be divided according to party affiliations; you will find out that, APC will win only in the Northern state, and Yoruba. Why then should the one we called APGA not win in Igbo speaking states.

That is why somebody like Rochas joined APGA and won from it. Nigerian politics is changing by the day. People are going back into their cocoons and in my philosophy, I am a Nigeria to the marrow,   I am an Igbo Nigerian, not a Biafran. But, the way things are going; no one can beat a child and stop him from crying. Our people are not getting a good in Nigeria. Our President called us five per cent. Ministers and other portfolios will be shared without an Igbo man getting any share. Am not interested in any post, am a journalist and a writer.

The important thing that prompted me was that suddenly, Igbo people are now moving in droves, joining APC because it is at the centre. One of my friends told me that all prominent Igbo people from Amesi are in APC, and I ask him, prominent people or scavengers? Are they scavengers or food-is-ready politicians? There are less than three Igbo people who are connected more than me to northerners. So, I have no reason not to be with them, leaking their booth and all that but I will not do that. I remember when Awolowo died, the daughter put on Awo’s cap that she may be voted as the Lagos state governor,  Jergandu told her, ‘we served your father and our children will not serve his children’  I have served Nigeria where Hausas run the government, I have four daughters and I won’t want them to start serving the children of the scavengers in APC.

So, to me, I don’t believe that Igbos are the inferior race to anybody, even if two of us remains in APGA, I don’t want Nigeria to scatter, and be found to be in any other party that is not Igbo party. The day we are going to die, we die together, the day we are going  float, we float together because I know that many people don’t join APC out of conviction, they are going there either to protect their business, or to get what they think can benefit them from it.  I don’t want to benefit anything from APGA.

 Anglicans have a fine song that says that one can only be remembered for his good works. I am joining party to give service. What is APGA going to give to me, nothing.  God has given me some talents which I want to use for the benefit of the people and this time, our people are endangered and at this endangered time that I want to give my best to our people so that when next you see an Igbo man, you won’t insult him. Hausa people that are my friends don’t insult me because they know  I am an Igbo man to the marrow. I don’t compromise it. I want to be where our people are, I don’t want anything from APGA. I just want to be an APGA stakeholder, and use my God given talent and contacts to further the interest of the people and the party of the Igbo people. 

Somebody asked me why not join UPP, of Chekwas Okorie, he was my friend, and Ikemba’s friend when I was working for Ikemba, my greatest interest is for the Igbo people that has interest of Ndigbo at heart, to come together, and make UPP and APGA merge. That is one of my heart desires. To work towards merging UPP and APGA. I enjoin people to join APGA or UPP, we shall make them to merge. The only problem is the ego problem but I say that all the parties are my
Friends and we shall work together to make Igbo man proud.


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