Anambra Guber: The 7 APC aspirants are our first eleven, men of impeccable character—Umenzekwe

The APC Government appears to be finding her bearing, people are seeing signs of light at the end of the tunnel, our president just slashed the amount being paid for dialysis from N50,000 down to N12,000, fuel price is crashing, some food items prices are gradually coming down, Chief what is happening?

When Mr. President was sworn in and he said, fuel subsidy is gone, people went mad; people started calling him all sorts of names. He was not deterred; he went ahead and made other policies for the betterment of this country, and I did say that time that a patient dog eats the fattest bone. Those policies are beginning to yield results.

I equally said that time that before you see a mansion standing, there must have been a very good foundation. So the president took time to lay a very good foundation, and that is why you are seeing the building standing. I am not surprised that the dialysis price has crashed, fuel price crashing, food items, crashing, and all that. I am not surprised because I know it would happen based on the policies laid down for Nigerian, because the president made it clear that the poor must breathe. And that is where we are heading to. So you rightly captured it that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

One of the stalwarts of APC, in the name of Mallam El Rufai has dumped the party, but many said they are not surprised, that an oga at the top is busy planting moles in other parties, how do you see such political thinking?

Are you talking about planting or talking about defection? Let me know the one I am addressing.

Some people say what we are seeing about El Rufai move to SDP is the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob

Who is the Jacob and who is the Esau?

The fear is that the Oga being referred to is capable of doing anything as he has become the latest political Maradona in the land allegedly, okay, let’s put it this way, how do you see the defection of El Rufai to another party, is it a sign that APC is in crisis? El Rufai is one of the people who played key role for the emergence of the president, how come he left the party?

Well, APC is not in crisis, and God willing, we will never be in crisis. On the issue of defection by El Rufai, it is normal occurrence in party politics, he may have his reasons, he may have played a big role, in Asiwaju’s emergence, it does not mean that he cannot defect if he so wished. So I have not discussed with him to start telling you the reason behind his defection. So everybody is free to defect to any party he wishes, so it is not about crisis, after all he was in PDP before, to CPC, to APC, and now to SDP, it is his own constitutional right to defect. I respect him as a Nigerian, and I respect him for whatever role he played in the last presidential election, fine and good, but then, he has the right to make political decisions that he thinks will favour him better. So I don’t see any problem with that.

Embedded in that question also, there is this view in public domain that APC politicians are being planted in different parties, Wike is in PDP doing his thing, allegedly, El Rufai has been pushed to SDP, allegedly, the rumour making the rounds also said even Labour will never remain the same…

Why do you want to act on rumour? I don’t act on rumour, so you cannot substantiate you claim. But then Wike made it clear that he is a member of PDP, that he cannot refuse an assignment given to him by the president of the federal republic of Nigeria in the person of His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, he is the president of everybody, so he has the right to give even you asking me questions to give you an assignment, so I don’t see why people are after Wike, he is a PDP member and he is in Tinubu Government, those are cock and bull stories. Wike is serving Nigeria as directed by the president of Nigeria. Then you are talking about Labour, Labour is a political party, they have their rules on their own. We have nothing to do with Labour, so why do you people like to act on rumour?

Then if, if APC is capable of planting people in different political parties, if we are capable of doing that, then that shows that we are acceptable in every political party. In as much as the rumours are neither here nor there, if we are able to do that, then I should give kudos to the national working committee, I should give kudos to the president, for being able to do that, that means those parties are not political parties, that is what you are telling me, that means there houses are not in order. So that assertion is laughable. However, I say congratulations to our great party, the greatest party in Africa.

A lot is happening in Rivers State, Supreme Court judgement, impeachment threat, locking the assembly gate against the governor, and a lot of fingers are pointing at the direction of Wike, the former governor, a lot is happening, like one tree trying to be a forest in Rivers State.

One thing unique about Rivers State is that they know how to settle their political cases through legal means, that shows civilisation, that shows sticking to the rule of law, whether it is Wike or Fubara or whoever. They are following the rule of law, and the Supreme Court has spoken, and Rivers State ab initio has been obeying court orders. So why is this one so special? Rivers people are so civilized; there is no thuggery there, whenever they have issues they go to court, which is the right thing to do. So whether bit is Wike or Fubara or whoever, it is immaterial, the most important thing is that they are following the legitimate way of making political protest.

Okay, let’s go to Anambra State, the aspirants, they have just been certificated, about seven of them, this qualifies them to contest in the primaries election in Anambra State, how do you look at the entire process, how smooth or otherwise?

Well for now I can say so far so good. I must congratulate the national working committee of APC led by his Excellency Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, PhD, I also congratulate the subnational chairman, Sir Basil Ejidike, and his team for the synergy, for the coordination, for the understanding, in handling all the aspirants, because the process has been very very seamless, devoid of rancour, each of them were given the opportunity to address the state chapter of APC, in a very conducive and comfortable environment, devoid of rancour, devoid of thuggery, so I congratulate our party. I am happy today we are having a meeting in Abuja with all the aspirants and the stakeholders, just to make the process easy and smooth.  They have been screened, given certificate of clearance and all that, so the next thing now is to go to the primary, and you will see what will happen in that primary, so that by the time any of them emerges, it will be a walk over come November 8, 2025.

How do you see the quality of your aspirants? I think there are about seven of them, we are not going into individual details now, but generally speaking, because it is out of these seven that APC is going to present her best, to face the other people, you have APGA, PDP and Labour too, these are also frontline parties in the state in the race, so how do you assess the quality of these aspirants for the primary election?

You see in a football match or club, you have first eleven, and I can tell you for sure that the seven candidates we are presenting are our first eleven. They are the movers and shakers of politics in Anambra State and Nigeria. They are known in every part of this country, and more so, they are people of impeccable characters. The first eleven have come out for us to choose among them. It is a difficult job, but we are going to surmount it, so there is no cause for alarm. That is what we want, so that people can now choose and when one is chosen others will fall in line, to work together to clinch victory by November 8,

Nobody wants to be a loser, everybody wants to win, as a Chieftain of APC, your advice is needed at this time, because out of the seven, it is just one person that will become the flagbearer, your advice to the aspirants, their followers, to get prepared when the flagbearer must have been chosen.

My advice is once one of them is chosen which must happen, let others cooperate and work with the person selected because everybody cannot be governor, it is only one person, everybody cannot be flagbearer, it is only one person, and from the way I see them, I believe they would do what I am calling for. Once one of them is chosen all of them will fall in line, because the day the national working committee visited Anambra State, if you were there, you could see the synergy, you see those aspirants stay together, discussing as brothers, so that alone has shown that there will be no rancour there will be no bitterness, we are playing into the same goal post. So when one person is picked every other person will work to see that we unseat the present Government in Anambra State through fair, credible, free election.

I read in one of the national dailies that APC is trying to adopt indirect primary election, I don’t know if you can help us to tell the public the difference between direct and indirect, or the merit of indirect as they want it adopted in the Anambra primary election.

If we should go into that this interview will not end, you see that is the internal affair of the party. Both of them are good, but indirect is less cumbersome, it reduces crowd, everybody would not be involved, so you start electing delegates from ward level until you get those that would finally vote for the candidates, it is less cumbersome and less troublesome. That is the way I see it and I believe that is the way the national working committee sees it. However, any option they finally confirm, we have no problem with it.

We always solicit your fatherly advice, what advice do you have for our people especially those from Igbo extraction since we are here operating in Lagos.

Well as an Igbo person who is proud of Ndigbo, who would always speak about anything that would favour Ndigbo and for the fact that we are in Lagos looking for greener pastures, we are not here to foment trouble, we are not here to challenge the government, in as much as the government is expected to know that we are here partnering with them to develop Lagos. Be that as it may, I advise my fellow Igbo brothers and sisters to be law-abiding, to defend the government policies, and lodge formal complaint in a civilised way against any policy that they feel that is not favourable to Lagosians, because policies are not made for Igbos alone, let them follow the proper channels, in a very civilized manner with the government and I know that the government, they have listening ear, both at the executive level, legislative level and the judicial level. So I encourage symbiotic relationship between Igbos and the government of the day. That is my advice. And above all, we should pray to God because God is the author and finisher of all things.

Nnamdi Kanu is still incarcerated, what advice do you have for the government?

This issue of Nnamdi Kanu is one issue I have been stressing and which Ndigbo have been talking about. We will continue to appeal, we know it is not easy, but we should remain calm, follow the law in order to make sure that our brother is released. I am still appealing to the federal government, to please, no matter what it is and release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and I believe that our dear president, the Jagaban of Africa will find political solution to the issue and get him released, I strongly believe that.