APGA: Victor Oye is gangrene; he must be cut off, else he’ll infect others —Edozie Njoku

The National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Edozie Njoku has described his predecessor, Chief Victor Oye as gangrene that must be removed.

Chief Njoku made the remarks during an interview with ElombahNews correspondent in his Abuja office on Wednesday.

The visibly aggrieved Njoku noted that owing to his antecedents, Oye must be cut off from the party like an illness otherwise he will keep infecting other persons.

Comparing Oye to a snake, he insisted that he must be removed, adding that once people are sure that he is out then they can start sneaking back.

He also spoke about the ongoing legal tussle between himself and Victor as the 2021 Anambra State governorship election looms, as well as APGA’s chances in the election.

Other issued buttressed by the APGA henchman include 2023 Igbo presidency, as well as Ebubeagu, the newly launched security outfit for the South East region.

Below are the excerpts of the interview:

What are the chances of APGA in the upcoming Anambra State 2021 governorship election in view of the ongoing court cases between Victor Oye faction and Edozie Njoku faction? Will it not mar APGA’s chances because of the primaries for the election?

The luck APGA has at the moment is that I stood up to challenge Oye. The mess Oye created in Anambra and South East and everywhere from the last election till today, everybody would have decided to leave the party but you see that there is still so many people standing by waiting to see what happens in court.

But that is not good enough. It would be better if I was already there to be able to organise the party for us to go to election. But still, what I keep saying to APGA is that let us pretend as a party because I’ll rather have an APGA person than have a PDP person or APC. You understand? Because I’m a founding member of APGA so APGA is in my blood so I’d rather have an APGA person.

So, all I appeal with APGA people is to try and be very matured wherever you are. If you are with Oye, stay fast in APGA and work hard for the governor. If you are with Njoku, stay fast and work hard for APGA. But I guarantee you, eventually we’ll get that election. Oye did not do a convention.

How soon do you think this judgment we are talking about is going to come because with this judgment lingering… [He interjects]

It will be resolved because both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court know that there’s an imminent election. So they will need to resolve it before the end of the primary election for us to know who will be the candidate for the election.

Another thing that has been bothering observers is the way Anambra State governor, Willie Obiano has seen some vital friends off the party; and Oye has not also helped matters; he has also driven some vital friends out of the party. For example, when Willie Obiano reneged on his agreement with Ifeanyi Ubah, Ifeanyi Ubah fell out with him [he added Stella Oduah]. Now Oye too, allegations are everywhere that he is culpable. Bianca Ojukwu is hitting [he added “more than we even know”]. Don’t you think that this is another big hurdle for APGA to scale?

You see, it is a shame on us that we can allow someone like Oye to be heading the affairs of APGA. It is just so sad! But we found ourselves in the problem. There is an adage that says “adi eji maka mgbagbu, we ghalu ogu” [speaks Igbo]. We must remove that guy from presiding over APGA affairs. It so important that everyone should do what they can to remove that man from representing APGA. So my battle, if you notice, there’s a way I’ve been fighting this battle. It is solely because Oye is a disgrace to the party. A big disgrace!

You said a few things about the governor, I said the governor is not a pure politicians so may be people around him who advise him have not advised him as well as it should have been. I don’t know him so I can’t judge on any action he’s taken but the buck stops with the national chairman of the party. We are talking about APGA, we are not talking about governance of Anambra State. So the buck of the governance of the party stops with Oye and every good and every bad that comes out of it there, he carries the can. The buck stops with him.

And if APGA, we are not saying it will happen but we try to see things from different perspectives, if APGA fails to clinch this governorship election, are you not worried that that might be the end of APGA?

Nooo… might even be the best thing for APGA. You know most of the problems of the South East have been coming from Anambra and the governor. When we started APGA, we put in Governor Peter Obi first and may be things went wrong along the line.

We need to go back to the drawing board and know whee we went wrong and start over. Tinubu did his ACN and went further with it, we did our own and crashed. So thee must be something that we’re doing wrong. CPC went on with theirs and has even gotten a president. So there is fundamentally somewhere w went wrong in APGA. And it is because of Anambra scenario where it is politics of money where the highest bidder comes and we sell him the ticket, such nonsense. We need to stand up and remove that nonsense from our politics. Politics is not played like that; politics is a grassroots issue. Until we bring back grassroots as the owners of the party we have a problem.

The Anambra scenario has turned out where a group of 10 or 12 persons feel that they own the party. It’s not like that! The people own their political parties. We all said at the beginning that it is a national party. In the South East a party that elders have such passion in the hearts to raise and it should be run like that in the South East.

The owners, the local persons, and the people of the market, they should own the party and not a group of people. So may be if we lost our governorship, the we will start rebuilding.

All of them will run away when they lose; everybody will take off. Then the real APGA people will stay to bring back the party to its track.

From the circles I’ve been interacting with, many people feel that APGA will be buried if they lose Anambra election… [He interjects]

That’s the mindset when you think back from Peter [Obi] to the last governor. The question is: How much money has the governorship of Anambra, I’m not talking about any particular government, invested in the party growth and anywhere else? How much of the confusion in other South Eastern states have been caused by the people from Anambra? If a good aspirant comes in, he builds the party properly.

APGA has always been in the psyche of the people and we will build it back. It will just take a bit of work but we will build it back.

Oye is just like a snake so he must be removed and once people are sure that he is out then they can start sneaking back. But it will take time because people might be wondering if he has children inside other places. That is the dilemma we have, but the quicker it’s done, the better. But he must be removed because he is gangrene. We must cut off that illness otherwise he will keep infecting the other person. APGA is badly infected by “Oyenism”.

The question is: How do we build a good platform? You see what is going on everywhere in Nigeria. Is it Ohanaeze… Who is speaking for the Igbo people? And because of one Oye there is confusion everywhere. I believe that if we lose Anambra, we will win four states.

What is your take on the 2023 Igbo presidency; is it feasible or is it just another wild goose chase?

It is not a wild goose chase. When I look at APC and PDP, I look at it as not practical. I feel that we have been that route before. If you remember, is it in 2007 when some politicians came out for ANPP or something. There were over 20 Igbo who came out for president in ANPP. It’s not possible!

I remember the former governor of Abia, Ogbonnaya Onu and how he fared which made us to register APGA.

What is your take on Ebubeagu, the newly launched security outfit for the South East region?

I don’t know why we can’t be proactive rather always following trends. But it’s better late than never. Ask yourself: how is the recruitment going to be made? I think we need to be more honest with ourselves people from the South East. The world has become a global world; it’s no longer that little village that everybody thinks… Youths should be brought in and when I’m saying youths that includes and everything. Modern things should be brought into play. We are sooo analog in everything we are doing. I don’t know why we do things like that. While we should be the ones leading, we are the ones behind in everything. I don’t know; it could work. It’s easy announcing something but what are game plan, how are they going to be done? That’s the most important thing.

I think we should really start working hard to bring youths into politics in Nigeria. The Igbos need to do something very, very fast. We are so dull. I was just coming back from South East, I was there for ten days. Terrible! It’s a shame, a big shame! The level of unemployment, the level of everything is a shame.

We keep complaining that Hausa man did this, Yoruba man did that. I feel that we need to do the first things first. There was something you said earlier that our leaders left a vacuum and Nnamdi Kalu took over the vacuum. We need to look inwards properly and honestly. Anything we are doing cannot just be politically based; we need to look inwards properly honestly because we are not leaving anything for our grandchildren and children.

I give you an example: My son is 29 and he was made a CEO British Music from being a Senior Special Adviser to a Minister. Before then he was a PA to Cameron the former Prime Minister. In the article that was written about him, they called him a senior member of the Conservative Party. But he’s only 29! Even me, will they call me senior member of PDP or APC or even APGA that we are fighting now?

It’s just the clique holding power that regard themselves as “senior members”. But a 29 year old from Africa has been called in all the papers as “a senior member of the Conservative Party”. We must allow the youth to take over from us so that when we look down the line.

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