Why governorship should move to Anambra South -Emecheta

Sir Jude Emecheta, is the Chairman, Obiano Support Group (OSG) in Anambra State. In this Interview with Nwanosike Onu, he talks about the preparation of his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, towards 2021 governorship election in the state, and why governorship position should move to the South Senatorial zone, among others. Excepts

ANAMBRA governorship election is close and no serious thing yet from your party; what preparations are in the offing?

You can’t say there is no preparation from APGA. APGA is in government, APGA is preparing every day. The governor is working on a daily basis, inspecting projects, commissioning new ones. So, Anambra State Government is working; APGA is preparing, the opposition does not have anything doing. We know that we are working; APGA is working.

APC and PDP chairmen are tackling your party…

APGA will still take over. APGA is the spirit of the Igbo man; APGA is the heart of Anambra

But the zoning formula proposed by your party is not selling the other parties in Anambra .

You see, Anambra did not sit down one day and took a decision; it is like in Nigeria; there is a burden on everybody.  The president should go north and south. When it comes to south, southwest will go, south-south will go, south-east will go. When it comes to north, they will share it the same way, three zones. It’s a moral thing; it’s the only peaceful way to bring the country together.

In Anambra, fair enough, it started with the south; Mbadinuju, he ran a four (4) year term and it was chopped off the south and they did not protest. That’s why they want to return it to the south so that the south can complete their term. It went to Anambra Central, Anambra Central fondly enough, Dr. Chris Ngige took three years from APGA; when it was recovered from him, Peter Obi stayed eight years that makes it 11years from central and while Peter Obi an APGA man then, pleaded with   Ndi Anambra, let us go to the north so that there would be equity; there would be justice and Anambra was like, yes you are right.

Those who came from the south; came from the central to contest, but they knew that the spirit of that equity was completely permissive in Anambra State and they allowed the north to go.

Now as it stands today, if you say everybody has gone, let’s start all over, south will start because it all started from the south. But south was shortchanged. Somebody was telling me about Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, so how many months, how many years? We are talking about this current dispensation that the south for only four years and they should be allowed to do their own full tenure now for eight years, no matter how good, no matter how bad. Let them do their own eight years and then pass it on to another section, another zone of Anambra State. People are saying, when the south finishes, it will be thrown open.

Many people in the state believe that  APGA administration has not done well to dictate to them, how true is this ascertain?

When you combine PDP and APC opposition, that’s the kind of thing they are used to. I want to ask them what the man has not done well? Are the roads in Anambra bad? They forget that these roads were constructed about seven years back and they could not stand the test of time. But see the ones done by Chief Willie Obiano, you will see the difference.

So what you are saying now is that your party is not afraid of the APC at the center and PDP with former Governor Peter Obi on the prowl?

We are not afraid of APC because we know that the President, Muhammadu Buhari has shown character in conducting elections before now, otherwise, he wouldn’t have lost some states like Bauchi, Adamawa. He would have taken Adamawa from Atiku; he would have taken Bauchi by force; he would have taken Rivers State by force. But, he allowed the correct process to go; that’s why you hear APC lost in Adamawa, APC lost in Bauchi and contesting Kano which is his house, kind of a home for him. They are contesting it. Ordinarily, they shouldn’t be contesting Kaduna with Buhari but, he is a kind of upright person that left the electoral process to go in a right way.

So we don’t see him coming to Anambra State to say “kill everybody; give it to APC” and we know he will not do it but, APC will have to present the candidate who will run the election here and be acceptable to the people.

I do not believe that APC has an eye here.  But all I would say is that they should first agree to build a structure for the next eight years not for this one because, for now, they do not have a structure . Our friend and brother, Dr. Chris Ngige and the new woman, I don’t even know her name, I don’t know how they are going to do the magic here to win anything.

So how many people are interested in the governorship of APGA now in Anambra?

Let us not open the leaves, but we know a lot of people will be interested. We even have people who are out of the party, the party can even go and bring them in to come and contest this election. APGA has nice and qualified persons as good as Obiano .  I can’t begin to mention names. I will mention names when the time is ripe. But you should know that our party has people like Prof Chukwuma Soludo, Sir Vin Okolo, the MD of one of the new generation Banks, among others.