How APC will win Akwa- Ibom governorship race —Akpanudoedehe

Immediate past national secretary of the All Progressives Congress/ Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee and former Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, speaks with selected journalists including TAIWO AMODU on his ambition for the Akwa-Ibom State governorship seat.

What are your chances of winning the ticket and ultimately, the election?

Well, I anchored my belief on the principle of fairness and democracy. The question that you are asking is the question that people normally ask, especially the recent events that happened in our state chapter. I believe that the party will be fair to me. I don’t think the party can reward me in the manner suggested. The party will look for a candidate that will win election for them. This time, Nigerians are getting wiser every day. By the experience and the exposure the office of the National Secretary [gave] me, I was privileged to be attending the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) meetings. If they use the equipment they say they will use, being backed up by Electoral Act, I’m believing that one-man-one vote or if they implement that, I think no one should take the coming election for granted.

We should be able to put the best candidate that will win election for the party. So, I strongly believe that the APC will do the right thing. I am not only a founding member; I was one of those who were given the opportunity to merge this party. I was in the merger committee; I was also in the constitution drafting committee. Ever since, this party has been unfair to me until of recent when the President (Muhammadu Buhari) and those that I mentioned today (Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir el-Rufai) who mentioned my name to be the National Secretary. The same manner that we have seen today, the party took the ticket from me in 2015 – the same manner, new arrival, new money and we lost.

In 2019, the same thing repeated itself. So, we’ve seen it before. That is why I said we have suffered for this party. I believe people who feared God should do the right thing. We have been building this party for two years, holding meetings upon meetings. We built this party from nothing; people have made sacrificed. There was a time it was difficult to mention Buhari’s name. In fact, mentioning Buhari’s name, the governor then, Godswill Akpabio, made a law to put me in prison, just for mentioning Buhari’s name. But as life will have it, how he got his way there, became the biggest beneficiary and was made the Minister of Niger Delta, how he has been able to cow and silence the whole Niger Delta, how he has been able to silence every known voice and pocket Niger Delta is only God that can answer that one. But that will not deter anybody. We’ve seen it before.

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I suffered to build this party when those who are benefiting from this party now were abusing this party; they were abusing the president. We were resilient; we were determined; we have been funding this party alone. We paid the staff of this party every month. We are the ones taking care of this party, with a minister with so much money not helping. Party structure is given to anyone who wants to run for governor because that is the usefulness of a party structure. Somebody will be telling you that you cannot be a king to crown yourself a king. We are republicans in nature. So, you don’t use what happened in Yorubaland or Hausa/Fulani land to do it. It doesn’t work that way here. It may also interest you that this party structure from Umanah to Chief Don Etiebet, I never used my office to appropriate the structure. 85 per cent of the party executives were from 2015 to 2019; I didn’t touch anything, all because we didn’t want to destroy the party as those who worked for the party have never benefited from it, so we allowed them. We only touched one or two people because of zoning. To answer your question, if you believe in the people, you have the support of your people. If you believe in democracy, I have no fear.

This time it is expected that you will get the ticket of the party. If you are denied, are you going to pull out your structure from APC?

When we reach that level, we will cross it. The issue is that nobody will do that. I don’t expect anybody to do that, except it is wickedness. Are you bringing someone who doesn’t even know this party? That is why you cannot make that mistake. It is my party; nobody will take this party from me. I worked for it; I toiled for it; I sacrificed for it. This is where my effort is. Nobody will toy with it. I will not leave my party. I believe my party will do the right thing because I worked hard for it.

One of the biggest hurdles facing the APC in this state is APC itself, the issue of internal dissension over leadership tussle. Will reconciliation ever work in APC Akwa-Ibom chapter?

You see, when you start hearing people saying leader, you are running for the office of a leader, two of the characteristics of a leader arebeing accommodating and love. When your leadership is autocratic or you are trying to assume Machiavellianism, when you are from the East where everyone is a Republican, for instance, look at Don Etiebet, a very old man, I cannot stand before him and say, I lead you, because maybe I am privileged to be in a particular office that is where people make mistakes.

In the West, you don’t see a governor going there and say Baba Akande, I am your leader now, because I am a new governor. You see, if you want to borrow something from Yoruba, borrow everything. Don’t take one and leave the other one. When I was in the Action Congress of Nigeria, governors sat behind the leaders of the party. Being a governor does not make you a leader. It is God that appoints leaders; you don’t force it.

You remember in the South-South meeting sometimes ago when the party decided to make Omo-Agege leader of South-South, because of his position. After that meeting, I didn’t hear it again. But in the North, it is not so, when someone is appointed to a particular office, people honour it. But there are people if you like, be whatever you are, when you reach your town hall, you know where to sit. So, that is the problem.

In 2019 elections, this issue came up again. The governorship candidate depended on this kind of theory, people were pointing, giving people ticket anyhow, but it didn’t fly. We are yet to have government. We should stop behaving as if we are in government in Akwa-Ibom state. You must do the right thing to get into government. When you get to government, you can play these games. We need everybody. For example, my patience has been tested so many times.You believe me that I have been on defensive since 2009. I have refused to attack, not that we didn’t have capacity to do that. For the mere fact that you have no sympathy that you wanted me killed, you sent me to prison, you charged me with treason, murder, and arson in establishing this party and you come to this party and still pursuing me. That doesn’t make any sense. There is nothing he did not do to muscle opposition out of AkwaIbom. Little did he know that, that it will be his saving grace? You have your records; go to your archive. He made a special law giving him power to put me in prison, evidence are there. Bola Tinubu came with vice-president (YemiOsinbajo) to get me out of prison and NiyiAkintola (SAN). That is why we respect him. But today, Akpabio is a beneficiary of this party.

Going by this narrative, how do you intend to bring the whole house together?

It is a matter of just being a party man. If you have advantage of money, you have to be a party man. What we mean by a party man, my part must win, it is not yourself. APC must win AkwaIbom, you must be a party man, don’t say I want to dominate, my word is final, when you have plenty people that were there before you, we were there before you, you can only show respect. Therefore, you allow election to be free and fair, don’t allocate offices based on title. For instance, I was a national secretary, if I was stupid, I say let me wipe some people out, they will not be supporting me today. But because of reasoning, you allow other people to exist. Unlike the story they are telling you about me, I don’t get involved in those things. I allow leaders, collectively we reason.

Sometimes when you don’t come, you want to go and start something, you believe you want to be leader. Do you want to force yourself to be leader? Let it be given to you based on your attitude, based on your accommodation, based on your ability to rule. You have to rule by being truthful, it is not by force. If you want leadership to be given to you as a former governor, carry yourself as such, it will be given to you. If you cannot command that kind of leadership, please, go back to your school and learn a different kind of leadership. Learn the one that will suit the state you come from, be available. When discussions are made, be objective, answer truthfully, preach togetherness, be a father, don’t be a destroyer, don’t be a divide and rule leader. Don’t lie about someone just to cause separation, don’t be a separatist, a leader. Am I ready to follow? Hundred per cent, but if I know your leadership will bring destruction, that you are destroying people, that you kill people, that you eliminate people because you don’t have ability to be patient with diverse views, if your leadership is about ego, of it is not about love, it is not going to work for everybody.

If the house remains divided, what is the possibility of you unseating the party in power since 1999?

Let me give you a peculiar example. In 2007 or thereabout when Victor Attah’s son-in-law did not get the ticket, some people left PDP to form the Action Congress. The PDP still won. No matter what, there are going to be people like that, it depends on who you are.With the present structure that we have on ground, APC will win. When we started building unit-by-unit structure, people didn’t take us serious, they didn’t know what we were doing.

What will you consider as your worst moment at APC as the national secretary of the party and your fondest memory?

I don’t have any regrets. As a matter of fact, I worked with my eyes and ears up there. We did everything we needed to do. I don’t have regrets of things. Normally, I will try to see whether what have been asked to do constitutes wickedness. That was my greatest fear because most of the directives given and the direction it was coming from, you cannot oppose that. Then, to some people, the National Secretary signed the paper, maybe they assume I have the power to do that, they don’t know that I was directed. That is what I will consider things I didn’t like. You know the truth, but because you have been asked to do something, you can’t say anything about it that I can regret. But to say I can regret about life, I normally ask God, this is the official position of the party, I know this is wickedness, forgive me. I know the truth, I’m a politician, but how to convince because of where it was coming from, if they ask me. Outside that, we did very well. We bought the property;we registered 41 million people; we did state congresses and managed it well; the crises was one or three per cent in some states; we did well, no regrets apart from some instructions that brought pains to other people and as a Christian I didn’t like doing that.

What are your fears for APC in 2023?

As long as there is justice. The things you think are difficult for politicians are very easy to solve because we have a robust nature. Finally, God has chosen whoever is going to be president, He knows how to navigate it, God is involved but people can come together based on interest. But if you love yourself more than the party, that is where the problems come.

What do you think the leadership of the party should do to make it easy for APC to win elections in 2023?

Don’t rush into manipulative advice. Number two, they should be democratic.

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