Why APGA is the party to beat in Imo —Araraume

Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Imo State, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume is confident the party would clinch the governorship seat in the March 2, 2019 election. He also speaks about the reconciliation moves embarked upon by leaders of the party in the aftermath of what was regarded as a troubled governorship primary. Group Politics Editor, TAIWO ADISA, presents excerpts of the interview. 

 

YOU emerged the governorship candidate of APGA in Imo state in a primary that featured contentions here and there. How are you managing the fallouts?

We had our primaries. We finished with it. The parties have submitted names. Like in every contest, you have winners and losers. But the most important thing is to unite the party by talking to all those who contested the primary with you at all levels. We talk to them that APGA is one big formidable family.

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All of us must work together. The size of government is very large and everyone has to find some accommodation somehow. People will work from the local government level up to the national level. We have the local government that will take some people, others will be interested to do business with government. There is a lot to be done. But what is most important is to unite everybody and making APGA a formidable machine to win the election in 2019. That is what we are doing.

 

You met some people on ground when you joined APGA from APC and there were issues raised after you won. How are these stakeholders taking your victory?

We had our structure before the primary. That was a campaign structure put together specifically for the primary. That is done with now. The primaries are over and now, we have to get together as a party. The party will drive the campaign henceforth. We are bringing everyone together into the campaign.

 

Are you not bothered about the development of a group within APGA which appointed Ike Ibe as consensus candidate?

You don’t appoint a consensus candidate after a primary election. What will be the platform? The party’s guidelines on the conduct of primary elections are there and they are clear. Even before the primaries, if you meet and appoint someone, the person still has to go through the process of election as set out by the party. The person still has to stand for a Yes or No vote. The electoral panel will still come to observe and ratify it and then send the report to the party. So, what they have done was done out of time and outside the party’s guideline.

 

Former Imo state governor, Ikedi Ohakim, wrote an article which was published in the papers and he alleged that the APGA primary was for the highest bidder. How do you reconcile your position and those of some people who seem implacable with the outcome?

I won’t like to join issues with Ohakim. In any case, I am not the national chairman of APGA. However, if the ticket was for the highest bidder, he would have bidded higher. He was a former governor and nobody would have bidded higher than him. Unfortunately, the APGA ticket was not for sale. Those who voted had seen all of us. Ohakim was given opportunity to lead Imo state for four years and the people saw him perform. The delegates to the APGA primary election were all adults when Ohakim was governor. They saw him as governor. There are others who have not had the opportunity. I am sure the delegates, in their wisdom, decided to try some other person. Ohakim is my brother. I love him as my brother and will continue to love him as a brother. I think that the best he should do is to support a brother who is now the candidate.

 

What do you think are the most challenging issues in the governance of Imo state right now?

For me, the most challenging aspect of our governance is to get our people back. There is high distrust among the people and against the government. Our people are like a conquered people. The task is to bring them back to the level they were before and restore their confidence. If you look at Imo critically, for instance, the education sector, you will find that nothing works.

Also, the dilapidation of infrastructure is an issue. Again, if you look at our traditional institution in Imo state, you will find that it has been destroyed and reduced to nothing. To bring Imo back is a task that must be done and to do that, you need a formidable team. Luckily, we have a very vibrant crop of young people who are ready to work. All you need to do is to bring them together, engage them and they will do the work.

 

If you take over, what policies of the incumbent government will you uphold and which would you drop? Secondly, how would you address the narrative of personalisation of governance in Imo?

The governor of Imo state, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, may have meant well in trying to open up some roads in Imo state. There is no doubt about that. But one thing is to open up roads, it is another thing to make them meaningful. To open up a road, one important thing is to have a quality study by experts on the implications and the end points. If you open up a road, what would you achieve? That is a very critical question. You don’t do a four-lane road that empties in a single lane.

In Imo state today, every local government area has a general hospital, long before Rochas came. But what makes a hospital? It is the equipment, consumables and qualified medical personnel. But in the last eight years, it is debatable if Imo state has recruited medical doctors, not to talk of nurses. So, for me, instead of building 27 hospitals in the 27 local government areas that you have become unable to complete, you can have only three well-equipped and functional referral hospitals in the three senatorial zones and then upgrade the general hospitals also by equipping them and employ appropriate personnel for them.

 

One of the candidates you will face is the APC candidate. He is believed to be a tough customer. How prepared are you to tackle him?

Those who argue that there are no differences between the APC candidate and the incumbent, may, in a way, be right because both of them are from the same senatorial district. They are from the same Orlu senatorial district that produced Udenwa who was there for eight years. That district has held the governorship for 16 years and the APC candidate is also coming from there. Many people in Imo state feel it is not fair on the sensibility of people from other zones. To that extent, there is no difference. But again, in terms of the issues of governance, every Imo person knows the three of us. I am the candidate of APGA. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha is candidate of PDP and Sen. Hope Uzodimma is candidate of APC. We are not new to Imo. Imo people know us all and they know our pedigrees. Imo people knew me before I became senator in 1999. The people should know these details so they can make informed decisions. Emeka is an Anglican. I am a Catholic. Hope is a Catholic too. So, we are also known among the clergy. Who can give our people the leadership confidence that they seek? Who can look at situations dispassionately and take action; who can act in the interest of the state and not of friends and cronies? Imo people should ask themselves who among the three of us can lead Imo without looking at what benefits their family.

 

There are some political elite in Imo who believe that you are independent minded and cannot be controlled, what do you say to them?

If I am Imo governor, nothing will make me compromise quality, no matter who you are. I believe that I am going to leave Imo the best. Everyone who needs a job, and is competent and qualified to handle the job, will get it. Again, if you look at all the states where there have been this control you talked about, you would wonder what the outcome has been. It did not work in Zamfara. It did not work In Kano. It did not work in Akwa Ibom. Control has not worked anywhere where you made someone a governor and believe you will control him from the outside.

 

The contest is looking as a three-horse race with PDP, APC and APGA. How easy will it be to market APGA to the people and secure victory?

APGA in the South East has a very wonderful reference and that is Anambra State. It is a state where APGA has been in power progressively more than 10 years. Now, compare the developments in Anambra on all sectoral fronts, education, agriculture, security, infrastructure, governance, relationship between Church and society etc., and you see that Anambra stands out.