Alhaji Tayo Sowunmi, National Vice Chairman (South-west) of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, has stated that the fortunes of his party is rising while expressing optimism that the party will do well in next year’s elections in its catchment area.
In this chat, Sowunmi, who is a former secretary of the Nigerian Union of Teach­ers (NUT), described the conferment of National Honours on the national chair­man of the party, Chief Victor Umeh, as well deserved, even as he argued that it would be difficult to get a replacement for the chairman when he leaves office.
Would you say APGA is having its best times with the Supreme Court judgment, validating the election of Gov. Willie Obiano and conferment of National Honour on the party’s national chairman, Chief Victor Umeh today?
I feel very happy. Happy for the party; happy for the chairman and happy for Anambra State, particularly, Governor Willie Obiano. These things don’t just happen. They are a function of the stead­fastness of the leadership of this party. Right from the time Chief Victor Umeh took over, sometime in 2006, the party has been breathing well. He has been one forthright leader, running an open administration of the party. He is a highly intelligent politician. I’m so very happy for him for attaining this height at this stage in his life and the life of the party I am not surprised whatsoever that Chief Umeh has been awarded this honour by the Nigerian state. He deserves it. Before this honour, he has been receiving ac­colades and awards from various states of the federation, particularly, in the South-west. Only last week, he was conferred with a chieftaincy title in Arochukwu, somewhere in the South-east. I sent him a text, congratulating him on that confer­ment and I told him in that text that only people who were diabolical in nature would begrudge him on the recognition his society had given him. Those of us who are close to him are not surprised in any way; we are only surprised that it has taken this long for the Federal Govern­ment to recognise this young man.
What do you mean that the award took a long time in coming?
We have a lot of political parties in this country but APGA has remained on the front burner, courtesy the effort of Umeh. Hardly will a day pass without APGA being mentioned in the media for one reason or the other. I’m surprised because this man has a penchant for the rule of law; there’s no party in this country that has gone through the type of legal battles that APGA has gone through in the past seven to eight years now. It is only APGA, where you don’t have violence visited on members of the party from both sides of the divide, just because Victor Umeh would rather go through the courts to achieve success than instigating people to attack other members.
Only last year, members of the Maxi Okwu group came into out secretariat, broke in and vandalise the secretariat and brutalised some of our staffs. In other par­ties, it would have been a battle between both sides, but Victor Umeh counseled restraints. Today everybody knows who the leader of this party is. So for being a stickler for the rule of law, he ought to have been recognised long before now. And in any case, he’s not a hidden man; he has always been fighting for the institu­tionalisation of democracy.
I can say that APGA is very lucky to have him. Lucky because we had a na­tional chairman before and we knew what the party got under him. But this man, as young as he is, has achieved so much for the party . He’s a very thorough leader and I’m not surprised that he is the only one out of the so many national leaders of parties that has been singled out for this honour.
But Umeh’s exploits cannot be swept under the carpet, as everybody knows him. People outside and inside APGA, ev­erywhere in this country know him with his tall cap. Whatever he says is true and he is very intelligent. If you remember that the last national conference ought to have had representatives from APGA but for the trouble we had in the party; but when eventually a few weeks to the end of that conference, Umeh joined the confer­ence, he was noticed immediately and he contributed a lot to what was discussed and people praised him for that.
Do you share the opinion that Umeh has over-stayed as the chair of APGA?How can I share such a thing? I’m a mem­ber of the National Working Committee, as national vice chairman in South West of APGA and I know how this man oper­ates at that level. Those people who share that opinion are people who t want to come in and grab whatever they can grab in APGA. They are not coming to offer us any good leadership. Talking of long stay, how long? He is allowed to stay for eight years; he has not completed his eight years until February next year. So what do they mean by long stay in APGA? In fact, if I had my way we would have gone through our constitution to make sure we give him another chance. In fact, we are not sure yet if we can get someone like him to take over in February. So that’s the battle we have to wage now. A battle of succession, to get a person that can act and lead as this man. So he has not been there for too long; he has not completed his 2nd term in office.
The endorsement of President Jonathan by the party has provoked insinuation that the party has become part of PDP. What do you make of such perception?
Let me translate this to you: a political party is formed by people of like minds for the purpose of attaining power, to rule and serve their people at the federal level, state level and local government level. As yet, APGA is not prepared to contest in the presidency. We did that before with our late leader, Ojukwu twice. But as it is now, we don’t have a presidential candidate. If any one picks up our ticket for presidency we may look at it on its merit. But we looked at things dispas­sionately and critically and agreed that Nigeria today under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan has done well. We believe that the performance of the administration is enough for anybody to support it; never mind what some lead­ers of the opposition are saying. We are also members of the opposition, but we must do what is right.
The most unfocused opposition party we have in Nigeria today is APC. The APC is simply giving Jonathan a bad name to hang him. For APC, Jonathan has achieved nothing, but it is not possible. It’s not true.
The APGA is not a party that will not call a spade a spade. We recognise good leadership and good governance because we have always offered good leadership and governance in the state we rule. So APGA is not enjoying any relationship with the PDP. What we are saying is that since we are not going to contest for the presidency, we have a right to support a candidate. And to us if Jonathan is running, he has to be the person we will support. If you call it partnership, well, it’s just a recognition of good leadership that’s all.
Should it be taken that the confer­ment of the National Honours on Umeh is in appreciation of the support APGA has given to the President ?
It is not a reward. If Jonathan can give his cook an award, extend it to players in the country and other sportsmen, then Umeh is eminently qualified by what I have said to you on his qualities, espe­cially in the area of running this party. It is a well known fact to everybody that he is a national figure. In fact, the honour conferred on him by the president is wel­comed by nearly everybody cutting across political parties. He is a public figure, in the media and wherever he is.
He is newsmaker anywhere and he has never indulged in any shady deals. About a year or two ago, EFCC came to our sec­retariat, engineered by his detractors and asked him to bring all the papers of the account books of the party to EFCC. He went and for about two or three days, they went through all these things and cleared him. He has been doing this despite the fact that he had a running battle with our sitting governor at that time, which means that the party would have collapsed a long time ago but for his leadership qualities.

Obiano’s victory, Umeh’s award recognition of APGA’s strength –Sowunmi