Ukachukwu and Ekwunife in Anambra Governorship race is a formidable and winning team-Umenzekwe

Honourable Chief Modestus Umenzekwe (Onwa Achina) is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Philosopher. In this interview, he speaks about the choice of Senator Uche Ekwunife as the running mate of Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu in the forthcoming Governorship Election in Anambra State, and other national issues. Excerpt:

The Distinguished Senator Uche Ekwunife, Ifekaolaedo is now the Running mate to the APC governorship candidate in the November 8 election in Anambra State, what do you think informed the choice?

I recently granted an interview to The Nation newspaper where I said the opposition is building mansion on sandy soil that will surely collapse. And when you look at what is going on now, I have been vindicated, as I was vindicated in 2015, when I said APC will spring up surprises and it came to pass.

First the election of Prince Dr Nicholas Ukachukwu as our flagbearer was a right step in the right direction. Prince Ukachukwu, the much I know him, is very enterprising, I can say 90% of his investments are in Nigeria and the greater part of it is domiciled in Anambra State. So he has a very big stake. Besides he has his tentacles in every part of this country, and all the geopolitical zones, and deep rooted in Anambra. He mixes with the high and low, very unassuming, a man with listening ear, and he is a very good political fighter. From time immemorial Ukachukwu has been a brand name in Anambra State politics, he has been directly or indirectly assisting people to assume positive positions or elective positions in government, including the seat of government in Agu Awka. Now that he has decided to handle it himself, it is a welcome development.

Now coming to the Distinguished lady, Senator Uche Ekwunife, already I have sent congratulatory message to her, for accepting to deputize Prince Ukachukwu (Ikukuoma) in the coming election. And I give kudos to Ukachukwu for heeding to the advice by picking Distinguished Senator Ekwunife Nyom, Ifekaolaedo as his deputy. It is a formidable team and it is a winning team from all political calculations and indices.You see, both of them have tested the national assembly, one way or the others. Ukachukwu tested it from Abuja, while Ekwunife has been there from Anambra, in the Senate and she sponsored some bills in the hallowed chamber. And besides, she is a mobilizer and a dogged political fighter. She knows when to cut her onions. She has what I may call the social and political clout to do this fight to attract victory to our great party, 80% of Anambra women are with her. She is known for her generosity and philanthropy.

Uche Ekwunife, the much I know her, has given home to many people, the downtrodden, her ubiquitous character makes me personally to like her. I am not equating her with God when I said ubiquitous, but just to tell you that she is almost everywhere. She attends occasions, honours invitations, if for any reason she will not be there, she would send someone, She is a public speaker, when you see her, you will observe she is a woman of honour, she has distinguished herself in her character, dressing, candour and approach to humanity, so with that her combination, APC is good to go. There is no descending voice, I am already saying to our great party, congratulations in advance.

Yes I know the fight will be tough, but with good strategy APC will emerge stronger and stronger and win that election come November 8, 2025.

Talking about victory, no Victory comes without hard work, how prepared is APC to win this election? What are your strategies?

The first Strategy is to have Ukachukwu as our candidate, you know I told you sometime ago that I will not disclose anything, you will be seeing actions. The second Strategy is to have Uche Ekwunife as the running mate, If you were at the airport on the 8th of May, when President Tinubu paid an official visit to Anambra State, you would have noticed that over 5000 APC members were at the airport to receive their leader, the president of the Rederal Republic of Nigeria, that is another strategy. The unity of purpose being experienced in the APC family is another strategy, and that is why you see defections, from every part of the country. You witnessed the tsunami in Delta State where the governor and the elected members of the House defected to APC. This is happening state by state, this shows that APC is ready to take this nation, all the state they govern or all the states they hope to get to a higher level. Other strategies I will not tell you. I only mentioned this ones because you have seen them, that is what I told you, you will be seeing actions.

Chief talking about defections, there is fear that APC being the ruling party has the financial muscle to draw people to the party, again that people are not going to APC on ideological basis but for stomach infrastructure, and again the third one is the fear of EFCC, as they say, whoever that joins APC his sins will be forgiven. Your take on these nagging issues?

I don’t even understand what you are talking about. You see, you see, politically when somebody is on a fishing expedition, the person might fire or misfire, so all these talking, they are on a fishing expedition, without net, that is why they keep talking all these things. Let me ask you, before 2015, APC was not in power, where did they get the money or power to coerce Nigerians to vote for them, I am asking you, APC was not in power before 2015…

There are different kinds of power…

Power is power. APC hadn’t the money and if you say they have the money now, fine, but that time they had no money, they were looking for people to join them, people were mocking them calling them all sorts of names, people like us were described as Boko Haram, I know what I suffered in the hands of my people, because I am a member of APC. I saw hell, but I persevered. Do you want to tell me that APC coerced Atiku as the vice president of Nigeria that time, to leave Obasanjo to join ACN, from ACN to PDP, from PDP to APC and just like that, switching on, switching off, switching on, switching off. So what you are telling me holds no water. What is happening now shows that APC now has better Strategy, better political approach to issues. As we said before, before you will be able to pass final judgement on APC, you must allow the party to rule for 16 years which PDP ruled. So untill 16 years is over we would now be able to draw conclusion, and now people are beginning to see that the president means business for him to take hard decisions in his first term, shows that the man is not afraid of second term, but I can tell you, from all indications I can assure you his second term, if he decides to run will be a walkover.

We usually talk about light at the end of the tunnel, with what the president is doing, are we experiencing the light already?

You have asked me this question or the press has asked me this question several times, and my answer remains the same, there will be light at the end of the tunnel. The man knows what he is doing, the elite is already singing his praises and it is the elite that will go down to the grassroot and explain to them, no pain, no gain. That is what I will use to summarize. People call it T-pain, fine, but we are now having the gain. Yes the man is prepared, the party is prepared, we are solidly behind him, forget about coalition and those grammar, they are neither here nor there, coalition, all manner of political jargons are coming up, as far as I am concerned if Asiwaju decides to run in 2027, which we have already told him to run, his victory will be a work over.

Can you let the public know some of the things the president has done that give you this confidence?

Have you not heard that our debt of $4.3 billion have been paid, you didn’t hear that. He has approved establishment of forest Guard, go to Abuja and see what is going on there, the work, every part of Abuja is being touched, using the instrumentality of the FCT minister, the students loan scheme is going on, the farmers are getting their loans and getting fertilisers, and so on and so forth, the security apparatus is being rejigged seriously because it is not what will stop in a day, so the administration has done a lot, states have been getting fat allocations, many states are now paying the minimum wage, as a result of the fuel subsidy removal. The Naira is within the stability range.

The last time President Tinubu went to Anambra State, he ended that visit without endorsing either Soludo or Ukachukwu against all expectations, what is your take?

Why do you people like delving into issues that are very very clear and self explanatory? I wonder why people are wasting their energy on this ENDORSEMENT issue. Was it an item on the agenda for which the President was invited to Anambra? Was the visit even a friendly visit to suggest such insinuation? The President officially visited Anambra as one of the states in the Federation called Nigeria which is under his administration with divergent political platforms. Again the President and the Governor of Anambra State are not in the same political party but friends as expressed by the President. Yes, various speakers at the event who are not in the same party with the President indirectly tried to drag the President into a none item on the program, but the President was smart enough to avoid it. Besides, campaign has not even started. So let’s drop this issue and concentrate on issue based topics for our victory in the election.

But all I can tell you is that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a political giant

Recently the joint admission and matriculation Board announced that glitches affected their system. Candidates from Lagos and the entire South East were affected and required to resit the exam, your take.

It was a very unfortunate situation and very painful indeed. It has touched the academic psychology of those students, and the positive expectations of the parents, but be that as it may, God knows everything. I sympathize with our students and their parents and guardians and I feel very bad that the southeast was mostly affected. However we must tread with caution and remain calm, as I commend the Registrar, to have accepted full responsibility and in cause of that betrayed his emotions. It is not easy. Personally I see it as one of those things that happen in one’s life both on the part of the JAMB officials and the students. I had similar experience in my secondary school days, but our set braced up and went back to school to retake, so it happens once in a while. My appeal is let us not make it a political issue, but see it as one of those things that happens once in a lifetime. I commend JAMB to have taken steps to remedy the anomaly. I am appealing to Nigerians, the affected candidates, the parents and the Stats in the South East to remain calm, it is one of those things that happen in life and I know the president will look into the matter and nip those glitches in the board.

Your advice to Nigerians

My position is to continue to appeal to people to remain calm but above all, we have to pray and look unto God, God knows all these things, at an appointed time everything will fall in line after all the rich also cry in this country. And the government of the day in this country has not denied that things are hard, they are working assiduously to make sure that the whole situation improves. It is not revolution or riot or whatever that are going to solve this problems, because those things would not solve anything but let us support the government of the day, criticize them constructively and try to market our country outside the shores of this country, because we don’t have any other country except this.