That Dance of Shame @ VinMartin Ilo’s Signature TV by Ben Nwoye and Joe Mmamel – Enugu APC

THE All Progressives Congress (APC), Enugu state chapter has pooh-poohed the recent arrangee interview in a private online television production named Signature Tv floated by Mr. VinMartin Ilo and being used as a platform to fight his dirty political battle in Enugu state.

Reacting to the recent interview aired in the Signature Tv where the former Chairman of the APC, Ben Nwoye and one Joe Mmamel featured in a mumbo jumbo macabre dance, the State Publicity Secretary of APC, Charles Solo Ako called on the general public to discountenance the caricature show meant to entertain them.

Ako said that Nwoye and Mmamel, who were agents of some misguided political chieftains, who lost out in the power game regarding the emergence of The Hon. Barr. Ugochukwu Agballah, as the State Chairman of APC.

The APC spokesperson said at the beginning of the interview it was obvious that Nwoye and Mmamel are two strange bed fellows and they engaged in confusing, counter-productive and self-annihilation polemics until they were cued by an unseen mastermind of the programme, to focus their attacks on Ugochukwu Agballah, the only area they can find misguided common ground.

Ako dismissed the entire episode as a sham even as he posed several questions that Nwoye, Mmamel and their sponsors need to provide answers to in order to make some modicum of sense.

See details of the reaction…..

*THE REACTION OF APC ENUGU STATE ON THE SIGNATURE TV INTERVIEW WITH DR BEN NWOYE AND OZO JOE MMAMEL ON THE 12TH DECEMBER 2021. APC/ENS/12/15/01.*

I am shocked viewing the above titled interview where two chieftains of our great party – gentlemen of repute were guests and instead of concentrating on issue based discuss, which supposedly should be the concern and anticipation of any committed member of APC especially when the Local Government election is barely two months away, they choose to deal on attacking personalities and making caricature of such laudable platform.

Our great party is saddened that after a 50 minutes interview where these two chieftains of the APC – Dr Ben Nwoye and Ozo Joe Mmamel were interviewed, there was no single emphasis on the fortunes of the state in respect to any interrogation on the policies of the present PDP Rt Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi led government in Enugu State.

Any critical minded APC person should always have the fortunes, especially the electoral fortunes of the Party in mind and should at every public opportunity present the Party to the public in a manner that will be of benefit to the Party. Notwithstanding the challenges the Party may have, and we do acknowledge that there are issues of concern, the fortunes of the Party as a whole should be paramount and ought to be promoted at every opportunity. But, whenever and wherever these expectations doesn’t come from supposedly “Chieftain(s) of our Party” the claims of being committed member(s) of APC becomes questionable and suspicious.

The two respected gentlemen predicated their discussion on two major planks of argument. One, on which both of them seemed to agree, was that the candidature of Chief Ugochukwu Agballah was flawed by virtue of not being registered by Dr Ben Nwoye as a member of the Party. The second point was that he was not the true consensus candidate produced or agreed on by the Enugu West stakeholders. There is really nothing more they said and I will address these two issues straightaway.

The issue of Party membership registration is clear and unambiguous. The APC membership registration is done at the ward level and has nothing whatsoever to do with the state executive. No one is registered at a local government level neither could you register at the state level. The state functionaries may therefore not be privy to the decision of anyone who wants to join a political party. Curiously however, in this case the respected Dr Ben Nwoye clearly stated that Chief Ugochukwu Agballah "indicated interest" in joining the Party in July. But he did not tell us what he, Dr Nwoye, then did to that indication of interest. Did he reject the offer? Did he reply, "No Sir, you can no longer join us for we have closed the revalidation and re-registration exercise"? Perhaps he told the then intending entrant, a former Commissioner of Works, a former gubernatorial candidate, a political "big fish", "Please come back next year".

What exactly did he tell Chief Ugochukwu Agballah in July? How can he convince anyone that he did not welcome Agballah with open arms, with heart full of joy and happiness at the joining of one more person to his political fold? It is obviously a later day thought to say that the entry of Agballah was incomplete or inadequate. It was certainly not late. As we speak, the Party is yet welcoming members of the public and those unhappy with other parties into its fold. We recently welcomed Dr Eneh into our fold with pomp and pageantry, as we should for we are happy to have him join us. Politics is ‘nta madu’ – the fishing for men. It is a game of numbers and no political party ever closes its door to any intending member. That Chief Agballah is a late joiner or incomplete joiner is absolutely inconsequential in political assessments.

The second issue raised, perhaps more germane, is that he is not the product of consensus among the Enugu West Senatorial District leaders. The background of the zoning arrangement entered into at the state level as given by both gentlemen is essentially correct and there is no need to split hairs on minor details. The state APC did set up a 9-man committee to determine the zoning arrangement, among other responsibilities. (It was also a Reconciliation committee for there was already a need to soothe tempers and solve problems within the Party even then). The zoning arrangement have it that the post of the Chairman of our party should be left for persons from the Enugu West Senatorial District, just like it said that the gubernatorial candidate for the 2023 election should come from Enugu East Senatorial District; and that the national party positions should be ceded to Enugu North Senatorial District. That is factual. The divergence is in whether or not the emergence of Chief Agballah is consistent with, or in breach, of those provisos. The nomination of Chief Ugochukwu Agballa was perfectly in accordance with the State Zoning Committee’s recommendations. Chief Agballa is from Enugu West Senatorial District. He is not from Enugu North neither is he from Enugu East Senatorial District.

The claim of not being the consensus candidate is only half the truth and suppresses facts that will bring the proper perspective into focus. If, as claimed by the proponents, that there was a disagreement within the leadership of Enugu West Senatorial District over a consensus candidate, a position in sync with the pronouncements of all leaders of the West at the Stakeholders Forum convened to receive these consensus lists for adoption by the entire state stakeholders, all it goes to show is that there was no consensus. The choices of the two gentlemen in the Signature interview are even not the same. The seeming vacuum could only be filled by an election and on the eve of the State Congress everyone knew that there would be an election to determine who would be the Chairman of our party. There is nothing illegal or illegitimate in undergoing an election except that we should not be sore losers. The preferred candidate of Dr Ben Nwoye in person of Chief A.C Ude, emerged through an election held by Dr Nwoye. He did not emerge by any consensus even in their very own "birthday party congress arrangement".

The duo shot their arguments in the foot when they both agreed that the people sent to conduct the election did declare Chief Ugochukwu Agballah as the winner and the Chairman-elect. At this point, it is pertinent to note that APC state congress took place in Enugu state on October 16, 2021 at the Destiny Event Centre, Off Nza Street, Independence Layout, Enugu, where Chief Ugochukwu Agballah, in an open contest, overwhelmingly emerged as the Enugu State Chairman of APC, as declared by the nationally constituted seven-man congress committee led by Dr. Ijeomah Arodiogbu,– the people referred by the gentlemen in the interview that declared Chief Agballa as the winner. The national leadership of the party had already accepted a report of the State Congress Appeal Committee, who visited our state after the congress. The path available to them going forward is clear: appeal against the conduct of the committee either through the Appeals Committee which did come to Enugu and to which unfortunately Dr Ben Nwoye did not present any complaint having already sworn in his own executive committee members (how could he complain when he claimed to have already won?). The only remaining option is to resurrect the matter with the national Reconciliation Committee.
*Succinctly, Chief Ugochukwu Agballah is a bona fide member of the APC and he won an election. He is a product of zoning arrangement.* Electoral grievances are not new but they are not resolved by self-help. Proper procedures do exist. The interest and fortunes of the Party should remain supreme. It must come first before personal and selfish interests. Above all, it is Almighty God that gives power.

We hope that the gentlemen and any others of like minds should sheath their swords and join hands with the rest members of our Party under Chief Agballa in changing the electoral fortunes of the Party at the state and national elections. The people of Enugu State and their wellbeing should be our primary focus (and not on our personal fortunes as one of the discussants actually said), and it is our collective duty to offer an alternative government to the people of Enugu state. The new APC intends to bring in a humane, people friendly government that will chart a new way of doing things. We shall be knowledge based, reducing the paraphernalia of government to the barest minimum unlike the present PDP led government that has over 500 SAs and SSAs, many without portfolio; bring back orderliness in governance and bring development and economic prosperity to our people.

Let us channel our energies to this New Dawn APC where all are equal, irrespective of differential dates of membership registration; where the focus is majorly on effectiveness, capacity, equity and integrity. Let’s be civil and jettison name-calling, use of fowl languages and hate speech. However the randomly use of the words interloper and impostor in their interview are hate speech, unethical and condemnable. Our party will not tolerate such idiosyncrasy because we are not in a Banana Island. Civility is a choice but the arm of the law will not spare you when you make its opposite your norm.

*Charles Solo Ako*
*Publicity Secretary*
*APC Enugu State.*