Mr. Slyvester Ezeokenwa, the National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) recently had an interactive session with a select group of journalists in Lagos. He discussed his recent election as the fourth National Chairman of APGA and the youngest so far. He spoke about his vision for the party and other national issues.
You were unanimously elected to the office by over 300 delegates selected from 36 states of Nigeria at the 2023 APGA National Convention; you are just 38 years old making you the youngest ever chairman of the party, how does that feel?
There is always this uneasy calm when I introduce myself as the National Chairman of APGA. Some people would ask whether I mean state chairman or national chairman? I don’t know whether they feel I am too young or it is because I don’t wear a red cap or agbada. I emerged as APGA national chairman on May 31, 2023. The leadership of APGA accepted me despite my age because of my deep understanding of the party having been part of the key legal battles of APGA from the battle between Chekwas Okorie, the founder of APGA and Victor Umeh to that between Umeh and Maxi Okwu. So, by 2015, I became the State Legal Officer, four years later when I was due to do a second term as state legal officer, I was asked to come up as the National Legal Adviser of the party because I had done well in the state. And, after serving as National Legal Adviser for one term, I was asked to step up again as National Chairman of the party. I will say that APGA is my first and only love.
How did you get into politics and for how long now?
I like to go down memory lane when I discuss my journey into politics. I had just finished my secondary school and got admission into the university to study law when I got involve in politics. Most students start with students union politics which I felt was childish politics. I started almost as soon as we gained admission into the university, I was a fiery Peter Obi advocate because he was our first governorship candidate in Anambra State in 2003. I toured the entire nooks and crannies of Anambra State with Peter Obi and it was the first election I participated in as a voter and I also served as a polling station agent for APGA. I also went to the Election Petition Tribunal steadily with Obi. It was clear Obi won the election in almost all the local governments maybe because of the abysmal performance of the preceding Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). That election was the first case of clear manipulation of the electoral process and it caught my interest, although Dr Chris Ngige had started on a good note by constructing roads, the case caught my attention in the concept of justice. Obi finally got his mandate and by the time he won his second term, I had graduated and qualified as a lawyer and was part of his legal team. Since then, I have been part of the internal workings of APGA starting from the grassroots till I got to my present position as national chairman.
What are your plans for APGA as the National Chairman?
Like my governor, Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo, I am from Anambra State, so I call him my governor, he said before he became governor that if you don’t innovate, you will die off. We conducted a study of the 2023 elections and discovered that one critical thing about the election was the interest of young people in who will emerge the President of Nigeria.
So, I have been having discussions with the leader of my party, Prof Soludo. Unlike me who has been in APGA from day one, he started from the PDP before joining APGA but we share one thing in common, that is our deep understanding of what APGA should represent as a true umbrella of all progressives in Nigeria. Like me, Prof Soludo also started politics at a young age, and he was also not involved in the students union politics but he was the leader of the Ekwueme Mandate Movement in the University of Nigeria, the students wing of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). So, we have been discussing what the place of APGA should be, APGA is the only one of all the political parties registered in 2002 that is still around today. We both agreed that Nigeria over the years has been running a gerontocracy, that is government of old people, people making policies they would not benefit from. In the 2023 election, we noticed that there was an interest fueled by majority of young people who felt that the APC and the PDP have not rendered the service the people needed
Why is APGA seen as a regional party?
Nigeria has always built political parties around national lights; in the First Republic, the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) was built around Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Saduana of Sokoto and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Belewa, the Action Group was built around Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) was around Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe which later metamorphosed into United Progressives Grand Alliance (UPGA) from where APGA derived its name.
But my point is that Soludo was the leader of the students wing of the NPN, meanwhile, the party that had the sentiments of many people in the the South East then was the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP), which was Dr Azikiwe’s party. There is no doubt that APGA has always shared the sentiments of the South East but in 2023, another person from the South East became the presidential candidate of another political party, the Labour Party (LP) and it appeared as if there was a conflict. I want to say this, Peter Obi or whatever qualities ascribed to him are qualities he gathered while he was governor of Anambra State under the platform of APGA implementing the manifesto of APGA. There is nothing about Peter Obi that represents Labour Party, it is all APGA. One major manifesto programme of APGA is reducing the cost of governance, once you cut down on the cost of governance you will have resources to execute programmes that will impact the lives of people. Rochas Okorocha was elected governor on the platform of APGA and he was doing well until he left the party. Once you join the mainstream political parties, you will meet hawks that want to feed fat off the resources of the government and once this happens, you deplete the resources available to execute projects for the people.
What are you doing to change the impression of APGA as Igbo party?
We want to really show this party to Nigerians so that they understand it. APGA has been there since 2002. It is a true progressive party for all Nigerians and we want a Nigeria that will work for all irrespective of social status.
What do you think of the APC government of President Bola Tinubu?
As a party, APGA is only interested in the Progress of Nigeria. We support President Bola Tinubu because we want him to succeed, if he succeeds, Nigeria will be better.
APGA supports a progressive Nigeria, it is not in alliance with the APC or any other political party. Our only interest in the APC leadership of Tinubu is for him to succeed on his manifesto so that Nigeria will be good and work for everyone. We will not fail to call him out any time we feel he has deviated.
What is your take on fuel subsidy removal?
Subsidy is what the government offers to the people to alleviate their hardship and it can come in different forms; it must not be only on fuel. Fuel subsidy is about the only thing poor Nigerians enjoyed from the government but in Nigeria, fuel subsidy is one of the greatest criminal contraptions. Over the years, we have seen the criminalisation of the fuel subsidy regime by officials of the government.
The removal of subsidy has elicited so much reaction because the price of fuel affects everything we do in the country, whether it is transportation, power generation or small-scale manufacturing.
I support the fact that President Tinubu took the bold step to remove subsidy. The major presidential candidates all agreed that the subsidy is unsustainable. However, I expect his administration to re-lunch investigation into the fuel subsidy regime in the last 20 to 30 years and uncover those who have criminally enriched themselves at the expense of Nigerians; such people should be made to pay back what they stole into the national purse. The poor in Nigeria cannot continue to pay for government’s ineptitude.
@Sun