UCHENNA INYA 
Chief Stanley Emegha is the chairman of the newly inaugurated State Working Committee (SWC) of the Ebonyi State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as well as the state’s Commissioner for Internal Peace and Border Security. In this interview, he speaks on Governor Dave Umahi’s defection to the party and other issues. UCHENNA INYA reports
You have just been inaugurated by the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to be in charge of the Ebonyi State chapter of the party. What plans are you making to ensure that the party is strong in the state?
Just two weeks after the National Working Committee of our great party came and inaugurated us, we have held a meeting with the former executives at the local government, zonal and state levels. We made it very clear that we are one united family and nobody is left behind and that all of us must move together as the most important thing is the unity of Ebonyians and entire Igbo people. The next thing on the line is that we are going to embark on a tour of the various local governments to know how they are faring and then get their offices very prepared for them. If there is an area that is not too good for them, we will address it and then make sure that they have comfortable places that they can stay and then be interacting with people.
Some stakeholders are supporting the governor’s defection to the APC, while some have distanced themselves from the activities of the party. What are you doing to bring them on board?
If you observe, those who are saying that they are not in support are in the minority but we strongly believe that they still need an explanation and the way we do our things in our party here will let them understand the situation. So, we are still reaching out to them to let them know that it is just a nomenclature, and as well, it is the best thing that has happened at the very best time.
There are factions in Ebonyi APC and the faction led by Senator Julius Ucha spearheaded the coming in of Governor Umahi into the party, while the other faction led by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, is still at the periphery even after the National Working Committee dissolved the State Working Committee. What are you doing to reconcile members of the various factions?
You know that all the factions were dissolved by the National Working Committee of the party and Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu is an elder statesman in the party and whose his interest is the progress of the party. Both factions are in a united house and I believe very strongly that the most important thing is to carry everybody along and there is no way Onu’s opinion as a father would not be listened to. I strongly believe that the party has a constitution and we are all working on the guidelines provided by the constitution. So, the decision of the National Working Committee of our party to dissolve the factions in the state is the best decision and then I believe very strongly that in a matter of time, everybody will come to a round table; it is about understanding and we are prepared to make sure that everybody comes back together.
Is there any reconciliatory mechanism you have put in place to appease some of the stakeholders, who are not happy that the governor and his loyalists just came in and took over the structures of the party?
We are reaching out to everybody. It’s not that some of the stakeholders didn’t know that their paramount interest was the movement and the progress of the party, rather, there was no a common front for them to rub minds together and then have that understanding and that is exactly what we are doing now. We are reaching out to all these people on individual basis; talking to them, letting them know that yes, if your interest is for the progress of the party and then the betterment of Ebonyians at large, then there is no point struggling for anything as everybody’s opinion must be considered.
You are coming at a very turbulent political period in the state, and when the leader of ruling party in the state defected to an opposition party. How do you intend to do what you are supposed to do even when your friends are still in the PDP?
If you take to Biblical aspect, there is no time the Israelites were moving from one place to a better place that there was no turbulence on the way. God used those things to put a mark for people to know more.
I will tell you that all these things are all about reaching out to people and talking to them. My friends in the PDP cannot come out and say that the governor has not performed; they cannot come out and say that the governor is going to contest for another governor ship election in Ebonyi State.
They know that if the governor wishes to contest for Senate, it is a gift and something that no single person from that zone will argue about. No one will oppose it because the governor has made us proud. If the governor is saying that he wants to contest for the Office of the President, it will be a pride for any Ebonyi man that the state people used to see as a relegated state can produce somebody that has the capacity to also run for the presidency of the country.
So, those people who are on the other side are there because they have not come to understand the genuine belief that the governor’s movement into our party is going to be for the betterment of the Igbo nation.
We will explain to them and before a short time, all of them will join us but nobody is going to join issues with anybody. We are talking about peace; we are talking about coming into one place, bringing our ideas to the table for us to know the one that is better and then we make a move. I have worked with the governor; he is a good man and there has never been anything that you suggest to him that will be for the betterment of Ebonyi people that he rejected. He wants different ideas and that is the only way we can move forward. So, those on the other side will be back.
In 2003, the state witnessed two political divides – the Abuja and State groups – when then Governor Sam Egwu and then Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, engaged in a supremacy battle. Do you see the state heading towards a similar crisis?
It is a practical thing which all of us here in the state know. From the number one to the last National Assembly member that is there; none of them have the capacity to win councillorship election.
Is it not because of the love the governor has for them that made all of them to sail through? Is it not the governor that made them to be National Assembly members? Can Dr. Sam Egwu come out and say this was how he won his two elections to the Senate? Some of this people don’t have capacity; it is just that they have gone to Abuja that they feel that they have arrived. Can you conduct election in Abuja; is it not here in Ebonyi? So, let us see how popular they are in their various areas.
They will return to APC because they know that the governor has done wonders in the state within a space of five years which they all know and they are enjoying. Nobody can believe that the governor can do these wonders within a space of five years, and we are all witnesses to his performance. These are practical things, we are on ground. If we talk to them as people who are from one state, people that love themselves, people that know the truth and will always stand on it and we ask them to come and queue and they refuse, let them stay in Abuja. We will welcome them if they come but if I tell you that there is going to be any crisis in the state like in 2003, it is not true.
We are wiser now and time has gone for such crisis. PDP is supposed to be owned by the Igbo but what is happening now? None of our National Assembly members is saying anything about the way the Igbos are being treated in the PDP rather they run down to Rivers State to be slaves to somebody.
We are not a third class state, we are part of Nigeria and very courageous to determine what is due for our state and that is what we are doing. Instead of them to rally round our governor, these socalled National Assembly members are talking rubbish because some of them want to go for a 4th term. When will you breed another person? Somebody has been in power for 24 years but there is nothing to show for it.
Your Publicity Secretary, Ogbuatu Simbad, recently accused Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, of sponsoring National Assembly members of the state extraction to cause crisis in the state. What is your reaction to that?
What Wike is planning will end at Obigbo because Ebonyi is not his state. So, he should concentrate on what he is doing in his state. We don’t have the capacity to speak for his people there but we have the capacity to stop him at Obigbo.
