Mazi Ejimofor Opara is the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). In this interview with OKEY MADUFORO, he speaks on the party’s just-concluded primaries which was laden with controversies and other issues

How do you see the conduct and outcome of the primary elections in Anambra State?

First of all, we presented the party’s guideline for the conduct of the State House of Assembly, Federal House of Representatives and Senatorial primary elections, which was painstakingly put in place to drive the process. We as a political party had the Code of Conduct for party officials and aspirants which is aimed at ensuring peaceful, transparent and credible exercise.

The essence of those guidelines is to give room for party faithful and loyal party men and women to have that opportunity to contest for positions in the party, and also to avail them of the sense of belonging as a reward for party loyalty. Also, it gave proof that the party is happy that most party members who were skeptical about going into political contests gained bountifully from that.

You will recall that in the past, the influence of moneybags had been the bane of the party, and what the party did was to send a strong message to them that this party is not a platform for political nomads.

When you look at the outcome of the primary elections you would discover that a lot of party members are now candidates of the party, and most importantly these are traditional party members who had in the past been denied tickets of the party because some so-called stakeholders had always decided who gets what and how.

Again, most of them are young men and women with great political future and that gives them that impetus to have not only confidence in the party but in the electoral process and this is the tonic we need to take the party to the higher level.

We had Committees that supervised those primary elections and we also have the Appeal Committee of the party that took over all petitions, claims and objections arising from the primary elections and we commend them for doing their best in view of the present circumstances.

So by and large the APGA primary elections were fair, free and transparent and of course you do not rule out some minimal hitches which is the by- product of human errors. However, those gray areas were rectified and the party has moved on ever since and we are more focused now on the main election in 2027.

Talking about hitches, most party members are not happy with the performance of those sent to conduct the election?

In any given process you do not rule out those human errors but comparatively they are minimal when you look at what other political parties did in their own primary elections. But our party has been able to take care of those little gray areas by repeating elections in some wards across the state and you can agree with me that we have done the needful.

Unlike other political parties none of our aspirants have approached the courts over the outcome, rather they have remained loyal party members and have also accepted to work for the victory of the party in the general election We learnt that some returning officers of the parties were attacked by some aspirants because of result sheets, but here in APGA we had no such experiences as we have played our brother’s and sister’s keepers.

But we had conflicting results about the primary elections?

Yes, that is one of the challenges of the era of social media. Once you have an Android phone you can post anything and make bogus claims about the outcome of any election. Most of those results have the authors as winners of the party primary elections.

This is to say the least misleading and an affront to deceive the party members and ultimately the general public and it should be discouraged in its entity. Every election has two sides. When the umpire tosses the coin, it can fall either way. The outcome is a matter of probability, and only strategic, rule-based decisions produce results that stand. From a distance, it’s easy to mistake heads for tails.

When that happens, only the umpire with the closest view can say with certainty what the coin shows. The same principle applies to our primaries. Article 21 of APGA’s Procedures for the Anambra National Assembly and State House of Assembly Primary Election 2026, which was distributed to all aspirants, is clear:

Where there are discrepancies in the ward results collated and declared by the Returning Officer and that of the electoral panel, the Chairman of the Electoral Panel is empowered to cancel the result and place reliance on the verified ward results in determining the winner of the said election This provision gives the Electoral Panel Chairman the authority to resolve discrepancies when superior, verified evidence exists.

Beyond that, the party has other internal mechanisms to address stalemates or inconclusive primaries. At the end of the day, only the party can authenticate the credibility of a primary election result. Aspirants who flood social media with unverified results are stoking mischief. APGA will not validate outcomes based on online posts, regardless of how highly placed the individual may be.

It is in the best interest of all aspirants and their supporters to use the party’s internal processes to address any perceived infractions. That is how disputes are resolved fairly, and how the party protects its integrity.

Are you aware that some aggrieved aspirants and party members have resolved to work against the party on protest?

That is laughable. How would you work against a political party that has its taproots buried on ground and feel that you will succeed? Well, it is up to them to make a choice between being dedicated party loyalists and attempting to throw the spanners but one thing is permanent and that is APGA cannot afford to lose any single seat in the 2027 general elections.

Which of the political parties are they going to work for? Most parties are neck deep in internal crisis which has to do with the emergence of their respective candidates and they are going to the polls with so much bruises and that is a minus for them.

I wish to advise that our aggrieved aspirants and their supporters should remain faithful to the party because it is a matter of time some of them would become elected office holders through the party. The anger of some of them is that they expected things to happen as usual as it used to be but got disappointed by the turn of events.

Those that won the tickets of the party are party members who have been loyal to the party and have served the party against all odds and the party chose to change the narrative and instill discipline and comradeship in the party and that is why real party members became candidates of the party.

Those angry may have had that picture of a seasonal rip off on the aspirants as they used to do and there were nobody carrying money about town in search of delegates for the primary elections.

The party at this point appreciates the boldness of the National Assembly in amending the Electoral Act and the era of conflicting delegate lists have gone and the delegates are now the registered members of the party and the process is through direct primary elections and it doesn’t give room for that brand of manipulations. As they plot to work against the party, more people are also joining the party and have also offered to work for the party.

After the elections they would still come home to the party while the new entrants may have consolidated and taken vintage political positions in the party and they would now fall in line at the back seat. So one cannot cut off his nose to spite his face and it would be politically suicidal for a right-thinking party man to try to play anti party because politics is local.

You sound so optimistic that the capacity of candidates that your party has would make the difference?

Why not? They are young; they have pedigree and they have a lot to offer to our people and they also have experience with them so what would stop them? Or who has the capacity to defeat them in 2027? Laying all the cards on the table and being an experienced journalist, which of the candidates or parties can withstand APGA in 2027? But some party members have severally accused Governor Soludo of high handedness in the choice of candidates and even forced some aspirants to withdraw from the contest?

No don’t go there because the Governor provided a level playground for all and sundry to participate in the primaries. Don’t forget every member of the party played very pivotal roles towards his second term victory and it would be too unfortunate and inappropriate for Mr Governor to support anyone against the other so he had to throw it open for everyone to contest in the primary elections.

Some who expected the Governor to hand them over the party tickets are not happy about that but the Governor has no choice but to ask everyone to go and test their popularity and acceptability among party members.

At the end we produced our best who are set to win all the positions in the general elections and they have the capacity to take on any candidate from any party if there is any.

How about the NDC and APC?

When we get to the bridge, we shall fashion out how to cross it and that doesn’t sound like an act of cowardice. This is because we are firmly on ground and better poised to deliver the three Senatorial Districts, the 11 Federal House of Representatives seats as well as the 30 state Assembly seats.

You talked about the NDC and I ask, where is the party in Anambra State or in Nigeria?

People who are aggrieved from their respective political parties come into a relationship in an unknown party on protest just to get at their political foes. What would they be discussing if not positions and shearing formulas? At the end of the general elections, they would go their separate ways and the party becomes empty once again.

Again, why are some people abhor going for primary elections? Why must they have it without a contest? Some run critiques against the government of the day while they are also part of the problem? What were their roles as it were when they were in the saddle? And what moral justification do they have to run down someone in power when they couldn’t do anything to change the narrative.

Politics is not one that you play with self-adulation or claiming sainthood without proof and paint very utopic picture of what ought to be and what should not be.

People have changed political parties in one dispensation just to be in power and one sees that as share desperation for power. All the same, the Nigerian Constitution provides for freedom of association and they have that right to associate but it is a far cry from winning an election.