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 outcome of the party’s recent zonal stakeholders meeting and the code of conduct ahead of the primary elections

The zonal stakeholders meeting is a novelty in your party; what informed that?

Since APGA was registered, there has not been any convened forum where issues concerning the party have ever been discussed. All that we had done is to hold congresses and conversations to elect the respective leaderships of the part from the ward to local government, state and national levels, while a lot of gray areas begging for attention had remained unattended to.

So, in the wisdom of the National Working Committee (NWC) and National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, it is time to address those burning issues that actually has to do with the nomination processes of the party and it was well addressed.

Do you think that this would put an end to the protests arising from the party primary elections?

For over two decades, APGA has been both a symbol of South-East identity and a victim of its own contradictions. It has survived, but survival is not growth. So, the South-East Zonal Stakeholders’ Conference, which is the first of its kind in 20 years, suggests the party is finally ready to confront that truth.

Governor Chukwuma Soludo did not mince words. His attack on ‘trade by barter’ politics was an indictment of a culture where APGA is rented out at every election cycle as a convenient platform for political nomads. His remedy is blunt: kill the ‘gift-ticket’ era. If loyalty is not rewarded and tickets remain commodities, then APGA will never be more than a regional holding company for personal ambition. The reforms he champions are not cosmetic.

Digitizing the membership register in 2024 was a quiet revolution. For the first time, every card-carrying member can vote and be voted for. The adoption of Option A4 for primaries is another break from the opaque delegate systems that breed godfatherism. These are tools for sunlight, and sunlight is what APGA has lacked.

The National Chairman of the party, Sly Ezeokenwa’s new rules go further; separating Expression of Interest from Nomination Forms in APGA no longer platform for political nomads –Opara troduces a filter for quality. Forcing party executives to resign before campaigning for aspirants enforces neutrality. These are the unglamorous mechanics of a real party, not a trading floor. Soludo’s proposal to return to a dues-paying model may sound archaic, but it is honest.

Parties funded by members answer to members. Parties funded by contractors answer to contracts. APGA’s stunted national growth can be traced directly to its addiction to the latter. Rev. Augustine Ehiemere was right to call APGA the ‘beautiful bride’ of Nigerian politics. But brides don’t stay beautiful by standing still. The party’s growth has been concentrated, its reach limited, its potential wasted by mercenary politics.

The question now is: Can APGA enforce its own rules? Can it tell a money-bag aspirant “no” and survive the backlash? Can it convince ordinary members that dues are not extortion but ownership? If the answer is yes, then a new APGA is truly in the offing and it is not as a slogan, but as a disciplined, transparent movement. If the answer is no, then this conference will be remembered as another eloquent communique, filed and forgotten.

Those permutations are open for discussion but the so-called money bags have very strong hold on the membership…

It has to do with the audacity to say no and maintain it. When you study the history of politics and activities of political parties, you would discover that the overbearing influence of money bags in all the parties have been the bane of party politics in Nigeria.

Today, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is at the receiving end of this and the party could not conduct primaries or conventions due to the fangs of money bags or so called godfathers or thin gods in the party. In APGA, there used to be something similar to it, where tickets are given and once the candidate wins election, he or she would dump the party and go back to where he came from.

We have foundation members and real party faithful, who in the past 20 years have been loyal to the party but never got the chance to win a nomination and you can agree with me what has been going on in their minds. People lose tickets in their party and then run to APGA and win election and depart.

So, where is the prize for loyalty among our members? This time around, it is not going to be business as usual and these guidelines or code of conduct has come to stay and it is either you adhere to it or you look for another party. However, the amended Electoral Act makes it difficult for one to jump from party to party and the time is too short and the window for registration of members would soon elapse before the primary elections.

Part of the code of conduct is the issue of vote buying during primary elections; how do you enforce it against the money bags?

We have our plans close to our minds and we would not be preempted by anyone to say our mode of operations just watch and enjoy the outcome. Our drive is to provide a level playground for all aspirants and those huge sums of money spent at the primary elections would no longer play out.

It is indeed frustrating that an aspirant would spend such huge sum of money and at the end you disqualify that person and you think that he is happy with you. If someone wants to do business, let him go and do business and not to use APGA as a business empire and that has been the problem with our party in the past.

Even Governor Soludo was a victim of that when he was urged to come and contest and the same people that told him that he is qualified to go into the race were the same people that disqualified him on the ground of not paying tax and one wonders how the governor of a Central Bank for years could not pay tax.

However, he remained in the party and today he is the national leader of the party and he is now in a better position to put things right. Again, this practice of party executive members being partisan to a preferred candidate has to stop because other aspirants would not feel safe and will also not have confidence in the electoral process.

During primary elections, there has always been conflicts over the real list of delegates for the primary elections and aspirants are forced to pay huge sums of money to get the delegate lists which most of the time are changed on the eve to the primary elections because a money bag has emptied his account into the pockets of desperate and corrupt party leaders who in the past 20 years have been feeding fat on the party. Interestingly, it is going to be through option A4 and it is direct primary elections not delegate primary elections.

Most members of the party are not happy about this development and some are figuring out means of by passing the code of conduct…

We already know that and we are on top of the game and ahead of them. Party members have been briefed on what to do and some have been trained on however to counter such situations.

Don’t forget that the party knows those that are neck deep in that undemocratic practice and it is easy to identify them because they are always out to cut corners. Even the aspirants are happy with these codes of conducts and it is a money saver for them and a great boost to the internal democracy of our party and makes our primary elections attractive to be part of.