Chief Okey Chukwuogo is the Director-General of George Moghalu Campaign Organisation. In this interview with OKEY MADUFORO, he speaks on the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State and his party as well as its candidate’s chances
How has acceptance of Labour Party been in Anambra State been since after the flag off of its governorship campaign?
First and foremost, our party, the Labour Party, has acceptance here. This is clear because two out of the three senators representing the state at the National Assembly are members of our party.
They are Senators Victor Umeh and Tony Nwoye, and we also have members of the House of Representatives as well as members of the state House of Assembly, who were elected on the platform of Labour Party.
This is a political party that was described as not having structure but we still made it at the last general election. Don’t forget that the leader of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, is from Anambra State and we are bold to say that he won the last presidential election but they denied him of his victory.
So, Anambra people are aware that they need to deliver the candidate of Labour Party in the governorship election, Chief George Moghalu in order to deliver Obi who would be running for the presidency again in 2027. Moghalu is well known in Anambra State and he is a man that has integrity and he is widely known. He is focused on what he wants to do.
When he was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer National Inland Water Ways (NIWA), he did excellently well and his records are there to show and speak for him.
You talked about structure, which many believe that Moghalu doesn’t have. How is he going to contend with the candidates of established political parties?
Don’t forget that Moghalu has been in politics for long. He contested for governorship under the then All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP); He moved with the ANPP to the All Progressives Congress (APC). He was a member of the merger committee of the party and later became its national auditor. So, when you talk about structure, we have the structure and we are contesting to win this election.
Labour Party is passing through a lot of challenges; don’t you think this will affect the fortunes of Moghalu in the election?
You see, we don’t want to put ourselves in the national struggle. The judgement is there and the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC is also in custody of the documents. The process starts from being a member of the party, then presenting yourself for primary election and winning the ticket of the party.
So, the crisis in the party will not affect the ambition of our candidate and he has the full recognition of the national leadership of the party and INEC as the electoral body and we are campaigning to win. All those issues have been put to rest and the Labour Party has moved on and our people are fully behind him in this election.
In this election, people will cast their votes and their votes will surely count. And make no mistake about it, the era of manipulation is gone and our people are ready to protect their votes
Remember that during the primary election, INEC was present and the Anambra Resident Electoral Commissioner, was also there physical to witness the process and they endorsed the electoral process, so there are no encumbrances about Moghalu’s candidacy.
More importantly, Labour Party has no faction and we don’t have a parallel leadership. The national chairman of the party was recently in Anambra and made more endorsement.
Moghalu was a top leader in the APC but at what point did he chose to join Labour Party?
If you remember what happened in the last dispensation, when he was contesting the primary election of the APC, you will recall the charade that took place in that primary election.
Someone went somewhere to write the results of the primary election when there was no election but Moghalu went to court to challenge the process and we got judgement in our favour.
Aside the lack of internal democracy in the APC, the party in Anambra State, has not been able to win election. In fact, they don’t win and even members of the party don’t vote for the APC. So, it doesn’t make sense going to contest on that platform.
We all know that the APC is not a party to reckon with in Anambra State and there seems to be that stigma that has continued to follow the party, so it would amount to shooting yourself on the leg to go to a political party that has a baggage to run for an election.
In the first place, if you want to go for an election, you must first consult your family members and associates. You will also look at the political parties that are going for the election and equally seek advise from stakeholders, and chose a party.
You don’t choose a party that is not on ground and a party that cannot win election. When you study the primary elections that were conducted in the state; the same APC had problems of transparency and after the so-called primary election, most of the aspirants left the party to collect tickets from other parties and this issue is still lingering even as the eventual candidate is still grappling with the matter up till now.
How about federal might, which the APC candidate is likely to enjoy in the election? What do you mean by federal might?
The people in Abuja are not Anambra voters and they will not come to Anambra to decide where Anambra people would vote and who they will vote for.
Even the President or the national chairman of the APC cannot decide on who Anambra voters will vote for. They know that their party cannot win election here and they are not worried about it.
So, forget about name-dropping by some APC members, who are boasting that Mr. President has spoken because they know that these stories are not true and they can only fool some uninformed people and not the entire people of Anambra State.
In this election, people will cast their votes and their votes will surely count. And make no mistake about it, the era of manipulation is gone and our people are ready to protect their votes.
Are we going to see the bandwagon effect that played out, when Labour Party went for the 2023 elections?
Yes, it will play out in the gubernatorial election and this is simply because Peter Obi is running for the 2027 presidential election, so people will cast their votes for Labour Party because of him. Peter Obi is very much liked in Anambra and beyond.
He has demonstrated that he can be trusted and this is enough for people to have confidence in him, in his party and in his candidates. So, people contesting elections on the platform of Labour Party will surely leverage on his good.
The ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state has made it clear that no candidate or party can defeat Governor Charles Soludo. What is your take on that?
Don’t go there; first of all, their four year tenure will end and election would be conducted. We are not saying that we shall remove Soludo because we are not doing impeachment but what we are saying is that at the end of Soludo’s four year-tenure, Labour Party will take over and Chief Moghalu will become the governor of Anambra State through the mandate of the voters.
When you understudy the government of Governor Soludo, what you will find out is that they speak from both sides of the mount and with so much grandstanding, and our people are not happy about that.
The belief is that Moghalu becomes the governor, he will do eight years and disrupt the zoning arrangement in the state?
Well, he has made it clear that he would go for just four years because he is from the same Anambra South Senatorial District as Governor Soludo.
People say that four years is not enough for a governor but I tell you that it is not true because he is going to be an accidental governor and after working for four years, he will support a successor from Anambra Central to respect that zoning arrangement.
