Michael Aondoakaa is a former Minister of Justice and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). In this interview, he speaks on the crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State over parallel congresses organised by factions loyal to Governor Hyacinth Alia and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

Where do you stand on the feud between Senator Akume and Governor Alia in the factionalisation of the APC in Benue State and what is your insight as to the cause of this problem?

I stand on the side of the law because throughout the APC-controlled states, what happened was affirmation of the existing state congresses, affirmation of the local government congresses. The position of the National Executive Committee (NEC) that was applied throughout this country was that where vacancies do not exist as a result of either defection or death, there should be affirmation. And it is the existing ward executive now that participated in the e-registration.

It was done harmoniously by Governor Alia’s group under the existing ward exco. So, it appeared that if that was done, then there’s a consensus that the existing local government exco of the party will be affirmed. And that is exactly what happened throughout the country in all the APC states.

Then, where vacancies exist as a result of death or the officials defecting to other political parties, elective congresses will be done in that place. That is what was done in Benue. It was unfortunate that another congress was done to elect officials in spite of what has happened throughout the country. Let me go straight to the fact of the fiction. You see, we have to have loyalty and discipline.

The party cherishes discipline and we have an organised APC throughout the country that relies extremely on discipline and loyalty. Where there’s a decision of NEC of the party, it does appear to everybody that the decision should be respected. And if you check across the country; that is exactly what happened. So, Benue cannot be isolation from other states because in party politics, you are bound to have pressure groups within this party but they should not escalate in the manner that it will distort the chances of the party in the forthcoming elections.

In our state, what we have been doing is to fight with the group that produced the governor. And the group that actually produced the current governor is Akume’s group because the governor was a respected Catholic priest. So, he had no party structure that could have taken him to winning election or winning the party primary.

In charting the history of this impasse, you said that Akume was instrumental to Alia emerging as governor in the state. If this is the case, is this another incident of a godfather and his godson not agreeing with the godson wanting to be independent, and do you think the intervention of the President is needed at this point?

That would be most appropriate, but you see, in party politics, loyalty and gratitude is very important. I am not saying that the governor may have some genuine reasons, but reason in whatever way is on the round table. The President has urged the parties to sit down together and do reconciliation. That has not been done. The President again requested when he came to Benue for reconciliation. That has not been done. I do believe that in spite of the fact that you have authority now as a governor, you should also defer to age.

I had always wished the governor to look for Akume, considering the fact that this is a man in his 70s, he has been a governor before, he has been a senator three times, so the governor should move to him and say let us sit down and reconcile. That has always been my position.

But if you look at the analogy, the man conducted the election, led the campaign for APC, went through a lot of legal battle, even myself took the party to court. About nine people took others to the Supreme Court, but Akume was able to reconcile all those who contested the primaries. We all came back and followed him to give victory to our respected governor.

Now, let us look at it; of all the nine people who contested with the governor during the primary, none of them is with him. That means there’s a failure of genuine reconciliation. There’s no inclusiveness in this government. Are you saying the nine people, some are from his local government, none of them has been invited to join forces with the governor.

Only two members of the House of Representatives are with the governor; no senator is with him. Even the senators who are in the opposition party are following Akume. This means that something is wrong

I think that is where the point is missing. In party politics, it’s not a matter of winner gets all. All of us that contested elections with him during primaries, there should be a role for us to play, it’s not a matter of saying Akume is playing godfatherism. Look at some of us who contested elections with him; some of us stopped at the Court of Appeals, some went to the Supreme Court, but we all came back and joined forces, campaigned vigorously to produce him, so that we can have an APC governor.

That is the desire that we all should be part of the system. It’s not a matter of old brigade and progressive. Progressive were there, but when he came, it was the old brigade that followed and made sure that victory was achieved.

It is something that the President or the party structure at the national level should look at, recognizing the role that of all the people elected in Benue under APC, which on the election that produced the governor, almost 90 per cent are with Akume. So, something must be wrong somewhere. I always wish that my governor, whom I respect, will sit down and reflect on why everybody is not with him. Only two members of the House of Representatives are with the governor; no senator is with him.

Even the senators who are in the opposition party are following Akume. This means that something is wrong. So, let the governor do a safe assessment and go to Akume and sit down with him and invite some of us. If there’s grievances, we can say, our leader, this is where you went wrong, let us reconcile with the young man and move forward, so that the party will always win in the state.

From this inference, it’s as if you’re endorsing godfatherism and why can’t you people just respect the man as the governor?

I think we are talking here about congresses. The point here is that there’s a decision by NEC that there should be affirmation. That has nothing to do with the popularity of Alia and that has nothing to do with what we should do.

The party all over the country has done affirmation, why should the case in Benue be different? Other governors who were in PDP and moved to APC followed the decision of affirmation. Why should Benue be different? We are not saying he’s doing something wrong. I am not accusing him. I don’t have any personal grudge with him.

I’m saying that if there’s an affirmation in 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory, why singled Benue out. I have given you an analogy that e-registration was done, and it was done by the exco that existed at the ward level. They were the ones who did the e-registration. That means they also recognised the fact that the existing exco is there. And the directive was that if they had not left the party, there should be affirmation.

That is what’s supposed to happen in Benue. What is difficult about that? That does not make anybody look down on him. That does not in any way mean an interference with his duties as a governor. Nobody is saying give me a job in the government; this is a party issue. If there’s a directive that the whole country should do affirmation, do you find it appropriate that Benue will be the only one that will go against that .I don’t see anything godfatherism in that.