Hon. Somto Udeze, the honourable member representing Ogbaru II constituency in Anambra State Assembly, has called on Igbo politicians to unite and adopt the All Progressives Grand Alliance – APGA, as its political identity. Honourable Udeze made this call in an exclusive interaction with Ebuka Onyekwelu of West African Pilot News while reacting to the outcome of the just concluded 2023 general election. According to him, without a united political front, it would be difficult to build the required clout to form solid alliance to be able to bid for national political office like the presidency.
Interestingly, Hon. Somto Udeze is a member of the PDP and was reelected in March, to serve his constituency for the third term, which makes him the most ranking or experienced lawmaker in the coming Anambra’s 8th Assembly expected to resume on 12th June. “What I am saying is that when we look carefully at the just concluded election, you would see that what we need to do as a people, is to unite under our own political group and then, it will be strong. When it is strong, we will then use it to negotiate or form alliance with other parties in other zones or regions and go for presidency. It is clear that we cannot do this on our own,” Hon. Udeze said.
On the question of which platform he thinks is best for such political galvanization, and without any guess, Udeze declared that “it is APGA.” According to the honourable member, “Igbo politicians should unite and build APGA. The party has its future ahead and can be built as our own political base to avert this kind of experience in the just concluded election where we are nowhere in the actual scheme of things.”
In the 6th Assembly, Hon. Somto Udeze was elected on the platform of APGA, but in 2019, APGA for unknown reasons denied him a return ticket and he joined PDP and won the election. Since then, he has remained in the PDP and was reelected on the platform of the PDP yet again, in 2023.
APGA had always claimed to be “Igbo party” with little or nothing to show for it except this constant pronouncement by its leaders. In the past few weeks, the party has been undergoing the election of new leaders from ward, local government, state and national level, which climaxed with the election of a new national chairman for the party yesterday in the person of Barr. Sylvester Ezeokenwa. The 38 years old new APGA national chairman is effectively inheriting a fractured party, and an ambitious platform that for nearly two decades had hoped to unite the political frontiers of Ndi Igbo. The stake is high, more so considering that Anambra State Governor and the national leader of APGA would be going into his second term battle in about two years, which by every standard is considered a litmus test for Prof. Soludo and the new APGA leadership.
In the meantime, it is left to be seen just how the proposal by Hon. Somto Udeze is received by APGA or even his own political party, and the observing members of the public. It is left to be seen how APGA walks the talk of an Igbo party.
He is a Technical Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano’s Special Adviser on Legislative Matters, whoonce was a Special Adviser to a former Deputy Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly. Ebuka is a second class upper division graduate of Political Science from University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria and holds a Masters Degree in Political Science with specialization in Government and Development Studies, from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Nigeria
