Though Senate Ifeanyi Uba had died in July, his demise still causes so much grieve and sorrow among the Igbos and indeed, the whole country. In fact, I came to Lagos to sign a condolence register opened in his honour. May his soul rest in peace. Senator Ubah was an intelligent man, a courageous man and his acumen led him to wealth, fame and political recognition. He was loved across the board.His demise is regretted and he’ll not be forgotten. May God forgive his sins and admit him to paradise. May God comfort both his immediate and extended family members.

Your type Is rare, coming from the hallowed chamber of justice to full blown politics. What prompted you to go into the murky waters of politics up to the point of flying the presidential ticket of APGA in the 2023 presidential election?

If I put it on a lighter note, if retired army general became a president, why shouldn’t a judge who is a democratic be the president of this country? Besides, I came from a political family.My uncle, of blessed memory, was a running mate to Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1979 general elections. At that time, I was his personal assistant.

If you remember, Chief Awolowo did not intend to travel out of the country if he had become the president.He wanted to remain in Nigeria and fix the country. He chose my uncle to confront all issues around international law and connection. This is also my forte as I am a student of comparative and international law. My uncle chose me as his personal assistant after I had my LLB in 1979. While I was on this task, we went to Ikenne, in Ogun State, the hometown of Chief Awolowo for a meeting.

When we arrived at Ikenne, we were received by the late Mama Hannah Awolowo, who ushered us into the house and thereafter, we met with Chief Awolowo. Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, a former governor of Ogun State, was among those at the meeting. The meeting lasted for three days. The room they accommodated me was peculiar. I was sleeping amidst framed photographs, piled all over the room. That also gave me the opportunity to look through those pictures. That relationship between Pa Awolowo and my uncle brought the families close.

That was why when Mama Awolowo passed on in 2015, my family put up an obituary in Vanguard Newspapers to mourn her. At that time, my two cousins insisted that I must be one of the signatories of the advert. Though I was still a Chief Judge of Anambra at the time, I had no option but to sign it alongside my cousins. You know how Nigeria is?In fact, I remember, somebody called me from the north, alleging that I had joined politics. I vehemently declined saying my signature was a family thing.

But, there was a general perception that the Igbos are political antagonists to the Yoruba and that contributed to the loss of Chief Awolowo at the poll.

No, that cannot be correct.It was not the Igbo votes that cost Chief Awolowo 1979 general elections. Yes, the Igbos have the right to whatever they are holding. Even my uncle who was the vice presidential candidate with Chief Awolowo, didn’t get a vote for his principal in my ward. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s party won the election there. People like my uncle were trying to leave the past and build the future. And that is the road we should follow. On the issue between some Igbos and Chief Awolowo, from my uncle’s experience, and that of mine, we should find a way to make progress. For instance, I decided to stay in APGA and refuse to be intimidated.And to that extent, we must embrace the Yorubas.

You were the 2023 presidential candidate of APGA, but things appear to be falling apart in the party. What are the issues?

APGA hasn’t changed. Though the party has huge members in Anambra, unfortunately, the party is toiling with its own organization.Did you know that the 2023 presidential candidate of APGA, going by the party’s constitution, is not a national working committee of the party? So, if there’s a meeting of APGA hierarchy today, I’m not invited and if I go, I won’t be allowed in. And if the presidential candidate is not a member of the party organ, the vice presidential candidate, senatorial, House of Representatives, House of Assembly candidates arenot members of any organ of the party.That is building castles in the air. In APGA, those at my level are not allowed to discuss the party.That is a big problem.

You knew this before you decided to pitch your tent with APGA. Didn’t you know?

Yes, I knew it. After studying the constitution of the party, I’ve always maintained that it is an aberration. But, you know how these things are? Going by the Supreme Court’s verdict, party politics is an internal affair of the party. But, the fact that it is an internal affair of the party doesn’t mean that the party has to be hijacked; it doesn’t mean that the party has to be given to the highest bidder. So, I was biding my time to get the candidature of the party to air these views and see how to restructure that constitution.The trouble in APGA is that it is built on sand. There is no solid foundation for the party for people to ask questions and get involved. And that is what the problem is.

Was that why you performed woefully during 2023 presidential elections?

It was unfortunate that during the 2023 presidential elections, APGA did anti-party against its own candidate. There was a directive in APGA not to vote for their candidate. If APGA alone had voted for their candidate, I would have done much more than I did.I could have come either fifth or sixth.What you saw was done on my own strength. If APGA had decided to vote for its own candidate, the narrative now would have been different.APGA, from day one, would have been on the table to talk about how to run the country.I never got a chance to reshape APGA.I would have been in a better position to reshape that party.

If APGA is built on sand, according to your assertion that means it will soon collapse.Are you saying the party does not have a future?

With its constitution, this party does not have a future. I am the presidential candidate of APGA until another one is produced in 2027. So, there’s no way you can do away with Peter Umeadi as the presidential candidate in 2023, and still believe you can achieve anything meaningful.So, the party is in a doldrums and it can’t get out of it except it is ready for total rebirth.That is why the intra-party disputes are festering in the party. All of these are happening because there is no inclusive architecture in APGA.This party was not built on a foundation of communality. One of the Eastern Region governors said that any circle of inclusion has a corresponding circle of exclusion. There is a wide circle of exclusion in APGA.

Currently, APGA has a governor in Anambra. In your view do you see the party retaining that state in the next election?

The Issue is not about the election per se. If the sitting governor gets the ticket, the structure has not been remedied. APGA will still be a one man show wherever the pendulum swings. APGA as a party shut itself in the foot. It is not about whether the governor will get the ticket or not, it is about having a political party that can stand the test of time. Recently, the state conducted local government elections, and only APGA won the elections. That the party won all the local government seats does not mean that all is well with the party.

With the spread and state of your party, you knew that you were not going to win the election, yet you still went ahead to fight for the party’s ticket. Why?

In an election, you don’t know who will win or lose. The reason I joined APGA is because I believe in the potential of APGA.This party had a deep potential to get on the table and discuss how Nigeria will be governed. But unfortunately, the party blew off that chance. You didn’t have something good enough, yet, your party supported someone else; told their members not to vote for their own candidate. If the party had done the right thing, it would have won the election in Anambra State, which means APGA would have won the Labour Party. In that election, every vote counts. I was actually looking at the Igbo agenda, I wanted to get the bloc back to the mainstream of Nigeria’s politics. And I concluded that the only party to actualize that was APGA. If you come into an enterprise, you don’t chicken out. If you chicken out, you’re finished!

If you get the chance in 2027, would you still like to fly APGA’s ticket?

Yes. I believe by then the party would have been better.APGA is a party to negotiate oneness of Nigeria. If you want to deal with the people, you need to deal with those the people trust.If any leader deals with someone the Igbo do not trust, the people won’t believe in you.

I’m sure you’re familiar with local government autonomy vis a vis a bill recently signed by Prof. Charles Soludo, Anambra State Governor. Will the bill help or circumvent the Supreme Court’s verdict on the matter?

There’s an Igbo proverb that says ‘Let the deity defend itself’. Let the Supreme Court defend itself. While I was the Chief Judge of Anambra State, a case came before me and I gave a judgment in 2018.I made it clear that the transition councils in Anambra State were unconstitutional based on Section 7 of the Constitution. If you go to that Section, no matter what anybody will say, the subsection confirms the status of the National Assembly.The facts that some powers are given to the State House of Assembly does not remove the reality that their interference is not reckoned with.

Nobody can really condemn what you have not given the opportunity to thrive.The 4thSchedule of the constitution makes it clear that the local governments should be in charge of slabs, abattoirs, markets, motor parks etc.The whole idea is to allow this tier of government to develop. So, if you suddenly say you do not have faith in the local government, I hope many people have faith in you as a state government. What has happened in Anambra recently is worrisome to say the least.

It has been a recurrent decimal for the judiciary to be granting frivolous injunctions on political matters. How do you think such conflicting orders could be addressed?

The National Judicial Council (NJC) has powers to discipline judges. However, reports have to be made before judges can be called to question. Where they fail to explain properly, you get into trouble. Being a member of the judiciary, it is worrisome to me the level at which these things are happening. There’s a time that the judiciary has to prove that it is better than what the people are saying, though it seems it is losing it at the speed of this anomaly.

So, what can be done?

The investigative and sanction systems have to be faster and heavier than what currently obtains. These systems have to be there for everyone to see so that only the foolhardy ones will receive harm on their head. (The Nation)