If Ikpeazu was looking for surrogates to control, he won’t have supported our nomination –Igwe, Abia PDP’s Deputy Governorship Candidate

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Excerpts:

Recently, Abia State celebrated her 31 years anniversary, was it worth celebrating.

Abia State celebrated 31 years of her creation lately. 31 years of peaceful coexistence as citizens of Abia State, that’s certainly something to be thankful for, because, as you well know, the first prerequisite for good governance and development is to have a peaceful, cohesive unit, whether as a state or a nation. Now, we have come this far and there has been upheavals, there has been good things that have happened, great things actually. We have always transitioned, especially since the Fourth Republic, peacefully, from one administration to the other, that’s something to celebrate.

As a state, we are a reflection of the larger country, I always make that point. What you see in any state of the country is a microcosm of the national governance, considering the “presidential” system that we operate.

And so, a lot of good things have happened. Could we do better? Absolutely, there is always room for improvement. With that backdrop, I want to say a very Happy 31^st Anniversary to Ndi Abia n’ile.

May be the opposition parties in the state will take a different view, the likes of APC, the APGA, in particular, has described the 31 years as an absolute failure in terms of salary payment and the rest of them, and as far as they are concerned, there is absolutely nothing to celebrate

Well that is really interesting, isn’t it? Let me issue this disclaimer: I am not here to politick yet, because as you know, the window has not been opened for us to go out and politick

But this is Abia at 31

Yes, this is about Abia at 31. But let’s talk about the opposition because I will personally like to think that this will be a struggle between PDP and APC. That’s the opposition I would have envisaged. Let’s talk about the APC for instance, we think in 2015, the country came together and said we wanted change and look at what change has brought us. I never imagined in my life that I will see a day where the naira is exchanging at N700 to a dollar, that is the product of the change. We kicked out the PDP-led government and we brought in the APC. I never thought that I would see a day where the entire security apparatus of this country becomes unhinged and unraveled. I am from Umunneochi. Lately, we’ve had our security challenges, everybody knows about that and which is reflection of what is happening in the larger Nigerian country led by the APC government. But that is just a glimpse of the change we bargained for.

I will tell you that about the Umunneochi insecurity, the Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, is leading a tactical operation. Here, I won’t go into the operational details. Our security problem is under control.

But bear in mind that before Buhari came into power and his APC-led government, the PDP government kept this country together peacefully, we had the tiny bit of the Boko Haram challenge which we were dealing with at the time. But today, everything is unraveled: economic, political, security-wise, everything is a come apart. But now, let’s talk about the “opposition.” You mentioned APGA, the likes of Labour Party and recently the emergent parties, YPP, and the rest of them. You have to ask yourself, where were these guys just before our primaries? Who are these opposition? These were all members of the PDP. I will like to describe them as a parade of phonies and rejects. These people, they simply left us yesterday because they failed the primary election and so you have to ask the question: on what moral authority do they even stand on, having been members of the party and all these objections they are raising today, they didn’t raise it inside the party. And so to brandish themselves as new found, latter-day saints, is obviously funny. The real opposition is the APC and that’s the conversation we would like to have. My Principal, Prof Ikonne and the current government in Abia State, led by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, will certainly stand up and have that conversation, drawing the lines between the PDP and APC. But if we are talking about the emergent parties and I described them as a parade of rejects and phonies; that is an easy conversation to have because inherently, they are PDP members.

Is this about political parties because some of the issues that were raised are facts; like APGA mentioned issues regarding unpaid salaries and unpaid pension arrears. These are facts. Would you just say they are not competent enough or may be they don’t have the moral authority to raise these issues

If you want to have that conversation, we can have that conversation about those unpaid salaries and what not, but if you bring up the issue of opposition, obviously you are talking about political parties and if you talk about politics, we don’t have independent candidates yet in this country, constitutionally speaking. So you must have a vehicle and I just painted a picture.

Are you saying they don’t have the moral right

No, no, no. I am saying anybody can claim anything. If you are inherently a PDP member, and then you somehow, magically had some kind of Damascus experience overnight and you start questioning the same party that you are a member of, it easily smacks of being funny. That is the point I am making. But if you are talking about the issues you raised, we can talk about it on their merits. But if you bring up people that were members of the party that simply left the party because they couldn’t secure a nomination, that is another conversation we can have.

On the merits of some of those issues raised, I mean in your explication on this, in terms of where Abia is at the moment, you did say that there is more than can be done to take Abia to the Eldorado where, may be, the founding fathers can really beat their chest and say thank God Abia was created. What do you think can be done to better the lot of this state

Like I conceded at the front end, there is always room for improvement. Understand that before Governor Ikpeazu took over of this state, this state has always been in a state of economic decay for a while, infrastructure-wise. Aba, for instance, is our commercial city which was in totally abysmal state of infrastructural status before he took over. So I consider him as someone that has been doing foundational work. We were in a ditch before he became governor. And he has been digging. Sometimes when you are in a ditch and you are digging, people can’t see what you are doing. Ironically before now, I used to say, when I was a Local Government Chairman, that he is doing all this foundational work, some time, it is tough to see this because you are digging in a ditch and people can’t see what you are doing. And I used to make the point that the government that will come after him will be the major beneficiary of some of the foundational works he has done.

Let me give you an instances. We had an anniversary service in church yesterday (Sunday, August 28, 2022) and he was raising this point. For instance, the problem we have in sub-Saharan Africa is that we don’t understand the first principle of organizing a state; we have to have principles of organizing because this is state craft. We are talking of serious business, it is not just for jamboree seeking or making, but to give it to serious minds.

He has, for instance, developed a long-term economic plan for Abia State; that is crucial; it never happened before in this state. He was making the point in church yesterday that before he came in, we were basically flying around like an aircraft without a pilot and you know what that means. That is disastrous, without an economic plan! Every other country you see there in the developed world, they all operate based on an economic plan. If you don’t have a long-term economic plan, one person comes, does one thing, another person starts doing another thing today and then what do you have? You have economic chaos. Today we can boast of an economic plan, that’s foundational economic tactical planning that we are obviously going to run with. The Ikonne administration, when we take off, we are going to run on that. I always say that the difference between developed countries and the non-developed countries is the deficit of infrastructure. If you are talking about energy, I personally think that electricity is the bedrock to economic development; energy, good road networks, good healthcare system, these are things you have to consolidate in a long-term economic plan so that you know what you are doing. Government is a continuum. Someone takes over tomorrow, they will continue from where he stopped. So, we have that. And then you have major infrastructural interventions in Aba that have taken place. I can talk about the flyover, Faulks Road, which people used to criticize him about; and understand, the easiest thing to do is to criticize. From the standpoint of myself and my principal, Prof Ikonne, we are obviously open to constructive a criticism, that’s why we are talking about participatory governance, which means, please, let us stay all engaged and ask questions.

I was making the point about some of the things this government has done which are foundational, some of those interventions and he has promised that before the end of this year, this Faulks Road which people have given him a lot of criticisms about will be set. We have got to give him credit for that.

He has got the Enyimba Economic City, for instance, which is a monumental project because the insecurity and chaos you are seeing out there is all economic.

When we get our economic problems solved, every other thing that is inter-twined with it will be settled. So, the Enyimba Economic City, for instance, when you look at the blueprint, is the project enunciated by the Ikpeazu administration which the Ikonne administration will obviously bring to completion. When it is done, it is capable of employing a million of our young men and women. And it doesn’t get better than that. These are some of the things and the problem we have, I think what led to that issue you were talking about unpaid salaries, this country, our problem is just that we have failed to industrialise, that is what is killing this country.

You can’t rely on oil. We found oil, we collapsed as a country, and we lost our collective souls. Understand that United States has more oil than Nigeria. What the do is that government simply issues the licenses to private citizens or companies; you go and mine and pay royalties to the government. But that is not the case in this country. For instance, we build pipelines from the Niger Delta here all the way to the North, when Economics 101tells you that you site an industry where the raw material is. So, you see how complicated the problem is.

So, what we need to do as a state because I want to talk about Abia State, I don’t want to discuss the behemoth that is Nigeria, is that we are going to industrialise the Abia Economy and then we begin to solve some of these larger problems. If we continue to rely on the system that is, that Nigeria has created, which is take everything from whoever produces them, shift them to Abuja and then from there distribute – distribution economy – is obviously not working and is not going to work.

But the incoming administration of Prof. Ikonne, what we intend to do is build on the foundations that Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has laid and industrailise this economy; and then not only are we going to solve our unemployment problems, we are going to solve our insecurity problems and obviously, unpaid salaries which I haven’t discussed the merit.

The merit, why have we gotten to the level where salaries of a particular agency, the University Teaching hospital, Aba, hasn’t been paid for about 30 months, and a host of others. Are you saying it has to do with the federal government

Well, the obvious question that comes to mind is: what sane country saddles his government with the payment of salaries of teachers or the running of the schools, because the way a university is run, if you bring up the case of Abia Poly, for instance, which is regrettable, government is obviously addressing it, is that these universities get subvention from government, they are actually supposed to run them as commercial entities and stand alone on their feet and solve some of its problems. This is the way it is designed to run. A lot of people made a big bone about the Abia Poly issue.

The government is dealing with the issue of Abia Poly. In case people have forgotten, the Governor has released N450 million to that institution and very soon, that accreditation will be restored. We can talk about issues, the way and manner the accreditation was withdrawn, if we are running an open system, the accreditation should not have been lost in the first place.

What is the job of government: To build infrastructure and create the enabling environment for economic activities to thrive. But when we saddle government with every responsibility, obviously, it doesn’t work, that is the point.

As a general matter, if government at any level: local government, state or federal level, is the chief employment of labour, then you have a serious problem at your hands. That is why we are talking about this incoming administration of Prof. Ikonne, we are bent on industrializing our economy so that we can begin to take off this burden from government.

Let us look at you scorecard as a member of the House of Assembly representing Umunneochi. Have you stopped representing. Is it now all about 2023 general elections

Certainly, not. My job doesn’t stop until the end of the four years. My job as a legislator is three-pronged: make laws, do oversight and representation. The job of law making is very important because it is a very fundamental arm of government.

I was talking to you about industrialization, for instance. Understand that the PDP government, remember the days of NITEL, if you wanted to make a phone call, I am from Isuochi, for instance, I will have to go to Enugu. NITEL never worked until we came together, PDP government, people have forgotten that, somehow, we have amnesia; we unleashed the telecoms boom. That telecoms boom, you can look at the data, employed millions of our youths. And that’s why today, everybody has a cell phone in their hands. In the Abia State House of Assembly, I have introduced HAB 12 which will become law before we exit and what this bill seeks to do, is to do what we did in the telecoms industry in the energy sector, which is Abia State, within constitutional limits, we should be able to have a law that says we truly unbundle EEDC. I am unapologetic about issues around energy because I think it’s the key to everything. We are in the 21^st century, for Chris’s sake. Everything we do here depends on energy. People can hear me and we are talking here because we have energy (electric power supply). We can’t be in the 21^st century and be talking about EEDC and their epileptic power supply.

I can relate back to the federal again because we run a system that says we go site a national grid some place in the North and then and the so-called generating companies (GENCOs) will first of all send it to the national grid, whatever that means; archaic, obsolete system that has failed and will never work. No sane country that has developed, nationalized its electric power generation. If you go to UK, United States, Japan or China, you have multiplicity of power companies, you generate it there and then sell it there. That is the way it should work. So, that’s what my bill seeks to do – is let’s make a law that says anybody, you will open the energy space, come and invest here, generate power, so that people will invest in power generation, all you need to do is to consolidate it and then you sell it.

The constitutional constraint is that we cannot transmit outside Abia State. But here, I am running to be Deputy Governor to Prof. Ikonne, all I care about is Abia State. So, if we do that, you are going to see the Abia economy take off like a rocket.

Now, let’s talk about representation. I will continue to represent my people. Last week, for instance, I was able to get about 40 employments for some Umunneochi young men and women. I will continue to do that until the life of this tenure ends.

Prior to the party primaries, they talked about zoning, there were a lot of agitations, particularly the Charter of Equity, with stakeholders from Abia North strongly believing this it is their turn: power should shift to Abia North senatorial district. At a point in time, they even stopped short of dishing out threat to anyone from Abia North senatorial zone who accepts to go as a running mate to any candidate from any other zone. They talked about some punishment to be meted out and now here you are as a running mate to the candidate of your party who is from Abia Central. How does it make you feel with all these agitations that power should have shifted to Abia North. How do you think the people of Abia North are receiving this. Does this puncture the chances of your party

Well, there are too many points to be unpacked. There is so much talk around the Charter of Equity. It’s become this mixed. Sometimes people talk about it, pontificate about it without even understanding some of the underlying issues around it. I am obviously from Abia North, particularly, I am from the old Isuikwuato District. You will understand why that is important soon.

Let’s unpack some of the facts, facts are sacrosanct. Understand that the Charter of Equity was enunciated in 1981. Abia State came into existence in 1991, so there is a 10-year gap between the Charter of Equity and the creation of Abia State. Secondly, Charter of Equity is not law, I am a lawyer. It is something you call persuasive and non-binding understanding. At best, this Charter of Equity was a gentleman’s agreement that the founding fathers came together and put together. I don’t take anything away from the Charter of Equity, it is helpful because we are a budding, nascent democracy, so we need some of these things to guard, guide us, to protect everyone’s interest.

What was the import of the Charter? The import of the Charter at the time, there were two main senatorial districts: you had the old Aba senatorial district and the Umuahia district.

Umuahia district was from Umuahia, Ikwuano, way back to mainly what you call today, the old Bende; then you have the Aba Division which is the Ukwa/Ngwa bloc of Abia State.

In between these two behemoths, you have sandwiched between them the place that I am from which is the old isuikwuato district comprising today’s Umunneochi and Isuikwuato local governments.

Then, you find that at the time the Charter of Equity was put together, you had two main senatorial districts. Then fast-forward to 1999, we got into the Fourth Republic and the 1999 constitution that now says that every state should have three senatorial districts. So, in creating three senatorial districts in Abia State, you have Abia North, that is purely of old Bende extraction, including old Isuikwuato district. You have the local governments that make up Abia North: Bende, Arochukwu, Ohafia, Isuikwuato and Umunneochi. Then you go to Abia South that is purely of Ukwa/Ngwa extraction; but you then have Abia Central which is an interesting senatorial district. I consider it a hybrid of a senatorial district because what you have is part of the Ngwa bloc and part of the Umuahia bloc making up Abia Central.

Then we get back to the Fourth Republic. In 1999, OUK becomes governor, from Bende, which is from Abia North, purely old Bende extraction. He does two terms of eight years and then he brings the governorship to Abia Central and TA (Orji) becomes governor. Now, TA is from Abia Central which I described as a hybrid, consists of the Ngwa bloc and the Umuahia bloc, so the governorship somehow ended in the old Bende bloc.

So you could make the argument that the old Bende block, between OUK and TA, did 16 years. Then, you transition from TA to the current governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, whose eight years will be ending next year, purely from the Ukwa/Ngwa bloc of Abia South.

And then, the point becomes if you consider that you have these two; because the whole argument about the Charter of Equity is that equity is blind, equity is guided by principles: if you consider that you had two major blocs: old Bende has done 16 years, the old Aba senatorial zone, the argument is easy for me to understand, they are saying you did 16 years, let’s do 16 years. Now, who is missing, if you go back to 1981? The only person who is missing in the equation is old Isuikwuato district.

We are missing in the equation because we have never done anything and understand the things that are spelt out in the Charter of Equity: it says the key positions of Governor, Deputy Governor, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Attorney-General, Chief of Staff, Secretary to the Government, Chief Judge of the State, these positions should be rotated around these three blocs as they then were in 1981.

But certainly, old Isuikwuato district has never tasted any of these positions. So, if anybody should cry marginalization, he would be the old Isukwuato district even though today we are in Abia North, I don’t shrink away from that.

So, that’s simply the argument: You have done 16 years, let us do 16 years; we will bring it back to Abia Central but we put it in the other half of Abia Central, you see the template is set.

Now, how do we come in; people of old Isuikwuato district? The party came together and said, okay, let’s look at it, this thing could have gone either way: it could have gone Abia North, it could have gone Abia Central. If it gets to Abia Central, it makes sense to micro-zone it to Umunneato which is the Ngwa block of Abia South, that is simply the argument.

So, however you look at it, if it had come to Abia North, of course, we would have been happy and I would make the case that old isuwuato district, which is where I come from, should have made a strong case for it. Where it ultimately lands is anybody’s guess. It is politics, it is not a church; you have to politick.

But ultimately, the party in its wisdom, picked my incoming boss who is Prof Uche Ikonne, a man that is eminently qualified by every metric you use. He is a practicising professor and people will find, in due time, that the best parting gift that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu would have bestowed on people of Abia State is the gift of Prof. Ikonne. Of course, I am going to be on alongside him as we go on that ride.

Now, the genius of what the party has done is that for the first time, the party said, well, since the governorship is now zoned to Abia Central, let us go to Abia North but let’s micro-zone it as well to old Isukwuato district that has never participated.

The message I have for my Abia North brothers and sisters is let’s understand it in this context that I have just painted and then let’s also understand the old Isuikwuato district and matters surrounding it. We are probably the weakest link when you come to Abia North in terms of state politics because we have never done anything. But equity is designed to protect the weak. So, the message I have for my brothers from Bende, from Ohafia, from Arochukwu is that we crave your understanding and we demand your support because it is just the right thing to do.

For the first time, obviously old Isuikwuato district consisting of Isuikwuato and Umunneochi, we are thrilled about this singular honour that the party has done to us and we want to take full advantage (of it).

But obviously, we can’t do it without the same hand of fellowship from our brothers. So, I want my brothers and sisters from Ohafia, Bende, and Arochukwu to understand our excitement about this and I want them to be happy for us because one good turn, they say, deserves another. We are experiencing this singular honour today, tomorrow, it could be someone from Arochukwu and they would expect that we will extend the same hand of fellowship. So, that is the whole issue around the Charter o Equity. It is what it is, the facts are there.

The reception of your people on your nomination as running mate, how has it been

Well, like I just mentioned, the old Isuikwuato district is certainly thrilled and they have pledged to come out and vote en masse. Of course, there are a lot of people of goodwill in the other three local governments and they are working with us. They understand the point I just made, that equity is meant to protect the weak and they are protecting us.

Now, there are a lot of cynics and skeptics but the question, because there is the people that are pushing the buttons on some plans and mind games on some of our people who are still in the opposition, like I will borrow the words of the governor from our service yesterday, these are the Tobiases and Sambalaks of our time.

The question that people need to ask is: what is the personal interest that they are agitating for. It may not be the general welfare, it may be personal interest and people need to prosecute and scrutinize exactly what the motivation is.

The issue of zoning

Let’s talk about zoning, I know we can’t agree on that issue because opinion is like a nose, everybody has one. Everyone is entitled to his opinion. But we have to get to a point, and that is my ultimate dream, where we de-emphasize where anybody is from, if we introduce good governance.

Can we ever get to that point

Well, we should. It is not a rocket science and we are talking of Abia at 31. Understand that the United States which everybody likes to copy is over 300 years old democracy. It took them time to get there. They had their own fair share of issues and my hope is over time, as we progress, we will get there. That’s why my incoming boss is talking about participatory democracy. What that simply means is that for development to get to every nooks and crannies of Abia State, based on comparative advantage each community has, the job of the people of that community is to come together and articulate what they need government to do that can buttress their economic advantage.

A caller talked about Prof Ikonne being Rector of Abia Poly

The records are there. One thing about politics and public office is that once you become a politician, peopled distort you record, people misconstrue what you have done. When you get to meet Prof Ikonne which I have, this is a mind that is exercised; he is a no-nonsense man. Let me tell you, if Governor Okezie was looking for people, which is the practice around this country, someone to control, he would not have been supportive of the nomination of Prof. Ikonne because he is a professor, his mind is exercised, he is also older than he (Ikpeazu) is; and for someone like me, I have worked under the Governor as chairman and I am in the House of Assembly currently and by the grace of God, I will be Deputy Governor. He knows I am an independent mind. So, if he was looking for people to control, as is the practice, he would not have supported our nomination, that is a good point that needs to be made.

Now, Prof Ikonne, his records in Abia Poly and ABSU, are there for everybody. If you have an unbiased mind, you can go and look at his record because Abia Poly was in a total state of chaos when our former Governor, Ochendo, nominated him to go. He was there on a rescue mission and he did. It was his records in Abia Poly that spoke for him and then he became Vice Chancellor. So, his records are there for people to unbiasedly scrutinize and come out with their verdict.

Don’t believe everything you read on the social media. Like there was one nonsense recently that said that Prof. Ikonne’s son was getting married to the Governor’s daughter. That is just people who are mischievous, nothing like that has ever happened. The young man in question and the young lady have never met each other. But we live in a social media age, it is no longer true journalism, as long as you are armed with a phone and data, you can weaponise it with the figment of your imagination. But that is the beauty of modern age democracy. But if anybody wants to thoroughly scrutinize his records, they are there for everybody to see.

And like I said, he is a mind that is exercised and Abia will be grateful, we just want the opportunity to deliver and we are going to deliver.

When the time for campaign comes, we will go out there and talk to people, real people that will listen and make up their minds and I have no doubt in my mind that we will come up victorious.

Your parting words to Abians

My parting words are for every Abian to have an open mind, listen to the candidates; don’t listen to those that have become what I described as the Raila Odingas of Abia State.

Raila Odinga in Kenya has been running for the presidency since 2013. He runs and fails every time; he runs again, goes to court, he fells again; he just failed again this year. I believe that will be the case again for the Raila Odingas of Abia State.

As for the other candidates, the APC candidate, all our people need to hear is Buhari and the case is made. As for those I described as a charade of rejects and phonies, those that have the Damascus experience just in the last couple of months, your guess is as good as mine. They are PDP members, don’t be deceived. So, everything they tell you, you have to take it with a pinch of salt.

If Ikpeazu was looking for surrogates to control, he won’t have supported our nomination –Igwe, Abia PDP’s Deputy Governorship Candidate

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