•Nigerians should trust, encourage INEC to conduct good polls
Leader of Enugu State House of Assembly, Dr. Ikechukwu Ezeugwu is passionate about public good as exemplified in the mind-blowing interventions of the Ikechukwu Ezeugwu Foundation.
In this interview with MAGNUS EZE, he speaks on the oncoming elections, the implications for the youth and Nigeria’s future. The chartered accountant also bares his mind on the redesign of the Naira among other issues.
The elections are by the corner. What’s your take on the exercise?
My take on it is that it is an opportunity for us to participate and be part of electing those who will be in charge of the affairs of our country and states for the next four years. Good enough, we have been given assurances that the votes will count and be counted, having been severally told by the INEC Chairman that the BVAS will be deployed in the 2023 elections. Recall that
recently, the President said that people should go to their respective localities to elect persons of their choice from whatever political party. He said that nobody would be allowed to intimidate others with thugs. We, therefore, have the opportunity to elect people of integrity, yes, please emphasize the word, integrity, that can be held accountable, irrespective of their political parties. So, it is that it is an opportunity for us to do the right thing for the good of our states, country, and, by extension, the populace. According to Prof Patrick Lumumba, we should not be surprised to find our goat missing when we give the goat to a lion to watch over for us.
What can you say about the unhealthy partisan politics going on in Nigeria, and how do you think it could be redressed?
The way some of our political actors are behaving leaves much to be desired. One should think that by now, our politics should be issue-based. People should tell us what they have for the country and the states, not attacking themselves here and there. We are not interested in all those name callings, accusations, and counter accusations. Such accusations should at best be addressed in the courts of law. We are interested in what those seeking our votes will bring to the table. Another aspect of it is that the informed persons in our society should endeavour to educate the less informed or the uninformed ones about the need for peace, before, during, and after the elections. This is important because without peace, nobody can achieve anything, whether you are in the private or public sector. We need an atmosphere of peace to be able to carry on with our life activities, irrespective of whether we are in partisan politics or not.
How would you rate INEC in terms of its preparedness towards the elections?
INEC has been doing well, and like I have been telling people, we need to encourage and trust those given responsibilities to deliver on their responsibilities. This kind of apathy and premature conclusion in some quarters that the BVAS will not function well is unnecessary. Recall that INEC used BVAS in the last election, I think in Osun. We only need to leverage the experiences from that to ensure that the 2023 election will be the first of its kind since 1999.
People should endeavour to perform their civic responsibilities. Those who registered but are yet to collect their PVCs should endeavour to do so, more so when INEC extended the window. Also, when INEC has ensured that the collection of PVCs has been decentralised to the wards and after the wards, the local government headquarters. It is an opportunity for people to play their own part because registering to vote is one thing, collecting the PVC is another thing, and going to vote is yet another thing. The bottom line is that we should all endeavour to vote because angels will not come down from heaven to cast votes on our behalf on the day of elections.
Looking at the 2023 elections, do you see your party, the PDP, winning?
I am not Nostradamus. Nobody can predict what will happen tomorrow correctly, and I am glad that votes will count this time, so, it will even make it more difficult for anybody to predict anything. The interesting thing about it is that as I am discussing with you now and assuming tomorrow is the election and you say you are going to vote for me, I am not even sure that you will vote for me. When you get to the polling booth, you may vote for someone else. So, nobody is sure of anything until the votes are counted.
What’s your opinion about agitations by various groups in the country?
The fact is that there is nothing like Igbo, Hausa, or Yoruba President. Until we change our way of thinking, we are merely beating about the bush. We are interested in a person who will change our lives. Unemployment does not care whether you are Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba, or any other tribe for that matter. Insecurity, hunger, high fuel price, the same thing, and all other indices of good life. Just recently, undergraduates were at home for about eight months. Did somebody from one tribe go to school while others were at home? So, for me, the tribe the President is from is not important. Let the best person win. It is as simple as that. The important thing is, who will do the right thing. If the person that is there as the President does the right things by being sincere to us, fair-minded, and nationalistic, you will find out that virtually all these restiveness happening in the country will naturally fizzle out without anybody addressing them. They will naturally address themselves as they were brought about in the first place by years of accumulated frustration and anger brought about by insensitive leadership. We are all guilty, one way or the other, as we are all leaders at various levels.
Conscience is an open wound, and only truth can heal it, according to Usman dan Fodio. People are just pretending and until we stop pretending, we will just be in a motion without movement.
What will be your advice to those who will emerge victorious during the 2023 elections?
You cannot start to advise somebody who has not yet won an election. Even some people who are in authority do not take advice. I can only say that Nigeria has changed completely for the better with regards to our voting system, and I am glad about it. What goes around comes around. Anybody who is elected and who fails to do well will be voted out in the next four years. It is as good as that.
The good thing again is this idea of money politics being dealt with through the CBN change of currency and the cashless policy. They are very good innovations, especially coming at this time. You know, this idea of carrying cash around is very primitive and shameful, especially during electioneering in order to buy people over because of hunger. What Nigerians are saying now is that they have had enough of it, give them the money, and they will vote for whoever they like. You don’t even have any guarantee for your money. Remember also that it is an electoral offence to buy votes. We should also bear that in mind.
Your Foundation has for 10 years now offered scholarships to Nigerians and, most especially the youths of Enugu State. What’s the driving force?
I will tell you that without being educated, I wonder if I would be where I am today. This, therefore, would give you an idea for my passion for education. Education is very important for us to have a productive and sane society. During my primary election in 2010, I had a social contract with my people. I told them to vote for me, not because of the pecuniary things they would get from me immediately then. I wasn’t going to give anybody money, that they should vote for me, trusting that when I get there, I will carry out my functions of representation, law making and oversight to the best of my knowledge. That if I should buy my way through, coming from the private sector, naturally I will have to recoup my money and I wouldn’t want to do that. If I am to recoup it, it must be five times whatever I have given to them because of the time-value of money. Also, they should not accuse me of not picking their calls after I have won because I had paid them off. I told them that with all humility, I have come to change the narrative, and as God will have it, I got elected. So, in 2013, I established a scholarship programme for intelligent but underprivileged undergraduates as a reward for my people’s trust and confidence in me. We took off with 20 beneficiaries two each from our 10 wards.
By December last year, by the grace of God, the Foundation had produced 21 graduates, one of them is a medical doctor and as we speak, he has been offered partial scholarship by Kaplan Medicals, USA, for his residency. Kaplan will pay 50 per cent of the fees and other costs, and my Foundation has accepted and already paid the remaining 50 percent. So, he has paid his school fees and is now processing his visa to travel to the USA for his residency.
During the 10th anniversary on November 24, 2022, I extended the scholarship programme to the five states of the South-East, and I am looking forward to extending it to the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, even if it is one person per state. The intention is to remind us that irrespective of our tribe or religion, we are one people from one God. Let us be our brothers’ keepers. I remember during my primary school days, this line in our National Anthem, which says that “though tribes and tongues may differ, in brotherhood we stand.” So, that is just the idea.
Again, I have decided that, come May 2023, I will say goodbye to partisan politics for now, having by then put in 12 years. I will focus my attention fully on the Ikechukwu Ezeugwu Foundation because if you go to Section 14 (2)(b) of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999 as altered, it says that, the primary purpose of government is the welfare and security of the people.
Through my NGO, I will be contributing directly to the welfare of the people and indirectly to the security. So, even though I would be out from my government position post June, my foundation and the government would be doing the same thing for the society. So, by the time I am done with being in government, I will devote all my time and effort to the activities of the foundation. The tendency is that you will be seeing more activities and very impactful projects. I’m looking forward to even going beyond Nigeria to West Africa, Africa, and the world in general.
How do you feel stepping aside from partisan politics to focus on your humanitarian activities?
I feel fulfilled, having contributed my quota to the legislature for a period of 12 years by June this year. With all due humility, I tell people that politics is not a profession. Before you go into politics, you should have a second address. You’ve got to have something to bring to the table. When some people don’t have any experience, they want to go to the legislature, for instance. What are you going to do there? It baffles me that when it comes to politics, people are not interested in merit and when it comes to employing people in their private businesses even if it is a one-man business, they will carry out interviews and do their due diligence because they need results. When it comes to politics, anything goes. What a shame. We are just putting things upside down and expecting positive results. We are only deceiving ourselves. We have to change the way we think and the way we do things because without changing our modus operandi, this idea of going about looking for foreign investors is just a waste of time and resources. See the kind of insecurity everywhere. No genuine investor will go to an environment where his or her investment will be at risk. Create the enabling environment, and the investors will be rushing to our country because they’re interested in making money. You don’t need to convince investors. They convince themselves after carrying out studies of the investment environment. No amount of radio jingles or CNN advert will convince an investor if the things on the ground are saying otherwise.