…Gives reasons he is opposed to Imo Charter of Equity

From Stanley Uzoaru , Owerri

Prof Ukachukwu Awuzie is former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). He has been active and vocal since he left the office.

In this interview with Sunday Sun, he gave reasons he is opposing the controversial Imo Charter of Equity, which was used to railroad Governor Hope Uzodimma to second term in the hope that power will return to Owerri zone in 2027, what he detests about President Bola Tinubu’s administration and why there has not been an end to ASUU strikes. Excerpt:

What’s your opinion about this much-talked about Imo Charter of Equity?

There’s need to distinguish the rotation of governorship and the Charter of Equity. Rotation of equity is like saying this person should go or that person should go as it’s being done in Anambra, Enugu and other parts of the country, but when you talk about the Charter of Equity, it must be a holistic aproach that guarantees fairness, social justice to all Imolites irrespective of your local government, senatorial zone or ward, it must be such that every Imolite wherever they live enjoy good governance and dividends of democracy arising from this equity. This equity is supposed to be a roadmap where all those coming and going to govern Imo feel happy, and those they are governing feel happy, it’s like a blueprint, but we felt that things have not been properly done well in the past, but if you want to do that, if it’s about rotation of governor, we should simply say we want to rotate the position among the three senatorial zones in the state, that’s a different thing all together from equity.

I’m tempted to ask sir, which particular zone are you from in Imo State?

I’m from Orlu zone.

Alright, the governor has not minced words when he said he was going to handover to somebody from Owerri zone, do you think this is realisable?

I’ve said this several times, we have to sit down and discuss it, creat the content, it’s not a question of sitting down and saying this is where it should go, I dont think as an Orlu man, we’re averse to Owerri man or Okigwe man getting it, but what we’re saying inherent today is that most of them are preposterous and look like political falacy, it’s wrong to asume that if you give it to Owerri zone they will be there for eight years, why can’t they be there for 12 years, assuming the governor succeeds in 2027 and plants an Owerri man as the governor, assuming that man he planted by his party is not doing well and there are changes in the political equation of Nigeria, another party comes more powerful by then and another person in 2032 from another party from Owerri zone wins, that new person is entitled for a second term, if he goes, Owerri will have 12 years ditto Okigwe, that’s 24 years, yes if the same thing happens in Okigwe it will be 24 years, so six years is minimum and 24 years is below upper minimum, upper maximum, lower upper maximum, so if we’re going to have this type of thing and people are queuing to it, then it’s important for them to understand where they are going and what they will get out of that bargain, before they sign and say we belong to Charter of Equity. Talking about this equity, there is even no equity in Orlu zone, four and half clan from Isu have not produced a governor, deputy governor, Senator, Speaker, Atorney General in the last 24 years and this is half of Owerri zone in terms of local government structure, which is nine, more than two-third of Okigwe and more than one-third of Orlu, and this area as I said in the last 24 years has not produced a governor, deputy and others, there is hardly any grouping in Imo State that has not enjoyed these things, let’s go to Owerri, Mbaike, Ikeduru, in the last 24 years, they have produced two deputy governors and they are at the third one now, they’ve produced Speakers, three senators and they’re only two local governments; if you go to Owerri, Mbaise, they have produced a governor, deputy governors, Secretary to the State Government. If you go to Owerri municipal, they have produced Speakers, Attorney Generals, and four and a half of a local in Orlu zone has not produced any of these. So, where does equity come, when you talk of rotation, where does it belong, there is no total equity in Orlu, it’s divided into five sub-groups: Ohaji/Egbema ,one sub-group,Oru clan, Oru East, Oru West, we have Orsu clan, Isu clan and Ideato North and South, which we call “Nwaboshi”. If you go to Oru East and West, which is the Oru clan, they have produced a governor and senators who have completed 16 years as senators ,they’ve produced a governor which is Udenwa,they have produced SSG, three attorney generals, go to Ideato North and South, they’ve produced governor and senators, if you go to Okigwe, there is no local government that has not produced a Speaker, Obowo axis has produced SSGs, Isiala Mbano has produced a governor, two senators, Onuimo has produced Speakers, but these four local governments I’m  talking about have not produced anything, so where is there own equity?  Are they not part of Imo State, are they not entitled to good things? So, that was why I said Imo Charter of Equity must be given content and dealt with holistically, ensuring that every Imolite wherever they are have good opportunities. The moment we get the right governor that does the right thing, we don’t need rotation, I dont care were he comes from, but he must have a vision to drive Imo State, but if you’re thinking of Charter of Equity as who becomes the next governor without content and being holistic, it’s absolute nonsense to me.

If you have your way, which zone will you give the governorship position in 2027?

I’m not bothered about any zone getting it, but the only thing is that I will not support an Orlu man to be governor come 2027, that’s all.

Let’s digress a little from Imo Charter of Equity, so far, how do you see the administration of Bola Tinubu? It’s very unfortunate to say this, I’ve never subscribed to Tinubu’s governance because nothing good comes out from something that you know that is not clean, the president of Nigeria is supposed to be role model for the youths, role model for everybody, if our clime were a developed one like Britain and America, he should have resigned and not allowed all those controversies surrounding him. Look at the representation we’re getting in COP28, why did he have to get over 1,011 people to go with him, you’re carrying them so that you can have those who would be holding you, but when they will put him on the podium, those people wouldn’t be there to speak for him, disgracing the country who has potentials like Okonjo Iweala, Emeka Anyaoku who had held sway all over the world.

What do you think is Nigeria’s greatest problem?

When Jesus Christ was asked which is the greatest commandment, he said the first is like this, the last is like that. For me, the first is leadership, the second is followership. These are inter-twined, as long as the followership will continue to snatch ballot boxes because no governor’s son goes to carry ballot boxes, no Senator’s son or party chieftains allow their sons to carry ballot boxes. If the followership know that they’re being used and dumped and let us not be tribalistic in entrusting who governs us because our development depends on it, the person must have a verifiable identity, when I tallk about myself as ASUU president, I will say go and verify. They have weaponised poverty, our leadership is like a man who was plucking out feathers of a foul and the foul is crying and later after plucking all the feathers, he throws it on the ground and toss some corn to it and the fowl despite its predicament followed the corn to eat because it has no choice. But I’m sorry for our leaders, they’re instigating revolutions by themselves.

What’s your reaction about the demolition exercise in Lagos State especially as it affects the property of Igbo traders?

Two things about this, I’m an architect, a laspo professor architect, first and formost, have we asked ourselves if those buildings were not erected in wrong places? Igbo have now developed the habit of cutting corners just to get what they are looking for, even in Owerri here you see peope building on powerlines, this is dangerous. So, if I become a governor today and say I’m going to demolish it then I become a wicked man. What I’m saying is that if our people built on the land accordingly, you can go to court, although we know that the court is no longer reliable, but we still go to court and ask for damages because there is no law that says you can’t own property other than a state that is your own. Justice may be delayed, but can never be denied, So I empathize with our people who lost their property, especially those who have genuine papers and somebody demolishing his property, I see it as a wicked and vindictive act. The other part of it is that the economy is bad, you shouldn’t have demolished it, we can’t in the midst of what is happening today go on reckless demolition and happening in a way that looks like a vindictive act, it shouldn’t be and look at it happening in at areas where the Igbo are living looks suspicious. And especially this coming after the election, there is no other interpretation to it, not even after hearing threats from respected people like the Oba of Lagos who said he will push the Igbo to the sea if they don’t vote for Tinubu. But this is also a lesson to Ndigbo, if we come together we can become the industrial hub of Africa, we’re bigger than some countries. I must also say that we must restructure this country, amendment of the 1999 constitution is nonsense, we must look at the Confab and see how we can modify it to save the Nigerian constitution.

As an academician, do you think our education system is where it ought to be?

When you say an academician, it’s an understatement, as a man who had led ASUU in the struggle. There is no way I can say we’re anywhere nearer that, the capital flight that goes out of this country becaouse of our failed education system is unimaginable, in 2011, Nigerians in Ghana, everything they paid came down to N150 billion, that same year, I was the ASUU president, the budget of Nigeria for education was the same amount, if we had had that we would have used it to plan our education, if we had developed our universities the way it should be, it would be a hub for Africa, many know that if they send their children to places like Canada, London, USA, there is no guarantee of them returning to them, so that is why many prefer African countries so that they will not lose their children. If ASUU had not fought for ETF which later transformed to ITF, many of our universities would have looked like a kindergarten. Many of the projects you see today were as a result of ASUU’s struggle, the education TETFund and ASUU was called names, in 2009/2010, we changed it to TETFund, these are the few areas money are coming and also the NEEDS Assessment. But today, our universities are being closed because of the 2009 Agreement, which I signed when I was the president . Also part of our problems today in the education sector is that most of the governors and presidents see universities as a constituency project, they will say give them this university or that, but no plan for funding them, this is why we have problem in the sector and the teachers are not well paid.