Minister of Works, Sen. David Umahi in this interview spoke on the 10-day nationwide protest being proposed by some activists and groups over the growing hardship in the country, and massive defection of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) members into APC in Ebonyi State. He also talked about the choice of Governor Francis Nwifuru as his successor, the just-concluded local government and councillorship elections in the state among other issues.
What is your impression about the just held local government election in Ebonyi in which you participated?
First is to congratulate the governor, Rt. Hon. Francis Nwifuru on a successful local government election in his administration. The local government election was very successful, very peaceful and a lot of people came out which is a clear demonstration of the governor’s Charter of Needs of his people. It shows that the people believe in his government and our government. So, I commend and congratulate the governor very highly and also deduce the fact that for a very long time, we have not had Caretaker Chairmen in Ebonyi State, which means that under him and under me, we are following democratic norms, that is elected local government administration. And I want other states that are still doing caretakership to respect the judgement of the Supreme Court immediately and do their own local government elections.
There have been calls for INEC to take over the conduct of local government elections, What’s your take on this?
Under the governor and by God’s mercy upon his administration, Ebonyi State is said to be a one-party state now and that’s APC. And so, there wasn’t any contest. The issue of asking INEC to take over the conduct of local government elections, we have a constitution in this country and so, you can’t just wish otherwise on what the constitution has publicly spelt out. If they want INEC to take over, then they have to change the constitution, it’s not a mere wish. So, the Houses of Assembly are the ones that made the laws that will govern the administration of the local government. So, it’s not a mere wish, it’s a constitutional provision. So, if it is the wish of the governor and the public, then the constitution has to be changed.
Many people are now in APC in the state. Are you comfortable that the influx of people and leaders of the state will last in the party?
You are right in your observation. Soldier goes, soldier comes, barrack remains. Divine mandate remains. And like I said, I don’t shy away from fighting, fighting for justice, fighting for what is good. When we made that move by God’s intervention in 2020 to go to APC, it wasn’t a popular move. Many people didn’t like that. But today, they are celebrating the legacy projects that are passing through Ebonyi State. When Moses was called to liberate the people, remember that the first person that fought him was his brother whom he was trying to help by killing the Egyptians and then he now said to him, who made you a judge over us? And he then went to report Moses to his people. So, when you are sent to liberate the people, you have to fight and fight those who oppress the people, that is what it is. But this governor was part of that movement. He encouraged it. He took the House of Assembly members and went to hide in Abuja and that counted for him when the time to make a choice came. And that’s why I asked people to be committed. You take a clue from the time Moses asked Caleb and Joshua and others to go and spy the land, you will find out that when they came back, some people were said to have given evil report and that was the report of discouragement. But Joshua and Caleb said even though there were giants on the land and that God will give them the land. So, when it was time in the Bible to show the land, Caleb and Joshua now had to bring out their strong arguments. Remember, it was by encouragement, so, the governor by his encouragement was entitled to take over from me but that is not the question. The question is all these people coming into the APC, are they here to stay or are they here to look for something, patronage and look for opportunities to contest election? Your guess is as good as mine but the point is that we fought all these people and God gave us victory. If there is a need to fight again, I am there, we will fight again. I said to my son, you are Solomon. Solomon never fought a battle but David fought battles all his life and that is me but the good thing is that God has always given victory to David. So, we’re very much watchful, it doesn’t matter the empowerment that the governor is giving to them. We are watching everybody because the Divine Mandate must go beyond this administration. It is a calling and you know at that time of calling, that was when God visited Ebonyi State and you began to see modern Ebonyi State. You began to see a lot of miracles in Ebonyi State. So, God is set to make Ebonyi State one of the greatest states in the whole federation. APC National Chairman, Alhaji Ganduje was here in the state days ago and he called me and said look, Ebonyi State has become one of the most beautiful cities in this country. That’s the kind of thing we want to hear about our state, people that were hitherto neglected and forgotten and ignored and insulted.
What is your take on the Supreme court judgement on the local government autonomy? Do you think it is favourable to governors?
Hmmm, I decline to comment.
A nationwide protest is scheduled to start from next week over the worsening hardship in the country. What will the protest do for Ndigbo if it takes place?
Protest has never favoured an Igbo man. Igbo man needs to be busy 24 hours. Igbo man is a hustler and doesn’t need any distraction, he is a workaholic who hustles to earn a living.
So, you don’t go get involved in anything you know nothing about. By the way, what are people protesting about? What are they protesting about? Without the coming of President Tinubu, we would have had a failed country. Talk is cheap and job is very easy when you are not the one doing it. When people say there is hunger, tell us the solution to the hunger. It’s not just to be talking and talking and talking and talking. I was going out and I was talking to my private workers and I said, you are doing this and you are now paid N50, 000 but now, government said N70, 000. I said this N70, 000, you can’t marry a wife with it. You can’t train your child with it. So, you needed to have something extra you are doing and this place you are working, you are not doing more than three hours work in a day, which means that the level of our productivity in the country is very low. And there is no way we can improve our standard of living if we don’t improve on our productivity, hours we put in. Look at the Chinese, we should be able to tell ourselves the basic truth. Today, we can grow yam in buckets in barns, we can grow tomatoes, we can grow pepper. If you go round my compound, you will see my green house. Sometime, I feel like coming back home because of the green house. I cultivated a lot of rice, now, I want to start growing yams in bags. Everybody has something to do, we should not as a people be buying pepper, we shouldn’t be buying tomatoes, we should be able to get bags and fill it with manure and plant all these things in front of our houses. No matter the amount of money the federal government injects into the system and palliatives, we must change our working hours, we must change our level of productivity because if you have all the working tools and you don’t deploy it, there will be no results. I support what the President is doing, the CNG buses, a lot of palliatives, trader money, money to the vulnerable families, agricultural inputs; giving out rice and fertilizers to our farmers, to indigent women and men. These are very important. But what remains is that we must be committed and we must change the narrative. Government cannot do everything for you, but you can leverage on this magnanimity of Mr President to change the cause of this. This is my position. When people say they want to protest, it is just being mischievous because tell us what is being done that is not right and proffer solution. Constructive criticism is the ingredient of democracy but not malicious and inciting criticisms that will lead us nowhere.