From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Chief VinMartin Ilo is a veteran journalist and an ace broadcaster.
The former Special Adviser on Media to erstwhile Enugu State governor, Mr Sullivan Chime, who left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with his former boss is running for the Awgu/Aninri/Oji River Federal Constituency on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In this interview, he spoke about his aspiration; what Enugu people should expect in the forthcoming elections and why Ndigbo should vote for President Muhammadu Buhari, among others. Excerpts: Excerpts:
What is the driving force of your aspiration for the House of Representatives?
It’s simply a continuation of my journalism. What’s journalism? We fight for the common good; we fight for the underdogs; we hold those in authority to account. What lured me into politics and running for House of Representatives is the fact that a lot of things are wrong with the quality of our representation, especially in the National Assembly, particularly, in the House of Representatives as it concerns my people at Awgu/Aninri/Oji River Federal Constituency. My people have lost their voice; they’ve lost the power to determine what engages and occupies the time of those they sent to Abuja. Those in Abuja have forgotten that the main reason they are there is to represent the interest of their people; instead, they represent their own selfish interest and other parochial interests. It is the desire to change that approach of representation; to return voice and power to the people that I threw my hat to the ring. Let the people have a say in issues that their representative should put on the table. Let the representative ask them, for instance; their needs and start engaging and addressing them at the national level. We find a situation where what the people need is pipe borne water and somebody will mount solar-powered street light for them. The hunger is to bring genuine development; Nigeria is large with divergent interests. The desire is to go there and get those things that belong to the people of Aninri/Awgu/Oji River and make sure that their interest is covered. That’s my interest; that’s why I want to go to the National Assembly.
What challenges have you faced in the course of pursuing this your aspiration?
Security challenge; no! Our party; the APC is an advocate for peace and security. So, in this election, I personally have taken the initiative that that kind of strife; hostility, that type of war-like environment that you see when people are running election does not happen. And that was why the first week after the embargo on electioneering was lifted; the first thing I did was to go to my opponent; Hon. Toby Okechukwu to sit down with him; and to remind him that this is an election, and not war. That we needed to have the election in very peaceful atmosphere; we needed to drive the message down to our supporters, fans and party members that there should be no skirmishes; no violence, there should be nothing that would disrupt the peace and peaceful atmosphere of our federal constituency. Of course, once in a while, you hear about defacing or pulling down of posters and billboards; but I wished it didn’t happen because this election is not about strife; it’s about ideas and how our communities could have better life.
You adopted personal approach to your campaign. How effective has it been?
Very effective; I am excited that many of my colleagues in the PDP and APC have adopted the same approach. We believe; especially in Enugu State that this is the first real election that will be taking place; you know that PDP – the other party – has held sway in our state for 20 years; their pattern was that once you have the ticket, the case is settled; and that it’s only the anointed that gets their ticket and this is only if you’re a member of the inner caucus or have a godfather. Because of that, the electorate never had the power to decide who represents them, be them president, governor, national or state assembly member; even councillor. So, they have a tradition under the PDP in Enugu State that people just got selected and they became elected. For the very first time in the state; with the birth and the resurgence of the APC, we are going to have a truly competitive election where there won’t be what they call ‘carry go’. So, this election is putting back that power in the hands of the people. That’s why I am going directly to the people who have that power – I go to markets and talk to market women; I go to motor parks, I talk to drivers; conductors, passengers, hawkers. I go to schools; in fact, I go everywhere that you have human beings. The feedback and reactions have been very tremendous and I go with a small card that contains what I intend to do in the National Assembly. This card is almost in every home in the three Local Government Areas of Aninri, Awgu and Oji River, that I intend to represent. The idea is that let every constituent get the message; let them know what we are promising before we get there. Let them know what they can match us with when we get there. Let them see on each of our promises that we have delivered on after four years of service. What this has been able to do for me is that I’ve been able to appreciate the problems in these local areas. It’s possible for me to go and have a rally at the local government headquarters and still not know what is happening at the ward. There was a particular market that I went to in Ugwuoba; their major market and the access road was impassable; they had appealed to the state government; appealed to the local government chairman and even to the man occupying the position that I am seeking; and nobody did anything. Even though it’s their right; all they asked for was that the road to be graded so that they could go to market and go home, before the Christmas. The only way I found out was because I did door-to-door to that place and I did the road under one week; it cost me next to nothing – and you’re wondering, you have people in government and they didn’t even know. But where I’m going to, it’s from visiting villages, town halls, stopping women on their way to the markets and talking to them, all that opened my eyes to their problems; enabling me see them first-hand. I saw primary schools that are on the ground; primary schools without chairs; without windows; without toilet facilities in 2018/2019. Apart from that, it has placed a face to the agitation; I went to a market in Nenwe, for instance, and I met a woman who asked me if I was Toby Okechukwu – thanks my opponent and the incumbent for that matter. What it meant is that for the eight years that Toby Okechukwu has represented us; that the market women cannot even recognise him. I don’t want to suffer that same fate after four or eight years in the National Assembly and this door-to-door has helped me away from that disaster.
One is wondering whether your party is not a problem for two reasons; the unending crisis in the party in Enugu State and the impression that the APC is anti-Igbo. How bright is your aspiration?
These things are all lies; just fake news. Buhari is a northerner; the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is he from the Southeast? He’s also a northerner; a Fulani, so all those things about the face of APC, there’s no face of APC anywhere. The face of APC that I know is a friendly party; a caring party, a democratic party that is ready to welcome anybody, no matter your tribe or tongue; no matter your religion or beliefs. It’s unfortunate that people in the PDP have sold this dummy to the people that APC is Boko Haram. I’ve heard it; I go to markets and I sit down with a woman and introduced myself as VinMartin Obiora Ilo; APC candidate for the Aninri/Awgu/Oji River Federal Constituency and the woman turned and said: ‘Hey, young man, I’ve heard your name o; some people have talked to me about you, but your party’. Then I took a chair, sat down and said madam, what did APC do; explain to me. They have nothing to say; it’s just that fake news is spread everywhere. The second thing I will say is ‘Ma, do I look like Boko Haram to you? I am from Achi in Oji River; I am Igbo; I am a Catholic – a Christian, my younger brother is a Reverend father, do I look like somebody that would go and join Boko Haram? I have a little story that I tell people from the Southeast; that because we are too fixated in our thoughts and in our minds about the lies that are being spread all over the country; especially in the Southeast, we throw away the child with the bathwater. We forget that a party is only like a garment, that the people that make the party what it is are only the human beings. The APC zoned the position of Senate President, for instance, to the Southeast in 2015, before what happened about the Saraki-Ekweremadu and all that, and there was no senator from the zone to occupy that position. And I tell them a story; I say, you live in a compound; in a flat and a couple live in another flat. These people fight every day and in this particular occasion, the woman is shouting for help from neighbours that the man has brought a gun to kill her and you’re in your flat; you didn’t open your door to come out neither did you open the door of your neighbours who are fighting; all you did was just to keep shouting from your door, ‘Neighbour please don’t kill her’. You’re just talking to the wall; the woman is going to die, because you needed to do something. It’s either you break that door; break the window – get into that flat and hold the man and say please don’t kill her – that’s when it will be effective. As long as we stay outside and be talking; it’s like winking to a woman in the dark. So, people like us; a lot of vibrant professionals from the Southeast believe that the only way we could go and stop this story being heard every day, saying that herdsmen are destroying the crops of our women is only when you get into the party that can bring that change; the party that’s in power and have an opportunity to sit down with President Buhari and tell him: Sir, I’m from the Southeast; the herdsmen and their cow are destroying crops in the Southeast. You need to do something about it and you have five people in that room telling the president the same thing and tomorrow, five more people will join. Even if he’s deaf, he’ll do something. For those of us from the Southeast, whether we are in APC or not, when the next government is formed, it will still be those in APC that will form the government. Now, that we’ve jumped into the party; if I win as an APC member, I will have a big position where I can sit down with the president; vice president, I can go into a minister’s office or Director General of an agency and say this is the interest of the Igbo that I represent, but today we can’t do that. If they tell you that PDP is Southeast party; good, after 20 years, what has changed in our lives as Igbo people; what have we got? We have governors that are under-performing, are they not PDP? In my state, for instance, we’ve had about three governors, the only one that performed; Sullivan Chime, is in the APC today. In Abia, Ebonyi; we’ve always had PDP governors, how well have they done? However, in the APC that we have today in Enugu State, almost everybody is from the PDP; so, it’s time now to forget this APC, PDP thing and talk about, when you’re elected, who are you going to be? What’s your past; what have you done before? As a journalist, how well did you do your job; even as media adviser to the governor for four years. In my place Adu Achi, I’ve been involved in community development for over 20 years. I give scholarships; I rebuild schools, I provide counterpart funding to build development projects. I’ve paid school fees for students. That’s what the voter should be asking of and not that I am in PDP. Who are you in PDP; where are you coming from? You’ve been in the House for eight years; what did you do? That should be the question; not just in Enugu or my federal constituency, but all over the country.
What’s your take on the Southeast leaders’ endorsement of Atiku/Obi?
You know that some people have come out to say that they didn’t do that. They have disclaimed it; but let me ask, who are those Southeast leaders? Some people merely came together; who made them Southeast leaders and at which point did we make them our leaders; who elected them? Are they representatives of our town unions; are they members of the House of Assembly or National Assembly; how are they our Southeast leaders? When people just give themselves a name; you don’t listen to them. There’s nothing like Southeast leaders endorsing anybody; nobody has endorsed anybody. Fake news; that’s what it is; I won’t go further than that.
What’s the prospect of your party winning the governorship in Enugu State?
We are going to win the governorship of Enugu State. APC is going to win the state; see, people are still looking at APC as the APC of 2015. You have an APC peopled by thoroughbred professionals; people that have achieved. If you want; I’ll reel out. Let me start with VinMarin Ilo; I am a very successful journalist; I’ve given a good account of myself everywhere I worked. I am a trusted journalist based on my work. If it were 2011 or 2015; maybe you’ll say that they don’t have candidates. Ayogu Eze; two-term senator; Commissioner for Information and the rest in Enugu State, gave a good account of himself in the National Assembly; brought clear national dividends – he didn’t go to the airport to share money. He doesn’t stop at Ogui Road and start sharing money, N20, N20 and people say; you’re sharing money. This is a man who has given a good account of himself in the eight years that he was in the National Assembly. He came in as a brand new senator and became the spokesman of the Senate; you think it’s child’s joke if he had nothing. This is the man that will take Enugu State back to the mainstream of Nigerian politics and get what is due to Enugu State. He has what it takes. Then you have people in the party who are opinion leaders and influencers where they come from. They are not people you don’t know. The Enugu East Senatorial candidate; Lawrence Ezeh is a young successful businessman. Before he even ventured into politics; he had tarred several kilometres of roads in Nkanu land; he has taken care of people; paid school fees for students. He built one of the biggest churches for his community. He owns a known business and wasn’t a politician then, but he has given a good account of himself. I can name our candidates one after another; men and women with pedigree. The APC of today is not the APC of yesterday in Enugu State. The APC of today is presenting a first 11 that has not been seen in the history of the state. And whether we’re going to clinch those positions that we are running for; there’s no doubt in my mind about that. Even people in the PDP are saying that the APC has the capacity to take Enugu State to the next level.