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•Says some South east govs are on eye service
By Dickson Okafor
Igwe Gerald Obunadike Mbamalu, Eze Oranyelu I, Eze Ojoto III in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, has said traditional rulers in Nigeria cannot provide security during elections in their domains until the institution is granted statutory recognition as a fourth tier of government through constitutional empowerment. The monarch said that even the government agencies currently managing security do not do so without financial and legal backing, and argued that traditional rulers remain helpless, both constitutionally and financially, to take on such a role. He explained that the South East Council of Traditional Rulers (SECTR) had, during a meeting in Owerri, Imo State, abolished the use of the title Eze Ndigbo by Igbo leaders in the Diaspora, insisting that the title is reserved for those who have been traditionally crowned as kings in Igbo land.
On Nigeria’s 66th Independence anniversary, the traditional ruler said there was every reason to celebrate, given that the country remained united and indivisible despite its many challenges. He also drew the attention of the Minister of Works, Engr Dave Umahi, to the poor condition of the Benin bypass, the Lagos/Shagamu road and the Benin/Onitsha road, describing them as unsafe for travellers and calling for urgent repairs before Christmas.
He also spoke on the prospects of the three leading presidential candidates ahead of the 2027 election, and on the political dispute between Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo and Peter Obi.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will address Nigerians on October 1 as the nation marks a low key 66th Independence celebration. Do you think Nigeria has gained enough at this stage of nationhood to warrant celebration?
Yes, there is every reason for us to celebrate the 66th Independence anniversary, because we are alive as one united and indivisible country. Apart from being alive and not dead, there is not much else to celebrate at this stage of nationhood. It is unfortunate that we must mark the anniversary because it is a statutory obligation, in spite of our level of backwardness and the present economic hardship the people are going through. So, unlike before, Nigerians are not anxious to hear the Independence anniversary broadcast by President Tinubu, because there is nothing new he will tell them.
Vice President Kashim Shettima led the Nigerian delegation to represent President Tinubu at the 81st UN General Assembly in New York. What is your reaction to the allegation that the President’s third consecutive absence from the Assembly is because he has questions to answer?
I do not know if President Tinubu has questions to answer as the reason for his failure to lead the Nigerian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly for a third consecutive year, in 2024, 2025 and 2026, because I am not privy to such information or the details of the President’s movements or decisions. However, I cannot agree with the allegation that his absence can be linked to any so called American baggage. Do not forget that Nigeria’s President was not the only one absent from the 81st UNGA. The Presidents of South Africa and Egypt were also absent. So the reason the President allowed Vice President Shettima to lead the Nigerian delegation is best known to the Presidency.
As Nigerians prepare to go to the polls in a few months, President Tinubu has demanded a police roadmap for election security. What role do traditional rulers plan to play in complementing the efforts of the Federal Government in ensuring a peaceful 2027 general election?
Who are the people being used to disrupt the electoral process? Are they not thugs? They are used by politicians to hijack electoral materials during voting on election day. Have you ever seen someone working in a bank, an oil company, or as a medical doctor, or anyone gainfully employed even in a private organisation, serving as a thug? No. Government cannot eradicate thuggery unless it addresses unemployment. As I asked earlier, who recruits these young men and women as thugs? It is the politicians. Let them take statistics of the output of Nigerian universities and how many graduates they produce every year. You will find that some people graduated ten or fifteen years ago and, up till now, have no job. What do you expect them to do in order to survive? So thuggery can never stop unless government tackles the issue of unemployment.
Asking us, as traditional rulers, to provide security in our domains during elections is a tall order, because government knows the basic things it needs to do to empower traditional rulers, yet it has not done so. Even the government agencies that manage security do not do so with empty hands; rather, they are given finances in order to maintain peace. So traditional rulers are helpless. Until we are given statutory recognition by making the traditional institution a fourth tier of government in the constitution, so that we can be empowered by law, what traditional rulers enjoy is merely the respect that comes with being custodians of the culture and tradition of our people. That is the exalted position we occupy. As a traditional ruler, you can call on your subjects and tell them not to do this or that, and they may obey you or not, but if they choose not to, there is nothing you can do, because you cannot use force to compel them. If you consider that government, which has all the powers to enforce the law, still struggles to enforce it, how much less a traditional institution that has no legislative or constitutional powers to say do not do this.
Elections in Nigeria are in the hands of God, and we can only offer prayers that He will touch the hearts of Nigerians to follow the right channel and do things the lawful way, because he who goes to equity must go with clean hands. Notwithstanding, government must be ready and committed to conducting a free and fair election in the manner stipulated by the constitution, in line with the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission and the political parties.
Those who used to parade themselves as Eze Ndigbo have stopped bearing that title since the South East traditional rulers and Ohanaeze Ndigbo enacted a rule to that effect, and now bear the title Onyendu instead. Is that new title welcomed by the South East traditional rulers?
I do not think we have any problem with Onyendu Ndigbo, because every group has a leader, even in your own household you have a leader. I cannot say I am the governor of Lagos State or the President of Nigeria, but I can say I am a leader of certain persons in a particular place. That does not give me the right to answer to Eze Ndigbo in any state, city or community in Nigeria or overseas. What we are saying is that the title Eze is reserved, because you must be traditionally crowned as a king in Igbo land to bear it. It is not for everybody. You cannot simply assume it, because there are processes you must undergo before you can be addressed as Eze, His Royal Majesty or His Royal Highness. So Onyendu Ndigbo is welcomed, because every group, even associations, has leaders. Onyendu is simply the equivalent of Chairman, which is its meaning in English. The traditional rulers, during our summit in Imo State, approved and recognised this. They all agreed and accepted that they would no longer bear the titles Igwe or Eze Ndigbo in the Diaspora, but could answer to Onyendu, meaning leader. Even before Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu became President in 2023, the leader of the All Progressives Congress was addressed simply as leader of the APC, because the late President Muhammadu Buhari was President at the time and others held higher positions.
Do you expect a change of government in the 2027 presidential election, or a repeat of what happened in 2023, given that INEC has released a final list of fifteen presidential candidates, including the three leading candidates, President Tinubu seeking re-election, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi?
The only new development in the present arrangement is the change in the administration of the Independent National Electoral Commission, and that is significant. Let us wait for the new INEC Chairman, Professor Josiah Ojo Amupitan, to replicate the peaceful conduct of the recently concluded Osun State governorship election in the 2027 general election, by being upright in the declaration of results, in order to restore Nigerians’ confidence in the ballot box. That will either mar or strengthen our democracy. Meanwhile, I commend the Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, for his decision to retire from politics after eight years. He has said that after his second term he will not run for the Senate or any other elective position, in order to make way for younger people. So far, what we have seen is a recycling of leaders, and that is why Nigeria remains stagnant and has not moved from where it was. We have been recycling the same politicians for twenty seven years, moving them from the House of Assembly to governor, then to the Senate or House of Representatives, and even to the Presidency. It is always the same set of people, and they have never made room for new ideas to come in. But Governor Otti has said there are younger people with better ideas who should be given the chance. Unlike other politicians, who, after completing their second term as governor, get elected into the Senate, which has become the retirement base for Nigerian politicians, Governor Otti has said he will not contest for the Senate or any other position, but will retire from active politics so that younger Nigerians can have the opportunity to aspire to lead the country. Unfortunately, younger people do not have the financial capacity to play the kind of politics that Nigerian politicians play, the kind that can propel them into such positions. The older ones know what to do, where to press the trigger and how to go about it. So I believe that just as God touched the heart of Governor Otti, He will touch the hearts of other politicians to have a rethink and make way for younger Nigerians to bring fresh energy into governance. As far as I am concerned, 2027 will still be a recycling of old ideas that have not brought any transformation or improvement to the nation’s economy. Therefore, I do not expect anything new or different from what is currently on ground. There was nothing like artificial intelligence ten years ago, yet now we are using it to solve a great many problems. Who invented it? It was the new generation overseas. So we should allow the new generation to come into government with their own ideas and innovations.
What is your agenda for the incoming government, whichever of the leading candidates emerges, regardless of their campaign promises?
I will be very honest with Nigerians, I do not have any agenda for the leading candidates, whether President Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi, because they all already know what Nigerians need. They know what we want, and they keep promising to provide it if elected, but once in office, they forget their campaign promises. Will anything happen to them if they get elected and fail to fulfil those promises? No. So there is no point setting an agenda for them. We can only pray that God touches their hearts to remember and fulfil their campaign promises, because every one of them tells us the same thing every four years, that they will fight insecurity, improve the economy, raise the standard of living of ordinary Nigerians, increase the minimum wage, raise income per capita, build schools and hospitals, and provide steady power supply. These are their promises, and once elected, they do nothing. So setting an agenda for them would amount to nothing if they capture power through campaign tricks. That said, we still have good ones among them, such as Governor Alex Otti of Abia State and Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah of Enugu State.
Is it not a bad precedent for Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State to have granted pardon to a jailed native doctor, Chidozie Nwangwu, popularly known as Akwa Okuko, and to have gone further to appoint him Youth Ambassador?
He was tried and jailed, and what do they call the place he was kept? A Correctional Centre, and he has been corrected. Governor Soludo did the right thing, because if you imprison somebody and he serves his term and is rehabilitated, do you expect him to be thrown back into prison? That is what Soludo has done by appointing him Youth Ambassador of Anambra State. Do you think making him an ambassador will make Akwa Okuko return to his old ways? No. I wish all governors would emulate Governor Soludo, because you cannot send somebody to prison and then, once released, expect him or her to return to their old ways. When they come out of prison, you rehabilitate them and create employment for them. That is what they need in order to be reintegrated into society.
As a close associate of both Governor Soludo and former Governor of Anambra State and NDC presidential candidate, Peter Obi, what do you think is the cause of their political dispute, which has led to the Anambra debt controversy involving Obi, even though the governor has presented documents showing unpaid loans from Obi’s time as governor?
Did Peter Obi’s successor, former Governor Willie Obiano, ever complain that he inherited debts from Peter Obi? No. Governor Soludo made a comment about Peter Obi and the government of Anambra State, and Obi replied that governance is a continuous exercise. Obi did his part, and whatever he could not complete, Soludo should continue from there. If he had finished everything that needed to be done, it would mean there would be no more governance left in the state. This is politics, and it is about interest, because you will always look for a way to discredit your opponent in order to win more votes. Come back and ask me this question after the 2027 general election. Consider, for instance, a woman who has never been pregnant or given birth before. Women who have given birth to many children will tell her that when she becomes pregnant, the baby in her womb will be playing football at night. Does she have any way to verify or measure whether that is true? No. Do I have access to Anambra State’s coffers? No. If Governor Soludo has displayed documents showing that Peter Obi left debts behind, he should also display the invoices of withdrawals made by Obi’s administration and how the funds were disbursed or spent. Obiano said he built the Anambra State Airport and three flyovers with the money Peter Obi left behind. That is testament that Peter Obi’s successor met a huge amount of money in Anambra State’s purse when Obi handed over to him. As I said, once the election is over, come back and ask me this question, and I will be in a better position to give you the best answer.
Former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, has warned that nobody from the South East region will become President until 2039, arguing that power rotation favours other zones, and this comes alongside the recent declaration of support for President Tinubu’s re-election by five South East governors. Don’t you think Peter Obi’s presidential ambition has already suffered a setback as a result?
That is a personal decision of former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim and the five South East governors, not the wish of Ndigbo. Democracy is one man, one vote, and the fact that you are a former Senate President or a governor who joined the APC because it serves your interest does not make you the mouthpiece of the state or the people of the South East. The five South East governors can only be sure of their own votes, because some of them are performing eye service, while others are simply looking out for their political survival, and the only way they can remain relevant and retain their positions beyond 2027 is to join the ruling party. For example, if we have one million votes in Anambra State and Governor Soludo promises the Presidency any of those one million votes, will he be able to deliver them? It is not possible, because he can only appeal to the electorate to vote, and it is left to them to vote their conscience or decide whether to vote at all. It is one thing to vote, and another thing entirely to defend your vote. So drinking champagne at an event while people sing that your mandate shall stand is simply the normal thing that happens. But it is worth noting that even some people who now claim to stand behind President Tinubu were not truly supporting him, going by the revelation from Vice President Shettima that only six northern governors backed Tinubu during the APC presidential primary in 2023. It was only after he emerged as the party’s candidate that the other northern governors fell in behind him. In politics, you can never be certain of anybody until the election result is announced by the electoral umpire. For instance, I could promise that every traditional ruler in Nigeria will vote for President Tinubu, or for Peter Obi, or for Atiku Abubakar, but that would be a mere promise, because I cannot force them to vote for any particular candidate, and it would not necessarily translate into a positive result for that candidate. So I am not surprised that almost all five South East governors are now in the APC, including Governor Alex Otti of Abia State. After all, the former Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, was in the All Progressives Grand Alliance before the merger of opposition parties in 2015 that gave birth to the APC. He joined the APC with a faction of APGA, and Governor Soludo himself remains in APGA. So if you conducted a DNA test of the ruling party, you would still find members of APGA within it.
What is your reaction to the disagreement between the Progressive Governors Forum and the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, over the role of the Rainbow Coalition in the APC presidential campaign?
You do not waste your time on something you have no control over. As a traditional ruler, I am barred from active politics because of my status, and that is why I cannot tell people to vote for any particular candidate, because I am constitutionally barred from doing so. But is there any constitution that says you must belong to a certain group or association before you can campaign for a candidate? No. Rather, every citizen has a constitutional right to campaign for the candidate of their choice. Therefore, the Progressive Governors Forum has no right to stop the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, from campaigning for President Tinubu’s re-election through his political structure, the Rainbow Coalition. There is no law that bars anyone from forming a political coalition to support a candidate. After all, there is the City Boys group supporting President Tinubu’s re-election as well. Do they say they support the APC? No, they say they support President Tinubu for a second term.
Don’t you think the return of fuel subsidy, as promised to Nigerians by the ADC presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, if elected in 2027, has prompted President Tinubu’s order to review transport costs from October 1, especially given the recent fuel price hikes and the warning by SDP presidential candidate Adebayo that petrol prices could hit five thousand naira should Tinubu be re-elected?
During electioneering campaigns, political parties choose catchy promises and manifesto themes to convince the people and earn their votes. What they tell the people is not always what they intend to do. So anybody can promise to return the subsidy, or to sustain its removal, just to get elected in 2027. It is the choice of Nigerians to elect their preferred candidate. But do not be surprised if the person who promises to return the subsidy, once elected, fails to fulfil that promise. Consider this: if President Tinubu has done everything expected of him and the people are satisfied, and an election is held, what would the opposition campaign on? If there is no fault to point to, they will manufacture one in order to discredit him. They must convince the people to believe them, and that is politics.
As the Federal Government tightens its response to South Africa over xenophobic attacks, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State recently gave 77 million naira to 77 families and 112 Enugu returnees from South Africa affected by the attacks. Many believe that job creation, rather than cash handouts, would address the japa syndrome and brain drain. Why do governments at all levels find it so difficult to create employment opportunities for young people?
I do not enjoy speaking about the inability of the three tiers of government to provide employment for young Nigerians, because it saddens my heart. I could name over a thousand companies that once existed in Nigeria, where people worked and their children and families were able to enjoy life, but those companies have since relocated to neighbouring countries because of infrastructural decay, and many of them have simply closed shop. Do you know we once had assembly plants for Peugeot and Volkswagen, and even the Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company plant for Mercedes Benz? Where are they now? How can government create employment when all the multinational companies have closed shop? Every day, government registers new universities and produces graduates with no jobs waiting for them. It is only in Nigeria that governors are so constrained that they are running cap in hand to Abuja to beg for money to rescue their states from debt, or for palliatives, and yet you expect them to provide employment. Governors will tell you they have employed teachers, but what about hospitals and companies? So Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah of Enugu State did well to empower victims of the xenophobic attacks from the state with a cash offer, at least to give them a chance to start a new life here in Nigeria.
The Federal Government has inaugurated a ten member panel to investigate the deaths of thirty seven suspected illegal miners who died in NSCDC custody in Niger State, with one survivor naming former Military President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida as the alleged owner of the gold mine in question. Isn’t this an indictment of the Ministry of Solid Minerals?
First, I commiserate with the families of those who lost their lives, but we should not rush to any conclusion until the panel constituted by the Federal Government to investigate the incident comes up with its report. Government has assured Nigerians that it owes them the truth. So let us wait until they uncover whether an unidentified substance was truly sprayed into the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps custody where the suspected illegal miners were detained.
The Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, has been accused of concentrating on the Lagos/Calabar Coastal Highway and the Badagry/Sokoto Highway, thereby neglecting the Benin bypass, a significant section of the Shagamu-Benin Expressway that is strategic to the South East and South South. What can you say about the poor condition of the bypass today?
If I were Minister of Works today, I would halt the Lagos/Calabar Coastal Highway and concentrate instead on the Benin bypass, the Lagos/Shagamu expressway and the Benin to Enugu road. These are the easiest routes to both the South East, the South South and parts of the North, because when you reach Enugu, you can get a bus to Kogi State, yet the state of traffic on them right now is unprecedented. Those responsible do not seem to have any human feeling for road users in this country. If they did, they would know how many people have lost their lives on that road, and how many have been robbed and killed there. The Benin bypass is the major exit route from the South West to the South South and South East, and even to the North. I appeal to the Honourable Minister of Works, Engr Dave Umahi, to turn his attention to the Benin bypass and the Lagos/Shagamu and Benin/Onitsha roads, and save the lives of innocent people who are being lost as a result of the deplorable state of those roads. I appeal to him to act before Christmas, because the state of air travel in Nigeria is also nothing to write home about. At the airports, you see a great many flight cancellations, and with Christmas approaching, many people cannot afford air fares and may prefer to travel by road. A family of five, for instance, would need at least one million naira for a return flight, and even after landing, they still need to hire a car to reach their final destination. That same family could instead put their own car on the road and spend perhaps a hundred thousand naira on fuel for the entire journey. Why can the Minister of Works not make that possible for Nigerians? It is painful to go through this rigorous process. Even travelling by public bus is not much better, given the poor state of the roads, and it affects our health, because a six hour journey can become a twenty four hour journey, with the added risk of kidnapping and insecurity along the way.
