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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Former National Pension Commission representative for the South East and founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nyerere Anyim, has returned to active politics after a sabbatical.
Anyim, who was the first APC governorship candidate in Abia State, insists the party is united, despite perceived factionalization. He attributed APC’s poor 2023 performance in the state to the Peter Obi wave and Governor Alex Otti’s departure from the party, but expressed optimism about the 2027 elections. In this interview with Daily Sun, he maintained that his governorship ambition was alive, defended the new tax law, urging Nigerians to await implementation before judgment, and advocated a political solution to Nnamdi Kanu’s case.
Are you still politically active?
I was on sabbatical when I was working with the National Pension Commission (NPC) as the Southeast representative. At that time, I wasn’t very active politically for the period of my tenure. That is why it seems as if I wasn’t active in politics.
But there is a proverb in my place which says that when the mother hen forbids chucking, what will she then use to feed the children? So, politics has become part of me to the glory of God. It is not in place for me to say that I have left politics at this age; I have not retired from politics.
Abia APC looks balkanized. If you are still in APC, which of the factions do you belong?
Abia APC is not balkanized, as I am talking to you, we have one APC. The way people blow about the balkanization or the plurality in APC in Abia, they blow it out of place. Just like in the home, there could be misunderstandings; you disagree to agree and that is healthy because we practice true democracy. We try to hear the views of others.
Where there are dissenting views, you just have to sit at the table and sort it out, that was why people think that there was problem with APC in the state. You cannot rule out problem in families, but they are temporary things that strengthen the party the more. In APC, Abia State chapter as at today, we have one party chairman; Dr. Kingsley Ononaogbu and the party secretary K.C Avoaja.
APC in 2023 general elections didn’t perform well in Abia. What do you think was the reason for such abysmal outing?
In 2023, our governorship candidate was Chief Ikechi Emenike and we have governorship candidates from other parties like Dr. Alex Otti who incidentally is the current governor of Abia State who ran on the platform of the Labour Party (LP). Don’t lose the fact that, prior to Otti becoming the governor, he was a strong member of the APC who was well positioned to be governorship candidate of the APC before Ikechi Emenike emerged.
There were so many other factors that you have to put into consideration. The Obi wave of 2023 in the southeast played a major role in the performance of other parties that are not Labour Party. Then you cannot equally lose sight that people like Alex Otti, leaving the party just at the peak of the election, left with his followers who followed him to his new party. So, those are some of the things that we pray not to have such situation in APC again.
Would you agree with some people that the selection process of your governorship candidate affected your party’s chances in the 2023 general elections?
There is no selection process that will meet everybody’s expectation; it happens in every political party. But the only thing is that as people mature politically, after every primary, they should sheath their swords and come together for a better performance in the election. When we started the APC, we were mocked and called names, but the beauty of it is that those people that were mocking and calling us names are the people who are knocking on doors, clamouring to join the party, in fact, most of them have joined.
Some of your people feel that you have been sidelined despite your contributions to the building of the party in the state. Is that true?
Nobody has sidelined me. I am a party member, a stakeholder of the party and there are some fundamental facts that you cannot erode. Nobody can erode the fact that Nyerere was one of the 89 people that formed the APC. You cannot write off that I was the first National Vice Chairmen of APC in the southeast and the first governorship candidate of the APC in Abia State.
Considering that there is a ruling party in the state, do you see the chances of APC winning election in the state in 2027?
Great chances, more than ever before. A tree doesn’t make up a forest. With the array of political big wigs that we have in Abia APC now, we are not afraid going into any election. We are conscious of power of incumbency. We have equally seen incumbents that failed elections.
Now that you are back to active politics, do you still nurse the governorship ambition?
Dreams don’t die, visions don’t die. When you have a vision, it lives until it is accomplished. You or another person may accomplish it. The important thing is that the vision doesn’t die. Whoever the party chooses to be flag bearer will be supported. All we are interested is to have APC at the center in Abia State just as we are in the federal.
There are speculations that Abia State governor will join the APC. Would you welcome him if he does?
Was he not a member of the APC in the past? Politics is a family. You can leave here today and go there tomorrow to achieve an objective. You can still come back to that place if you feel that from there too, you can achieve your aims and objectives. If he tries to return to APC today, he is very free and very welcomed. Some party leaders in APC have been urging him too. They have been asking him to come back to his root.
As one of the founding members of the APC, in retrospect, can you say that your party has done well for Nigerians between 2015 till date?
Before you look back from 2015 till date, look back from what happened in 2014, you will find out that the position where we find ourselves that gave rise to APC in 2015 will not be compared with where we are today. It might not be uhuru yet, but we have achieved some milestones. People are going through challenges which were not created by APC; they were things that we met on the ground and we are solving them.
How would you access the administration in the state?
Otti has done well in his own right and his capacity as a governor who the APC led federal government has empowered tremendously; not only Abia State, but all the states of the federation. All the states in this federation have had what you can describe as a windfall that can be compared with the days of the oil boom.
Your assessment of Otti appears to contradict what the Deputy Speaker House of Reps, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu said recently; where he alleged that the governor was not utilizing the money that he receives from the federal government well.
If it is what you say the Deputy Speaker had said, I need to hear from him to know if it is what he said. But what I am telling you is that, with what I have seen on ground, it will be foolhardy of anybody to say that Otti has not done anything compared to the last administrations in the state.
The Igbo are crying of marginalization in this administration. In terms of appointment and citing of projects, did you see any improvement?
There is an improvement. If we must tell ourselves the truth, what we are experiencing in the past years, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Things are improving; we have seen some things that we have not seen before. There had been government in the past. Why is it today that we have Southeast Development Commission? Why is it that the Enugu-Port Harcourt road is seeing the light of the day, not forgetting the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway? There are so many infrastructural projects sited in the southeast unlike before. This is happening less than four years of this administration. By the time it stays eight years like others, we will see more things more than what we are witnessing today.
Indications are rife that Peter Obi who joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC) will be running for the office of the President. Will you advise him to compete against President Tinubu?
Every Nigerian has the right to vote and be voted for. Nobody will disenfranchise anybody. You have your interest and I have an interest; I am in APC by God’s grace, whoever that the APC brings as a president, we will support him. As APC members because it is where our interest is.
What is your take on the new task law and some of the economic policies of the President that Nigerians have expressed concerned about?
The law is something that you cannot come today and condemn out rightly because they said that the taste of the eating is in the pudding. The new tax law took effect on January 1. It is a new law. We have not experienced it but we have already condemned it. My own take is that this government is equally conscious of the plight of the people and what the government is doing is to do something that will ameliorate the suffering of the masses.
So, it will not be fair to condemn every policy of the government without seeing the effect of its implementation. Let us watch and see what happens; if the government sees that the thing is not working, they will do something about it.
Do you think that the federal government has handled insecurity well in the country?
There was serious insecurity situation in the past. That was one of the campaign promises of the APC. Just like corruption, if you are fighting insecurity, it will fight you back. So, at any point in time, they need our support.
The conviction of the leader of the IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu has generated a lot of controversies. Others are calling for political solution. What is your take?
There has to be a political solution to the matter.
