Bad leadership remains Nigeria’s greatest problem –Ex LP governorship candidate, AIG Ugomuoh (Rtd)

By Chidiebere Onyemaizu

The governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election in Imo State, retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Dr. Charles Ugomuoh, in this interview with Daily Sun, identified bad  leadership as Nigeria’s greatest problem.

Though he said he is now giving in to the party at the centre, the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Dr Ugomuoh, described the Labour Party Presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi as a shining star in Nigerian politics and political force to reckon with as far as the 2027 presidential election is concerned.

The retired AIG also spoke about how he found himself in the Police Force by accident, life after retirement, journey into the murky waters of Nigerian politics, lessons learnt and his future political plans among others

You were abinitio not a politician but a very  Senior police officer who had held  strategic positions in the forcce before transitioning into politics. What is your experience in politics so far, will it be right to say that  you have burnt your fingers?

You may say so, but remember there must be a struggle if you want to lead your people and for you to lead your people, you must have to go through a political party, and you must win the nomination of the political party to become their candidate. So, you could burn your fingers here and there. But definitely, it’s a sacrifice for the people. You want to lead your people and your people have said that, okay, we want you. Please, you lead this level. You are the AIG, and you have carried us all along over time. Why can’t you come out? And you see a lot of support but despite the support, you are still looking at your pocket. That is the issue.

From your experience, would you say that the people are more interested in the now than the collective gains of the future?

People must know that service matters more than the peanuts they get as stomach infrastructure today because you have children that will grow. You have to build infrastructure. You have to build human capital development. Your schools have to be equipped. Your hospitals have to be equipped. The issue of ‘japa’ syndrome is wrong. Things need to be done the right way. If things are done the right way, and there are positions for people, there is employment for people; when you graduate, you are sure of getting a job and you are sure of your daily bread, things will change. People will not become so hungry and beggarly.

Who do we blame on this; the poor who have been repeatedly used and dumped or the self centred greedy political leaders?

The blame goes both ways. The blame goes to the rich because when you are hungry, all you want to know is where the blessing is coming from. So, it is the leadership that has built up the culture of poverty and that of unemployment. The people are hungry; that is why it is difficult to change their mindset. Even those that are employed are not living full employment. I wanted to go to my village, not quite long, but I couldn’t get to my village because there is no road. I had to come back. So, what are you going to take to such people? You give them pittance.

But the blame goes both ways because these are people that deal with tribal sentiments and religious bigotry. So, despite that, you are the best, they’d ask questions like, is he from my place, what is your religion etc. They don’t think in terms of capacity, what you are going to bring to the table llike what plays out overseas where they look at your capacity. The government over there has made the people satisfied, so they don’t look at what you can give to them. They don’t even bother about what you have. But here, what you can give is the primary issue. Even those of them in government, are starved of funding. So, it is for the government to bring out its programmes that will better the lives of ordinary citizens in the country-states, local governments and councils. Put infrastructural development. Make things accessible to the people. Pay them a living wage. Stabilise the currency, so that the income is incomparable. Create industries and keep agriculture going and people will be happy. You can leave them; they will not bother who is at the top. Once the structures are there, everybody can live. But when the structures are not there, it becomes a problem. So, the populace is driven left and right by the leadership. So, the primary issue is leadership. Once you get the leadership right, most of the issues are going to be solved.

Peter Obi was the biggest name on the Labour Party ballot. He is allegedly considering Labour, PDP or ADC ahead 2027, what are your thoughts on this?

Yeah, I will tell you that I was with the Labour Party (LP). Peter Obi was the presidential candidate of LP in 2023. But I must have to tell you that in the LP, I was the chairman of the security and reconciliation committee of the party. And I tried to bring unity and harmony to the party. Before Obi actually made a serious inroad into the Labour Party, in most of the states, what they had were placeholders. They had placeholders all over the states, while they scouted for people of means and substance to fly the tickets. It was difficult and that created more problems for the party.

When Obi now came to the party, and it became popular, they tried to replace those placeholders and they became stubborn because they felt they could as well be credible candidates. When you talk to new people with capacity and the funding, they run the elections. So the advent of Obi transformed that. All those placeholders were replaced and they became a problem for the LP. But be that as it may, Obi became a shining star in the party. And that is what is still bothering the Labour Party because the top hierarchy of the party has tasted the pie. And they find it difficult to abide by the rules and regulations of the party and even the constitution of the party. When their tenure expired, they went and tried to make a convention to put themselves up in the system.

But, the Supreme Court has ruled that Julius Abure’s tenure has expired since 2023. Am I right? Something like that, okay? The Supreme Court has ruled and by the ruling, I don’t think there’s much issue there. The only thing is that they want to cling on because they have tasted the pie. They don’t want the growth of that Labour Party.

So, that’s why a lot of people have abandoned the Labour Party. I don’t think I’m still in the Labour Party. If you ask me, I’m giving in to APC. No, just to be honest with you, I’m giving in to APC, as much as you want things to settle because it’s neither here nor there.

Obi is still a force to reckon with and he has the right to belong to any political party of his choice. Because of the crisis in LP, Obi thinks the party cannot sustain him because there is still this Abure faction, in as much as Nenadi Usman seems to be the CareTaker Committee Chairperson. So, that’s the problem in the party.

So, Obi is still one-leg-in LP, because he still knows that he has the support of the obidients.

He is also looking at the ADC because he sees it as a bigger platform. The PDP may be angling for Obi because they know that he has the capacity and he has the cult followership. You know, some people have gone ahead to describe Buhari’s followership like that of Obi.

What happens is that all these things will come into play when the parties announce their presidential candidates. So, we will then know where Obi stands. If it stands out, then there may be a kind of rejig in the political strategy. But I bet you, if Obi emerges as the ADC presidential candidate, it will be a tough fight. It will be a tough fight.

So, I think all these things he is doing are just a way of biding his time. It’s a kind of study. Whether he has gone from one party to the other, he has that right. That’s why we are calling on the National Assembly to look at the constitution again. We want people who won elections on the platform of some political parties to remain in those political parties. They have not been able to really accept it and we wish they can accept it.

So when you run a new political party, you remain in that political party. That is the ideology. Let it be ideologically driven. But right now, I don’t think any political party is ideologically driven.

Having burnt your fingers, would you still want to return to politics?

Why not? After all, I was the senatorial candidate of the Accord Party. Eventually, I was a governorship aspirant in Imo State a few years back. I’ve not really gained much in politics because I have not gotten to that position of leadership. And even when you did not win your election, people will still be demanding from your private pockets. Be that as it may, I still have the urge to serve my people.

What is your assessment of governance in your state, Imo, so far?

Well, in Imo State, His Excellency, Hope Uzodinma, had a lot of trust deficits and that impacted on his administration. That trust deficit created pervasive insecurity, so, he had to contend with that. But recently, I think he is beginning to get his acts together by putting up some road infrastructure here and there, like Owerri to Umuahia, Owerri to Orlu and others, but he needs to do more. The hinterlands are not accessible. Like I wanted to go to my village, Mbaise, but I could not access it because there was no road. I had to go back.

Be that as it may, I think the trust deficit is gradually waning. And I still want to appeal to our people to cooperate with him. He has two years to go, so he can build whatever democratic infrastructure he wants to do. With that trust deficit and insecurity, there is nothing he can do, except he gets the cooperation of the people. So, there must be a way to mitigate the gap created by that trust deficit.

The Imo State Government recently increased the state civil servants’ minimum salary to N104,000. Some have said it is not sustainable,  especially for the incoming administration in 2027, what is your take on that?

No, I don’t think so. For him to have come to that, he must have done his homework and the issue of sustainability shouldn’t come in. He has two years to go, so he has two years to operate it. If he is putting that on the table, it’s good and he should be encouraged.

How has it been since you retired from the police?

If you retire from the rank of AIG, and you made enough preparations before retirement, I don’t think there is any cause for alarm. However, when it remains like four to five years before your retirement, nobody will tell you because all along you have enjoyed staying in the barracks. You see, when you are there, you feel a lot comfort; the operation is 24 hours, so, you don’t think about retirement, but when it’s getting close, you will know that it doesn’t take time before they ask those that have retired to leave the quarters they occupy. So, that makes you start thinking in terms of, where you will go when you retire? And you start making an arrangement because then it dawns on you that, look, retirement is close.

What do you do now since you are no longer in active service?

I run a security company. But apart from that, in the Nigerian police force, the schedule is the protection of life and property and primarily to maintain peace. So, we see ourselves, always on the move in terms of operation, in terms of reconciling people and all that stuff. But when I retired, I had a change of mindset from the security of life and property into leadership. That’s why I joined politics. I’m an administrator and a technocrat. So, we are used to our words being our bond. And that is why most of us that are technocrats who went into politics, our pensions went into it. We wanted to serve the people and it really brought us close to them. When I was in police service, I was only in the area of operation and dispute, but in politics, every Tom, Dick comes to you.

The only problem is that they come with various demands. So, it becomes fund tasking. In 2019, I was the senatorial candidate of Accord Party for Imo East. Well, it appeared all rosy in the beginning but at the end of the day, I lost. And once you lose, the whole funding is gone. Apparently, your funds went dry. The costs are reduced. But that didn’t deter me. In 2023, I was also a governorship aspirant of the Labour Party for Imo State. It’s all fund tasking. I have come to realise that who you are is not a relevant  issue in politics. You come with lofty ideas to lead your people, to give them good governance, and all the stuff, but all they ask for is how much you give and a lot of lies like you rightly said. We, technocrats, are not used to lies but the people that come to us come with lies. Well, that is it but politics should actually be for service and leadership.

How did your promotion from commissioner to the AIG come about, were you expecting it or was it a surprise elevation?

I was nominated for promotion to the rank of AIG. Solomon Arase (now late) was the Inspector-General of Police then, but incidentally, when the decoration of the AIG was taking place, my name was missing. Meanwhile, the Police Service Commission had recommended me for promotion. Arase had said to me when he saw me at the event hall that my name was not in the list of names for promotion and decoration. But I know the Police Service Commission had forwarded my name to the AIG. Why was my name not there? He said, go and ask the Force Secretary. I asked if I should go and ask for the AC Promotion. Then, the AC Promotion was one ACP Towoju. He said I should go and ask him because he’s the officer that was compiling the list.

I had to leave the service floor, and rushed down to the first floor where the office of the Force Secretary was.

I was shown my name, but it appears that the Force Secretary had refused to sign. I quickly rushed to the service floor. And they were decorating one of my colleagues; I think his name is Obadoku. He was on the same promotion list. He was almost the last to be decorated, but I rushed in. I went to the Force Secretary.

I said to him, oga, this is my name written for my promotion. Why did you not sign it? He said: ‘am I going to sign it here?’ I said, Oga, you need to sign it here and now. So, within that period, there was commotion and the IGP Arase looked at me and gave the order that I should be decorated.

But while the commotion was on going, Arase, I think, was summoned by the president, who told him that his replacement was Idris. He returned to the event hall and ordered that I should be decorated. By the time I was decorated and with the band pass and I came down to Idris’ office (successor to Arase), he was already the IG. He was the head of operations. So, by the time I came down to his office, as we worked together, I  told him, “oga see, I have been decorated as AIG.”

Before I entered my office, his promotion as IGP came. So, that was the call Arase got from His Excellency. And then it was turned into the promotion of Idris. So, I was promoted as AIG and Idris was promoted to IGP.

Given your experience in the Police, would you advise and encourage your children to join the police?

I enjoyed the service, absolutely. I encourage anybody to join the Nigerian Police Force.

When I was in the service, I wore the uniform with dignity. The only thing is that as a policeman, you must have to climb the ladder. Once you climb the ladder, that’s it. Like in any organisation, once you climb the ladder and you’re able to put up discipline and do things the right way, you’re good.

Was the police job your first choice of employment or were you just an accidental police officer?

Actually, I didn’t have in mind that I’d be a policeman. I was in the University of Ibadan and there was this police bursary. Incidentally, those days, they beg you to apply for the police bursary. There were a lot of scholarships that time. So, I was given the police bursary. The advantage was that when you finished your national youth service programme upon graduation, you would join to serve in the police. So, I enjoyed the money. But at the time of graduation, I think there was an embargo. But suddenly, I ran into a friend. I wouldn’t call him a friend; I’d call him a mentor because eventually, he became the Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Peter Iyioma. Actually, I wouldn’t know his age, but we related like friends. He called me and asked: ‘why did you not join the police force?’ I said: “Noooo, there was an embargo.” He said: “But do you want to join the police?” I said: ‘why not?’ He said: ‘come tomorrow.’ He sent me to the then IGP. I got a temporary appointment pending when the ban on recruitment would be lifted. So, he wrote a memo and from that memo, I think so many other people came into the force. That was how I joined the police.

Having attained this level, would you say you are fulfilled?

I am fulfilled but I cannot say it’s not 100 percent fulfilment yet. I’m a retired officer. I’ve come into politics and gotten some satisfaction, but my desire to serve my people and provide infrastructure for them has not been met. Actually, what I wanted to do, apart from creating jobs everywhere, is taking entrepreneurship and other stuff, into different segments of comparative advantage because there are areas in the state that have clay. There are areas where you have oil. There are areas of agriculture. We need to segment them into areas of comparative advantage and then invite investors. Investors will bring their blueprints and go to areas that tallies with their blueprints.