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• They’re after Peter Obi because of his popularity
• It’s sad Nnamdi Kanu is in jail while Igboho enjoys freedom
By Agatha Emeadi
Chief Chekwas Okorie, veteran politician and founding member of several political movements including the All Progressive Grand Alliance APGA, in Nigeria, has been vocal about what is often referred to as the “Igbo agenda.”
After taking a critical look at Nigeria’s project and the Igbo condition in recent time, he said he is, at the moment, committed to what he described as his last service given his age and outstanding profile.
In an interview with Sunday Sun, Okorie speaks on his latest assignment, “The Igbo Agenda Dialogue” while raising a broad set of political, economic, and social consciousness for the South-East through political dialogue. He noted that his focus includes political inclusion, equity, security and stability. Others include economic development and unity for Ndigbo.
In this interview, Okorie dwells more on the Igbo agenda project. He also speaks on happenings in the polity, Peter Obi and the need for President Tinubu to caution some of his aides and ministers from making provocative utterances.
You are currently leading a group on the Igbo Agenda Project. What is that project all about?
Well, many of us, including myself, have been quite worried, both the Igbo people and non-Igbo people, at the seeming withdrawal of Igbo people in most national activities.
And quite frankly, it is an ominous sign of a people who have almost disengaged from Nigeria, waiting for an opportune moment, perhaps, for something sinister to happen. And I say this because where you have a race as vibrant, robust, and as enterprising as Igbo people, refusing to take from their quota in police recruitment, military recruitment, and all of those government-related institutions. At a time when people are unemployed and are earnestly looking for opportunities to be employed; then, we see Igbo people being begged more or less, to come and take up their quota, then, they are not coming up and not showing interest, it is not a good sign. And given also that our people have practically withdrawn from participating in the democratic process; that is even more dangerous. Some people may think it is good for them and some may say Oh, Igbo people can go to hell. They think, Igbo people do not matter and therefore can go to hell.
But for any person who means well for this country, it is a signal of an ominous time.
In 2023, INEC recorded for the South-East 11.5 million voters. That was INEC’s record for the 2023 election. And after the election, the total number of votes for all the presidential candidates in the South-East, according to INEC, was about 2.2 million votes.
This means that 9.3 million registered voters in the South-East did not participate at all. Now, the same South-East gave President Goodluck Jonathan approximately six million votes in 2011, 12 years earlier. One would have expected that 12 years later, more votes would come from that area, given that more people have become of voting age. Most of our young men and women easily say they are no longer Nigerians due to poor recognition and treatment. Then again, the people in government are not helping matters at all. It was a former late President Muhammadu Buhari that said Igbo people are a dot in a circle. It was a derogatory statement that ought not to have come from the president of a country. This he said to Al Jazeera, an international network television. And one can go on and on. Anything that other people do, if an Igbo man does the same thing, he is considered either subversive, I mean anything that would put him away almost for life. The case of Nnamdi Kanu comes up here.
The likes of Sunday Igboho and others, long before him, did all sorts in defence of their people’s interests. And some of them were not even arrested to be questioned for one day. Others who were arrested were promptly released.
Take a look at Nnamdi Kanu’s case, he is now serving a life sentence and Igbo leaders, including those who are now late, trooped to the Presidential Villa, begged on bended knees for the young man to be released, and nobody is giving them any listening ear.
So when I looked at these scenarios, I called up some of my friends, and said, no, we cannot stand back and watch this continue. Because when it will blow up, everybody will be a victim. When anger is bottled up, one day it will blow up.
Some people may be thinking that nothing will happen. For me, I call it the silence of a graveyard. So by August last year, I voluntarily disengaged from partisan politics to be able to drive this process which we call ‘Igbo Agenda Dialogue.’ The Agenda Dialogue is a socio-political, non-partisan, and pro-democracy organisation and the idea is to link up, build a kind of political grid that will link up with all the various Igbo associations, networks of associations which include town unions, market associations, youth groups, women’s associations, including the diaspora, in order to be able to share thoughts and arouse the political consciousness of the Igbo people again. We are also aware that we have about 99 per cent of the population in the South-East made up of Igbo people. And we are second to the indigenous population of every other state in Nigeria, including the FCT, Abuja.
In all the other states, we are second to the indigenous population and it is not arguable.
So, no race can have this type of number, geographical spread, strength and remain irrelevant in the country they belong to.
All that is needed is to arouse the political consciousness of the people, get them out of their slumber, and get them to begin to participate in the processes. We emphasise on referendum. A referendum is not in our constitution at the moment. Nigeria needs a referendum.
But even if a referendum is to happen, one needs voter’s card, one’s PVC to participate in that referendum because one needs to be 18 years and above before they can be eligible to decide whether to be here or there.
So, looking at all of this, I said let us make the sacrifice. I am 73 years old, an old man by any situation. But, this is also not on account of age, but an account of a voluntary decision to what I may call my last service.
I have founded a party for them, founded another party and here I am.
I have continued to serve in Ohanaeze which is 50 years now and my membership of Ohanaeze is also 50 years because I was there when it was formed. So, having paid my dues, since I have this type of profile, what I am trying to do now is to maybe render what I may call my last service. Not as if I am dying tomorrow but I do not think after this I have any more to offer.
So, luckily there are people who feel the way I feel and we decided that there is the need for consultation among our people in different states of the federation and beyond, to include even those in the diaspora.
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You know that Ndigbo are not like some regions where an individual or just few people take decisions. No. We are people that do enough consultations before taking far-reaching decisions.
Unlike what obtains in the North or among the Yoruba, among the Igbo tribe, one must consult them and get their consent, approval, so that whenever they reach a consensus, they will become part of that decision. So, we decided that we will be having town hall meetings in all the 36 states of Nigeria, including the FCT. Within time, the first town hall meeting will start in Enugu and every state will select a major city for their own.
We intend to complete this by the end of the year, before Nigeria is ready for the next election.
We will conclude it with a political summit, and present a political charter.
So you can say that some of the things we intend to achieve in this Igbo agenda project are essentially about raising the political consciousness of Ndigbo, fairness, inclusion, and developmental strategies, seeking a Nigeria where the South-East will have equal opportunities in leadership, infrastructure, and national decision-making. This is the summary of what we intend to achieve.
Recently, Mr. Peter Obi raised an alarm, about hidden plots to ensure that he will not be on the ballot for the 2027 election. What are your thoughts so far about INEC, revalidation of voter’s card, issues with ADC, and so on?
Recently, I wrote an open letter to President Tinubu and the caption of that letter was that ‘President Tinubu, halt the growing anarchy’ because I had already seen that Nigeria is getting towards chaos. The president and his party, both of them have about 32 governors already in their kitty.
They control the National Assembly, the resources of about 32 states and the resources of the federal government.
They are not giving any form of accountability to Nigerians as to how or what all these resources are being used for. Everybody knows that most of it will be set aside to prosecute elections in Nigeria. Still, both the party and the government show so much panic that they do not intend to be confronted by Nigerians whose votes determine who wins, and who does not.
So, their behaviour is like wanting to cut down or put out of circulation any person who poses an impediment to their continuation in office.
So, Peter Obi being their target is not a matter of what started a few days ago. Obi has been their target since, immediately after the National Assembly election in 2023 because Peter Obi has easily become the most visible opposition leader in the country, and they seem to be afraid.
Obi has not rested; he has not gone to really face his business. He is a businessman of repute but he has been everywhere, preaching good governance both in Nigeria and outside and in the process, his popularity has grown by the day. So, if Obi is their main target, it is understandable.
It is unfortunate that they will make an individual their target when they have every other thing to their advantage. However, at the end of the day, we just pray that they will limit themselves to their intrigues and not go to plan to hurt the man because that will bring consequences of unmanageable proportions.
The truth is that anything that will hurt him will bring calamity. It will bring such destabilisation of Nigeria in a manner that it cannot be managed.
You see, there are so many flashpoints in this country as we speak. Nigerians are very restive. A hungry man is an angry man and an angry man is an irrational man. So, nobody should want to push Nigerians into where they will vent their anger that will defy logic because that is what happens when people act out of impulse.
So, my advice to the president is to rein in the INEC chairman (Prof Joash Amupitan) and let him say what will give Nigerians confidence in the electoral processes. He should also rein in his aides, both his ministers and personal aides. Their rhetoric is very provocative and inciting.
They are not doing him any good by attacking people left, right and centre with very absurd, acerbic words that tend to provoke them. They should set a template for an issue-based campaign based on the opportunities they already have to be in government. They should also campaign by telling Nigerians how their policies have improved their lives and what they think they can even do better to improve it further if given another opportunity, not plotting how to stop people from contesting elections or subverting political parties’ stability or trying to clamp down on political opponents. Those things will not help them at all.
Looking at President Tinubu’s personality and who he was, his activities during the pro-democracy struggles and what he is doing now that he is in office as President, what is your take?
I am sure even Tinubu would be dissatisfied with himself. I am saying this because Tinubu’s emergence as President raised so much hope based on his antecedents as a pro-democracy political leader.
A man that was always singing true federalism, restructuring, all this and all that, that will enhance our democratic practice only to get into power to prove that what is said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is indeed true.
President Tinubu has so badly managed our diversity. Almost everybody criticised President Buhari for the way he mismanaged our diversity and tried as President Obasanjo puts it to Fulanize Nigeria but now President Tinubu has proved by his own actions that President Buhari was actually a learner in the area of nepotism and ethnicity.
Today ethnic consciousness has deepened in Nigeria so much. Ethnic consciousness is even worse than religious consciousness that used to be the bane of Nigeria. Everybody is now talking about Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo when we should have been talking about Nigeria.
Most people do not believe in Nigeria anymore. That is the unfortunate part and it has become worse under this government. Even if a new government comes in it has a herculean task in trying to put together a fractured country into a nation.
It is a challenge. So I am thoroughly disappointed and I say it with seriousness that in Tinubu’s sober moments, if he looks back at his antecedents, he will not be satisfied with himself.
