By Omoniyi Salaudeen
As preparation for the 2023 elections gathers momentum, a prominent royal father in Enugu State, HRH Igwe Patrick Eze alias Igwe Waziri, who is the traditional ruler of Egali Amalla Community in Udenu Local Government Area of the state, has called on the electorate to choose the next president based on competence and track records.
He also charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure the conduct of free, fair, and credible elections. Excerpt:
How would you assess the performance of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last seven and a half years?
The major responsibility of any government is to provide security, ensure that people have access to infrastructure and amenities, ensure a lively economy, create jobs, make education and quality health care services available and ensure that essential commodities are affordable to the people. The gap between what we had in 2015 in terms of prices of essential commodities when Buhari took over and what we have now in seven years and a few months of the present administration is so wide and everybody is feeling the pains of economic hardship. In 2015, the price of gas was N180 per litre and now it’s N800. In 2015, the price of kerosene was N120 per litre now it is N900. The price of local rice was N11,000 in 2015 now it is N25,000. If you talk about infrastructure and amenities, the roads are bad all over the country, particularly in the Southeast. Virtually all the federal roads in the Southeast are in deplorable condition. Major roads in the Southeast like Onitsha-Owerri road, Enugu- Onitsha expressways, Obollo Afor-Makurdi road are so bad that trucks conveying goods collapse every day, inflicting heavy financial losses on transporters, traders, and businessmen, including market women and causing unbearable traffic gridlock to travellers. Ordinarily, it takes less than 30 minutes to drive from Obollo Afor to the 9th Mile Conner, but now it takes more than three hours. It takes less than three hours to drive from Obollo Afor to Onitsha, but now it takes almost the whole day. That is to tell you how bad the roads are now. The price of gas and the condition of roads determine the cost of commodities because transporters and the owners of the goods will calculate their expenses and add them to the goods to be able to make a profit. Clearly, the massive increase in prices of commodities has heightened the rate of suffering with hunger and starvation dealing harshly with the poor families. If you talk about security, we have the worst security situation now than in 2015. The pains and suffering consequent upon the high cost of commodities would have been lesser if we have security, but people cannot even sleep in the afternoon because of fear of attack by deadly criminals who are hauling and killing people both in the day and in the night. The number of unemployed youths is on the increase and you can see the agitation of the youth in response to that. The quality of education and health care is terribly bad. University teachers are on strike for many months and no end is in sight because they just extended the strike indefinitely. This is much I can give on assessment of the present administration.
In light of the security challenges currently facing the country, do you think that the impeachment threat of President Buhari is of any effect?
If those in the opposition party are threatening to initiate impeachment against the president, those in the ruling party also have their roles to play. And that will determine the possibility of getting the president impeached. The funny thing is that some of those people in government don’t care about the masses because they are inside the ocean of riches with everything available to them. Some of them don’t care to know if the president is doing well or not. They don’t care about peace. They even make gains during crises because our people use to say that a trader is in a position to make gains from the loss of another trader.
Do you see the INEC conducting a free, fair, and credible election in 2023?
From what happened in the recent elections in Edo, Ekiti, and Osun states, there is hope that INEC might do well at the end of the day. There’s hope that the election will be free, fair, and credible if INEC and security agents will replicate what they did in those states. However, there is one more area of concern and that is the issue of the court and judges because the person that took the fourth position in an election can be declared the winner by the judges in court.
There are fears that vote buying might have a negative impact on 2023. What’s your take on that?
For me, vote selling is consequent upon poor brain and which is why some people sell their conscience for peanuts and end up facing suffering for a long time. It is like an act of monkeys or chimpanzees for somebody who has been suffering for all these years to sell his vote for peanut. If hunger could not kill you for all these years, is it during this election that hunger will kill you if you don’t sell your vote? People should be wise enough this time around.
What qualities would you expect Nigerians to consider in making their choice for the next president?
First, I am expecting the elections to be an opportunity to work out a better Nigeria by electing a candidate who is experienced enough with a track record to deliver. Second, I expect that the election will give the masses the opportunity to go against those leaders that have consistently failed to live up to their expectations. For me, the election should serve as a judgment day for poor performers. I believe the masses know what they want. Let them study the track record of the candidates and listen to their campaign messages and promises carefully. All the candidates are good, mature, competent, and experienced. One of them has been a vice president. Others have been state governors and ministers. So, they are good, but there has to be a better one. Look at what they say they are coming to do and find out if they are capable of doing it based on their past records. Promises and the ability to fulfill the promises will determine the best one. The best is what Nigerians should go for.
During the recent presidential primaries, both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) abandoned the Southeast in choosing candidates.
(Cuts in)…First of all, let me correct the impression that Peter Obi is the candidate of Labour Party and not the candidate of the Southeast. The election is not about the Southeast, or Ndigbo or the youth or Christians. It is about the entire inhabitants of Nigeria. So, Peter Obi as a presidential candidate seeking to win the election to become president of Nigeria should reach out to the entire people of Nigeria anywhere they are. He cannot win the presidential election with the votes of a particular section of the country. He needs votes from all around the country.
For the first time in recent time, the youths are very keen in playing active role in the coming election. What is your advice to the youths?
Can the youths be trusted? Some of them can easily yield to cheap overtures of eating and drinking if you put rice and chicken and beer on the table. Some of them don’t even have voters card and yet they are gallivanting around the streets in the name of campaign. Politics is not fun fair. Some of them will yield to thuggery and work as thugs. Some of them have pay masters who give them mandate to work for their interest at all costs. Don’t be surprised that some of them are miscreants and hoodlums and criminals looking for opportunity to use the election to cause trouble to pave way for a chance to loot public property. Like I said, the election is a time to work out better Nigeria and all hands must be on deck. So, I will advise the youths to take responsibility and shun violence.
As a Royal Father in Enugu State, how would you rate the performance of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi?
I think Governor Ugwuanyi has tried his best. If you ask me, I will give him up to 80 per cent because he did certain things differently and better. For instance, he championed the cause of peace and security, as well as the cause of the youths creditably well. He also touched the urban and rural areas creditably well. He improved the standard of life in urban areas with road construction, water project, education and health, among others. In most cases, the urban and rural areas need government’s attention more than the cities and Ugwuanyi administration gave good attention to the urban and rural areas. Fortunately and interestingly, my community benefited from rural road construction by Ugwuanyi’s administration. A lot of rural communities that have never received any project from the state government received one thing or the other from Ugwuanyi’s administration and that is a huge mark for him. I expect Ugwuanyi’s successor to start where he stops and improve on the peaceful atmosphere in Enugu State and also improve on the standard of living in urban and rural areas with projects like road construction, water, education and health, among others.