From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Emeka Udokporo is the first president general of Ihiagwa Autonomous Community in Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State and later PG, Ogbako Ihiagwa.
He is a consultant engineer and also one of the leaders in Owerri zone plotting for power shift to the zone.
In this interview with Sunday Sun, he talked about the readiness of Owerri zone to takeover mantle of leadership from Governor Hope Uzodimma in 2028, as well as other sundry issues. Excerpts:
With what’s been experienced so far in Nigeria, would you say this is the country of your dream?
Yes, Nigeria is a country of my dream because I still love Nigeria, but what we Nigerians are experiencing now nobody would have anticipated it, there is no Nigerian including myself that’s happy with what’s going on today, especially the hardship, but as a Nigerian yes, but then are you prepared to serve this country, yes, our problem is leadership, if we have the right leadership in place we would all be prepared to suffer once and enjoy later.
And how do you think this problem which you have attributed to leadership can stop?
Every leader must identify the problem of his or her country, the problem inherent in the system, what’s the problem in Nigeria, flamboyant lifestyle, people who want to live flambouyantly without source of income, people are prepared to do anything to make money and people worship such people, our system should be such that we’re able to checkmate such persons, but who are going to checkmate those persons, do we know them, yes we do, but those persons that are supposed to checkmate them are doing the same thing, our problems is our inability to identify our real problems, separate our needs from our wants and genuinely know that this is the time to sacrifice . Let’s cut our coat according to our material available and not according to size.
Governor Hope Uzodimma has promised to handover to Owerri zone, as a politician, do you believe him?
The governor has not made such pronouncement before, I think this is the first time and I want to believe him , I believe him sincerely, it’s now left for him to prove us right or wrong ,we supported him during the election when he told us he was going to handover to an Owerri man and we’re still supporting him, for the fact that he said that before the election, every Owerri man queued behind him ,it’s the first time somebody would be saying such, it’s a sacrifice we’re making.
2028 has been said to be a period of war for politicians in Owerri zone, especially the contenders, do you think it’s true?
Oh yes ,people would always aspire for whatever they want to aspire, it would be a time for politicians to strategise to support directly or indirectly a particular candidate, but definitely it’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be a tussle for the Owerri zone people to bring out their best ,it shouldn’t be politics as before ,the only solution to get to any exam or battle is that you must have to prepare, and how do we prepare, when you’re going for an international or local football match ,you go with your best team ,so we should go with our best and every Owerri man should occupy all the political parties ,not just one party,everyone of us should join the party available ,let us produce the candidates in all the parties and then we know that it’s our turn ,we’ve never had it before, I’m not talking about Owerri federal constituency, the only time we had it was with Emeka Ihedioha ,it’s our turn to clinch that position ,so our best must go for us ,somebody who is not into crime, somebody who is clean ,somebody whose source of income is not questionable ,this should form the criteria, somebody you have ,somebody should be able to testify ,when we know the person, we study the pedigree, we would look at them, criticise them and decide, it shouldn’t be politics as before where everybody would be saying, it’s my turn ,this time we would let our best go .
This criteria you’re talking about, does it fit the old breed or new politicians?
From what I’ve said ,they would know themselves ,they would look at their background ,how did I fare when I handled this position, did I cheat anybody, of course, you must have to come out clean, it doesn’t matter if the person is a politician or not ,what matters is let your best go and they will have to face a debate.
Did you say irrespective of party?
Yes, irrespective of party ,but it will be nice since the governor of the state is the one that has said that he would handover to Owerri zone, so you will have to support his party , you have to support the governor and his party.
Since we’re talking about the governor now, I want you to assess his performance so far and the area you need him to improve on?
I will need the governor to improve on insecurity, we are facing that challenge so much in the state , he should also consider constructing some roads in the municipal ,like the road linking Toronto and Orji ,if he has not done that, the Naze market road is very bad ,Ihiagwa to Naze and Obinze is impassable
and some other roads in the state ,let everybody feel his presence, I know he has done some major roads, but he needs also to fix the rural roads , in the next one month I won’t be able to go to my village again because of bad road, so he needs to improve more on infrastructure.
How do you see his present construction of a flyover in some major roads in the state?
The flyover will ease traffic around the Control Post
,the bodies in charge are studying the design ,it’s not a bad idea at all, I encourage him to continue.
If you have the opportunity to advise the President BolaTinubu, what will you tell him?
He should look into insecurity genuinely, he should see how cost of living can go down ,the dollar should come down, even if it’s one thousand I dont think people will complain ,our refineries should be looked into so that the cost of fuel can go down ,it will reduce cost of transportation, I still want to maintain that our cost of living is very high ,cost of governance should be reduced so that money would be saved ,workers living wages should be improved.
NLC is proposing a N500,000 minimum wage, do you think it’s realisable?
Governors should set up a team and decide on an amount that’s affordable, NLC has the right to say N500,000 ,they should bargain and reach a collective agreement . I want them to set up free mass transit for workers ,this days in Abuja staff now take turns on who conveys coleagues to office ,which is okay, while the workers are suffering, some are living in affluence in the same system, so they should cut down cost of governance, it would be a lot easier, when the workers are happy, the president too would be happy . If the Federal Government provides the free transport it will be cheaper to negotiate with labour, at least it will say, we have provided free transport , give them free healthcare ,the government should also set up corporate bodies that will be buying off food produce from farmers ,they should have a board where government will fund the farmers ,I mean the genuine farmers, those in poultry, rice,yam farming ,they should build houses and allocate to civil servants , government should be interested in the welfare of workers.
As an engineer, are you comfortable with the spate of building collapse in the country and what is your advise to avert future occurrences?
The building can’t collapse if the builder or client is not involved in sharp practices, people want to cut corners by using the wrong people to do the right jobs ,most of the builders that build houses around us are not qualified to to that ,but there is this body, COREN, there job is to regulate the work of engineers ,they’re doing their best, but the quackery is so much in the system ,sometimes the fault is partly that of our coleagues,they can allow sombody to represent them without going there to have a check for themselves ,again, all these can be solved and it’s leadership problem. If you’re sincere with yourself and you don’t want integrity problem, there are things you should not be involved in. If you dont want to do it personally, don’t delegate sombody you can not trust.