From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Board of Trustees member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and 2023 senatorial hopeful for Abia South, Chief Ahamdi Nweke, survived an assassination attempt in the beginning of January this year. He spoke on the attack and other issues in politics and national development, stressing that the South East is being marginalised because of their leaders’ quest to run errands and eat crumbs from what they see as national parties, instead of coming together to strengthen their own and use it as a bargain for power shift.
What office would you be running for in 2023 and under which party?
You will be informed at the appropriate time. However, in the attempt to change the narrative, in 2015, the press played a key role in what happened in Abia State. I ran for the Senate then. For the truth to be told, there are still calls, for me to run for that senatorial seat. Some people are asking me to go for governorship. I am not going to do that. I am going to go to the Senate. I am considering it seriously and will come out with a final decision. I haven’t declared yet.
In terms of platform, I ran for governorship in 2007 under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Most people were in the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA). It was later that my good friend and wonderful man, Chief T. A. Orji came back to join PDP from the PPA. As for platform, I am a member of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), a board of trustees’ member at that, and the reason I left the PDP, was that the party had no internal democracy. It has not changed. I think the time has come for us to take a regional approach to politics. People keep saying we need to be in the political party at the centre, no! One should look at Anambra State, how we’ve been able to sustain its development. Our problem was that in Abia, we didn’t have strong candidates then. If you look at all the agitations for separation which is being called for especially by the young people, they are about bad governance.
I am quite sure that every Igboman doesn’t feel happy in what we have as Nigeria today. But because many of our politicians are feeding fat from what is happening, they are allowing it to continue. However, for how long will we continue in that situation? If the administration was working well at both the federal and the state levels, the level of separatist agitation we are seeing would not be heightening or at least not to the extent that we are seeing it today. So, I will, if I do decide, run under APGA. It is a party of Ndi Igbo (Nkaa bu nke anyi) meaning (This is our own). Let us pool together and change the narrative in the South East, first and foremost, and let’s see where we go from that.
APGA doesn’t believe in zoning of political offices. How do you look at the Abia charter of equity that spells out the way political offices are to be zoned?
I see the charter as is presently being used, as a creation of convenience. In our zone, that is the old Aba zone, there is a cry by our Ukwa brothers that the majority Ngwa would marginalize them. On a premium and sensible position, there would be a time one would call on or encourage them to have a thrust in the office. But mine is about looking at competence. Looking at the ability to discharge responsibilities of the office and I have no doubt that in Abia North and in the South, there are people, ably qualified to give service in any office that one takes up.
So, if someone comes up who has the capacity and competence, he should be encouraged to run for office. Most certainly, we need a perfuming governor in Abia State.
How would you rate the education and health sectors in the state?
From my observation going by what I see in the community primary school in my village, we seem to have more teachers than pupils. This is a new dimension to what we were used to and may have been designed to assist the pupils. This is because the standards have fallen much below what they used to be in the past. Parents are taking their children to private schools. Churches are now running schools alongside private individuals.
This, to me, is a sign that public schools run by the government have lost quality they were known to have in the past. I will say that 99 per cent of pupils in the public school in my community have now moved over to the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) mission school opened adjacent to the government school; those who are not there, are trekking to as far as Omoba, to attend school. Why, inadequate provision and some people are saying the teachers are not teaching. Of all the countries I have been to and visited in this world, Nigeria, and in particular in Abia State, this is the only place where somebody will be owing you money and you dress up in the morning to go to work. They owe you for two months, you are coming, they owe you for one month; you are coming! We are a people from another planet and are Christians.
The education system is really zero, and you ask in relation with the current administration. Most of these are inherited. My community school has not been running well since 1999. So, you can’t blame it entirely on the person there. That’s not to make an excuse for him. He can bring his own to know how to make sure the schools are working. The story is the same in the health sector. In our entire local government, Isiala Ngwa South, the only hospital we have is a private one with branches in Omoba and Umuikaa. So, the entire local government has no public hospital. If you look at the community health centre at Umuahia, the facilities including the roofs have spoiled.
That hospital was built by the Chief Sam Mbakwe administration in the 1980s. Incidentally when it was built, it was called “Ulo Ogwu Helen” (Helen’s Hospital), Helen being my late mother. She was the one that attracted and built the hospital. It had midwives and nurses’ quarters all of which are in such dilapidation with no roof. The current government has assured us that they are coming to rehabilitate it. In fact, we are waiting for them. They are supposed to have started work in November last year. But again, how many other local communities are without such facilities. The governor has decided to make it a cottage hospital. I also want to say something about the infrastructure. I said this in an interview recently at the APGA office in Umuahia. I am perhaps, the most notable Ngwa man that objected to Ikpeazu’s administration and my argument was the way he came and where he was coming from.
Let’s start from a new slate. People assisted, including members of the fourth estate (you journalists) and the election in 2015 was won by APGA, may be it wasn’t the will of God for us to govern the state then. Looking at what he is doing, Ikpeazu surprised someone like me with the road networks he had built. The fact that somebody had been doing something, I like to acknowledge the person. I don’t like the politics of saying nothing has been done when even the silliest person knows that something is happening. The road passing through my village had since the 1980s been bad; no maintenance. We couldn’t go from here to Aba.
But now, it takes me only eight minutes to move from here to Ogbor Hill, where as we were spending hours to go to the city through Umuikaa then on to Osisioma before reaching our destination. From Umuene, you can see another road being built to Umuikaa. Yes, one can see some of the newly built roads in Aba getting bad. They have not lasted. One is the Faulks road. Was it built? Yes. But the buck stops at the head. A lot of people have the responsibility to go and see the building construction process.
There is the Osusu road. From the 1970s, it was no longer motorable. But under this same administration, it has been done. I was surprised when I took Ukaegbu road, and Ehere. When you look at all of that, I will be telling lies to say Okezie (the governor) has not built any road. I want our people to play politics of saying the truth. There are so many areas he hasn’t done well. Use those as your argument.
What’s your take on allegations of poor representation against legislators in terms of attracting development projects?
The principal work of the legislator is making good laws. Perhaps, his other major work as far as I am concerned, is the oversight responsibility that they have. How can you oversight an organization, confidently, if you haven’t had experience in managing or running successfully other organisations in the past? How would you know what to do, I am not one of those who will come and tell you lies that once I come into office, I will build roads, electrify your place.
These are not the role of a legislator. There is also this provision that has been made by legislators to have what they call constituency projects. Building roads and other amenities is entirely the role of the executive. But the Nigerian system is like no other. It is only in Nigeria that you find the kind of situation we are talking about politically and administratively, where you find the alternative that can attract needed project to your place. I am not one that can promise what I cannot offer. First and foremost, the job of the legislator is to make laws.
I am a lawyer and I am in touch with my people. I do assess the needs of the community in finding out where there is problem. Every politics is local and the needs vary. Apart from doing that, I will be assisting in making laws that will strengthen the institutions of the Nation State as well, if given the opportunity. I will work to bring the dividends of democracy to my people. It is true that it is not the role of the law maker to develop his area; it is also true that they do face opportunities of handling constituency projects. Unfortunately, what one would also ask is, how do some of these people get into those roles?
We live in a state where both appointments and selection for elective offices are not based on competence and ability to discharge role of the office they are going for. People occupy positions without skills. When such people get into office where they have no skill, you cannot necessarily blame them. One cannot give what he does not have. So, we have to blame the system.
How do you see the recent turn around by the National Assembly on the Electoral Act Amendment regarding consensus candidacy; does it not tally with allegations of having a rubber stamp legislature in the country?
The policy if implemented would have made Nigeria a model in democratic governance in Africa. It was exactly what they had proposed for the electorate represented by the party delegates to select those to go for them. But they abandoned it and went back to the old system. Consensus candidature is not a democratic principle, so we have a situation where rather than veto the refusal of the president in the circumstance, we found out that the National Assembly has bent over backwards, to do exactly the opposite of what they had recommended as the way forward.
Recently, you were attacked right in your home by yet to be identified gunmen. Can you let us into what actually happened?
I was attacked right in front of my home. If I had not asked the driver to reverse from entering my compound, we may have been telling a different story by now. It would have been my funeral. I cannot talk on why anyone would want to kill Ahamdi Nweke. I don’t believe I have an enemy.
What everyone is saying, is that, if they were robbers or kidnappers, they will not be shooting to kill. So, those people were definitely, on a very dangerous mission. If this was really politically motivated, where is it coming from? Somebody who wishes to run for an office – public office, is supposed to be a call to service. Why would one kill to go and serve the people? Whatever it is, it is left for them and God.
You had said that Abia was the safest state in the South East. With the attempt on your life, do you still hold this view?
It will be wise to say yes in view of what have been happening in other places. What has happened to me, as far as I am concerned, is not common place, like we hear in those other states. Even if it is political killing, it is not something we experience every time. I have been home in Abia for some time and since then, I have not heard of or seen something like this dastardly act, I will still say that Abia is safe and where one can be, to work and do his business peacefully, and without fear.
However, for someone to plan such a thing against another, is something I cannot understand. It baffles me. The hallmark of what happened, points to a direction of it being politically motivated. I would not say that I don’t have plans to contest again in 2023. But even if I have an intention, would that be a reason to kill?