From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Elder statesman, Chief Dan Ulasi says it as it is. A renowned politician, he was the Anambra State Chairman of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) in the aborted third republic. He was also State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The PDP chieftain spoke on insecurity in the South East; incarceration of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the seeming absence of leadership in the region. He also pointed to the way forward.
Your town, Nnewi held promise of an industrial giant in Africa but all that seem to be on the pause for sometimes. Why?
Is it only in Nnewi? We used to have almost 90 industries. I think now only Innoson Motors is functioning; regarding Ibeto Industries, I don’t know which part of it is functioning. Then, AZ Petroleum, that is Chikason known as Chika Okafor. There are lots of other small industries but there are not up to 20 anymore functioning now, only Innoson is functioning at full capacity because of the motor manufacturing plant. So, it’s very unfortunate that we don’t have access to foreign exchange to buy spare parts to maintain the actual industry. There is no light; that’s power or electricity, you build an industry, you build the road, you put water, you buy transformer, buy generator, is that how a government performs? And all military and civilian governments have been to Nnewi to see what is happening there and yet up till today, you will not believe that the remaining industries use diesel in 90 percent of their time. Those who cannot afford the diesel close down immediately because they look at the pros and cons.
It looks like a hopeless situation…
It is a very hopeless situation. Recently, I had a meeting with Emeka Offor who is the Chairman and the owner of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company and drew his attention to what is happening in Nnewi. I asked him, what is going on in Nnewi which is just next door to your community? He told me we will do this and that but nothing has happened and that is all about leadership in the South East. If we had governors who are Igbo, our states will not be like this. We don’t need Lagos, we don’t need Abuja, all we needed was human beings who will develop between Enugu and Abakaliki, that there will be an industrial centre, between Abakaliki and Umuahia, there will be an industrial centre, between Owerri and Onitsha, there will be an industrial centre, between Onitsha and Awka, there will be an industrial centre, and also between Awka and Enugu, there will be an industrial centre. If we have such centres, we will give our industrialists abroad three years maximum to bring back all our industries to Igbo land so that there will be inflow of capital to our place. Today, there is out flow.
We import virtually everything Nigeria uses but reside in Lagos. Today, they are destroying our properties in Lagos which I predicted more than five years ago in a major interview I granted. Now, people are calling me, oga you said it. I said, well, the much I can do is to praise the Lord, whatever inspiration I am given, I will say it. So, leaving our place to go and develop other people, I think is becoming a foolish idea. Somebody showed me an interview Shettima who is now Vice President of the country granted three or four years ago where he was praising Igbo, that without Igbo, this country cannot stand. So, we don’t have Igbo who are governors in our land who could have made our land a mini-Japan, a mini-Taiwan, to hell with the rest of the country. If we had developed our place, Nnamdi Kanu will not be in jail, he will not have a reason to complain. It is because nothing is going on in Igbo land that Igbo are now the ones killing the Igbo in Igbo land. Can Ojukwu either Ojukwu L.P (Louis) or General Odumegwu Ojukwu or Mbakwe or M.I. Okpara or Nnamdi Azikiwe believe in the land they developed that we slice ourselves and dump people into mass graves? There is one in Finland who is there and organizing people to be killed here in the name of Nnamdi Kanu being held. This is why I am sure by the grace of God, if he is released, we will probably have more than 80 percent of the insecurity reduced in the zone and we will see how we can move forward only if God gives us the grace to do so but as human beings, we will do our best and leave the rest to God.
What do you think is the way forward now for Ndigbo under this trajectory?
My dear, human behaviour is not a function of statistics. As we are talking, I can decide to slap you, you will be shocked. You might fight me back and kill me but I have slapped you and you couldn’t have predicted that I will slap you. That is why I stated that human behaviour is not a function of statistics. What you will do or what your child can do, there is a limit which you can predict it because of the kind of association we now have in the society. Social media influences a lot of young people.
The way forward is for our governors to be organized and think of our people, they are not doing it at the moment. Today, we have two APC governments in South East, one APGA government, one PDP government, one Labour Party government and they hardly talk to each other seriously apart from the jamboree of South East Governors forum which rots in nothing. They appointed Senator Uche Ekwunife to be the DG of the forum. I was asking her, what do you people do in the forum? She couldn’t answer me. Do they discuss the interest of our people under the present circumstances? Have you heard of any governor or group of them going to President Tinubu to say oga, what is happening to our people in Lagos? You are a pressman, if you have heard, please tell me. This is what leadership is supposed to be. There is a limit which I will say something and they take me seriously but that is not the issue. The Igbo are good followers, we showed it with Zik, we showed it with Okpara, in Imo, Imo people showed it with Mbakwe. It is no more talk or imagination. The Igbo are good followers. If you show them leadership, they will follow you but nobody is showing leadership anymore.
The leadership we have now is that of killing and kidnapping in our land. A language hitherto that was not common place in our land; kidnapping, killings, rape is now very common in our land. You see what is happening in Imo. Nobody has been charged to court for attacking the prison and that shows you that something more than what you and I know is going on. So, I only pray God for those who worship him. Those who trust in the Lord like Psalm 125, they are like mountain Zion, they endure forever and God is faithful, he does not abandon his own. So, I believe that somehow, something will work out. That’s what I pray, for our governors to have a change of heart, our legislators especially at the federal level will have a change of heart and start thinking home. Look at President Bola Tinubu, so, he held Lagos to ransom for good 24 years. He has now plotted how to take over Nigeria and like some people will tell me, are we not heading to a one-party state? Look at the confusion in PDP and other parties, look at the confusion there. So, we have the fundamental problems of reorganization, reorientation to be able to see how do you go forward without a vision. We have to have a vision and begin to think of how do we achieve this vision; am I going to do it alone? How is the media involved? Have you seen any governor who calls Ibo journalist from different parts of this country from all these things you people have observed, how do you think we can move forward? Have you heard about a governor that is speaking and start talking about the interest of our people? Because they believe that their powers lie in Abuja or Lagos or they go to Obasanjo. Can you imagine Obasanjo who was supporting Peter Obi more than the Igbo but yet Igbo voted for him but we couldn’t translate that vote to power. I had major press conference against Peter Obi, today he sees me anywhere, he embraces me, we talk. I said if Igbo give you all their votes, will you be President and they did and you cannot use it to be President and its Tinubu that you are helping to be President and it came to pass. We are now 20 years behind but everywhere you go, you will be hearing Obi, Obi, Obi. Is that all? Is that our achievement?
There is this thinking that PDP crisis is self-inflicted, it’s not from outside. What do you think about this?
Yes, it is self-inflicted. It is Wike and his group-the G-5 governors. They destroyed PDP because he couldn’t be the presidential candidate and they didn’t make him Vice Presidential candidate to Atiku; he destroyed the party. There is no doubt about that, he is my friend but he destroyed the party. He is already in APC and that was why Tinubu made him a Minister to make sure he captures Abuja in 2027. They are already planning for 2027, but you see how God works, the problem is developing from different states. So, he has put two fingers in his mouth and it is difficult for him to manage it. Let’s see how this turns out.