From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Obinna Ogba is a household name in Ebonyi politics. A two-time senator for Ebonyi Central Senatorial District; he is currently the Chairman, Senate Committee on Sports.
The former Ebonyi State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in this interview speaks on why he wants to be governor of the state.
Why do you want to be Governor of Ebonyi State?
By the special grace of God, I want to be the Governor of Ebonyi State because I have all it takes to give the dividends of democracy to Ebonyi people. I have an idea how to take care of them and address the gaps they are having; for instance, our civil service is gone and we need to bring it back. A situation where a Director in the State Ministry will be paid only N40,000 is not acceptable compared to what is happening in other states. In the area of education, when Ebonyi State University was established, we had so many faculties but today, many of them have failed accreditation by the NUC and other relevant agencies. Some of these faculties have lost accreditation including Law. Is it not very shameful? There are so many things to talk about. It is on record that Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital was rated the best in the country when Sam Egwu was the governor of the state. We had all the professors, the renowned names were working in this teaching hospital. But today, go there, it is now like a clinic. I have all that it takes to bring back the lost glory of the institution. When you go to sports, the only infrastructure you will find there was what was done when I was Commissioner for Youth and Sports. Even ordinary attending the National Sports Festival, Ebonyi doesn’t participate again. This sector has been totally abandoned and neglected. There are so many things that have gone wrong in Ebonyi State. All the former governors have done their best but we still have a lot to do to improve the state.
What is your position regarding zoning of the Ebonyi Governorship seat?
My position is that if there is anything like zoning in Ebonyi, that zoning will be respected by even my humble self because I am a gentle man to the core. But the issue is that there is no zoning in Ebonyi State. And the leaders have not come together to discuss zoning not to talk of having one. If they decide today to meet, discuss, agree and sign agreement on zoning, I will respect it. In 1999, the three senatorial zones contested the election. Dr Sam Egwu who eventually emerged as governor contested from the North, Fide Nwankwo contested from the North, Andrew Nwankwo of blessed memory from the North contested too; Chris Nwankwo contested from the North; Prof John Eke also from the North contested the governorship. When you come to the Central, you had Chief Opoke Odu of blessed memory contesting from the central; Chidi Onwe contested from the Central and Chief Nwagu Onele. Then you go to the South, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu contested, Onyiba Arusi Odi, Dr. Emmanuel Oko Isu and also Dr. Isaac Abara from Ivo LGA, all contested from the South. There was this other man from Edda that came back from the US; he also contested from the South. So, you discover that the three zones contested and from the PDP, Sam Egwu emerged candidate. Ogbonnaya Onu emerged the candidate of the APP and two of them contested and eventually Sam Egwu won. In 2003, the three zones contested for the position. When Sam Egwu was leaving in 2007, the North was contesting, the South was also contesting. The Central also contested. In that one, I myself from the central also contested; late Chief Polycarp Nwite contested the governorship from the North. And so many other people were also contesting from the South. At the end, Chief Martin Elechi won from the central. In 2015, when he was leaving, the three zones also contested. Dave Umahi was contesting from the South, Edon was contesting from the North, Senator Julius Ucha was contesting from the Central. At the end, David Umahi won. And now David Umahi’s tenure is ending, the three zones need to contest. And there was no time anybody called a meeting to discuss zoning and again, I don’t think zoning should be a problem or an issue. What should be our concern is how do we get somebody who will govern Ebonyi people; who will know what Ebonyi people want; their needs and give such to them, who will put food on the table for people.
I think that is what is important. For instance, in Nigerian Constitution, there is nothing like zoning that requires you to jettison the constitution. If you do any zoning that jettisons the country’s constitution, it’s of no effect. The Nigerian Constitution, you will agree with me, says that if you live in a place up to 10 years; you automatically become a citizen of that place. All these zoning they are talking about is targeted at me, who happens to come from the Central. But I want people to know that I have lived in Izzi land which is the North for almost 30 years.
So, I see myself as a citizen of Izzi land. Thus, even if they decide to zone today and they decide to zone to Izzi (North), I will run the election from the Nkaleke Ward where I live because I am qualified. If you zone it to central, I will run from my village, Nkalagu in Ishielu L.G.A. I am in the National Assembly, there are people who came there; persons from Anambra and Imo State, they won elections in Lagos State and they are there. And you will also know that Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is running for President, governed Lagos State for eight years. He is not from Lagos. He is from Osun State. You know that Rauf Aregbesola who was Governor of Osun State was a council chairman in Lagos State and was a Commissioner in Lagos State. So I don’t think that should be a problem for us. So, regarding zoning, we don’t have zoning in Ebonyi State. Other states may have zoning but we don’t have. I challenge anybody to produce the document of the zoning so that I can know the names of those who signed it. Whether they are living or dead, their names should be known.
You talked of giving Ebonyi people what they need. What are those things that you will give them that this present government has not given them?
First of all, they need freedom. The government has not given them freedom. They need security, they have not given them security. Go to some areas, they need electricity. They need health facilities. They need housing. I don’t want to start describing those who had governed the state but take for instance, during Sam Egwu’s eight years in office, he constructed what we know as Liberation Estate, Democracy Estate, Ezza Road Estate, Onueke Estate, Afikpo Estate.