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From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
With the excellent outing of the Labour Party(LP) in last Saturday’s election especially in the South East, many believe that the chances of its governorship candidate in Enugu State, Mr Chijioke Edeoga are brighter ahead of the March 11 poll. In this interview, he spoke on his chances in the coming election, vision for Enugu State among others.
The presidential election and national assembly election has come and gone in Enugu State and your party, Labour Party was superlative, how do you feel about the election and the people?
I want to use this opportunity to really thank the electorate of Enugu for the massive, unprecedented support that was given to the Labour Party. The Labour Party is relatively a new political party and not many pundits thought that it could do anything meaningful in the course of its participation in the current exercise. But the outings of Labour Party and the results that have just come out are beyond imagination of many people. I think is a matter that we have to thank the people of Enugu State and all other persons who participated, the media people, the church, all interests that came together to see that elections held in Enugu and they were substantially free and fair.
The Armed Forces, the Police and all segments of the society came together to insist that election would hold in relatively free and fair manner and the outcome will be upheld. So, I really want to thank everyone who has participated.
But most importantly, I want to thank our President, Muhammadu Buhari, who remained steadfast in signing the Electoral Act and putting in place a monetary policy that has made vote buying, which has been the dent on our electoral process, difficult and almost impossible.
The absence of the money factor in this election has helped substantially to get what we want and say, is the wish or are the wishes of the people with regards to who will represent them in the National Assembly or who will be their choice for the presidency. So is a golden moment for us in Enugu and I want to limit my comment to Enugu for now for good reasons because I know that in Enugu State, things went very well and a lot of persons worked together to achieve that end.
Your Senatorial candidate for Enugu East, Oyibo Chukwu was assassinated about two days to the election, what do you have to say about this?
On the brutal assassination, murder of Chukwu, who was poised, who had worked hard in Labour Party, campaigned and canvassed and put across his views especially on restructuring which he was going to address substantially at National Assembly, if he went there; and he was poised to win, given the fact that in his zone, virtually all the party’s candidates won but he was killed, murdered in cold blood, in broad daylight somewhere in Awkunanaw, Enugu South. We condemn in most earnest manner the taking of lives for reasons of politics. No one’s life is worth taking in such an unlawful manner because of political considerations. So we condemn it and we pray that his soul rests in peace. We pray that our polity should witness less and less of such unnecessary and unlawful taking of lives and we also hope and pray that his family will find closure.
INEC moved the Enugu East senatorial election to March 11, same day your election (governorship) and State House of Assembly will take place, what is the party doing concerning Oyibo Chukwu’s replacement?
Let me inform you that our party, Labour Party has taken steps, as the law allows that a replacement is put in place so that on the 11th of March as INEC has stated, Labour Party will field a candidate that will replace Oyibo and run for the senatorial seat of Enugu East Senatorial zone, so that, that place will not remain unrepresented at any pointing time. We are taking steps; we are consulting important stakeholders to make sure that the person who emerges would meet the various expectations, both of the zone, both of the Oyibo family, both of the Labour Party leadership in Abuja and Enugu. We are looking for somebody who will match these expectations and field the person. And hopefully the person will win given the trend in Enugu at this point in time.
The Supreme Court today gave judgment on the matter of guber candidature of Labour Party, Enugu State. How do you react to the court verdict?
Yes, the lingering matter in the court which Everest Nnaji has in cahoots with the state government and instituted against my person or my candidacy, mercifully was terminated today at the Supreme Court. The panel of five Judges, eminent Justices said that the man had no locus initially even to file. So all that hullaballoo, all those media hypes, all those somehow acquired judgment at the court of first instance, were absolutely not necessary and the continued diversion that he has orchestrated in the polity, mounting billboards in prominent places which gives impression actually that the state government was not indifferent to his activities, all those have come to an end.
And they have all come to an end and they all come to an end at a good time because now we are poised to run the governorship election at this final lap without all those little dogs stripping at our feet.
We thank God for all these developments and we also thank the media with hope you will continue to partner with us, continue to partner with Labour Party, a party that is new relatively speaking but it is made up of credible Nigerians, men of value, who are ready and willing to bring values of integrity, competence, sacrifice and empathy to bear on governance at all levels. At the National Assembly level, the State Assembly level, and at the presidency and governorship levels.
Now the matter of who is the LP Enugu State governorship candidate is over, are you not going to call the man who went to court and lost to remove the billboards where he paraded himself as the candidate?
Even at the point when he put up those billboards, there was no basis to put up those billboards. The billboards were erected after he had approached the Federal High Court, claiming he was not allowed to participate. He mounted them after he had gone to court saying he was excluded from participating. If you’re excluded from participating, you are not a candidate, so he clearly accepted he was not a candidate and was asking the court to make him a candidate. The court of first instance, the High Court did not make him a candidate; it just said that another primary should be done. The Labour Party went to the Court of Appeal and Court of Appeal threw out that matter, saying that the man did not participate in a primary. If you didn’t participate in a primary, you have no locus which is also what the Supreme Court has upheld.
So at no point was there any legal basis on which he should mount those billboards. At which point was it right for him, reasonable for him, rational for him to ascribe to himself the candidacy of Labour Party? As far as I am concerned, it was brigandage taken too far. So I will not talk to him about removing the billboards, the mind that asked him to erect billboards claiming to be what he is not or what he was not, that same mind will also instruct him at what point he will know that the shenanigans have come to an end and he will advise himself. But he may not also leave them because I am sure he has not paid anything for those billboards. Those billboards were put there on his behalf or with his knowledge by that state government, to continue to confuse the unwary or those who could be confused about the situation in Labour Party. So as far as I am concerned, those billboards, they have purpose and the purpose is to continue to confuse Enugu people with regards to the true situation in Labour Party. So, after the elections, March 11 when I would have emerged the Governor-elect of Enugu State, the billboard, they will remove it for they would have served their purposes and of course, it would have been obvious that they are there; they have not achieved the nefarious intensions of those who mounted them.
There is this news online that looks cheering, that Odengene (Everest Nnaji) has congratulated you. Has he reached you or not and if he does, will you not embrace him?
Ordinarily, one will embrace such acts from persons whom you don’t have any reason to suspect they have ulterior motives. Ordinarily, one will embrace, welcome such actions, such gestures from people who ordinarily you won’t suspect they have ulterior motives. In the course of my relationship, interactions with Odengene, I’ve come to be careful about how I respond to his antics.
So what he has put out in the media has come at a point when they’ve actually no material import. People have made up their minds on what they are going to do, people they are going to vote for. People have made up their mind about what his character is, what worries they would have about his antics, so those things are just gimmicks. Gimmicks that are as far as I am concerned empty, ineffectual and puerile.
They don’t matter to me at all, I look at them with indifference because I don’t even believe that those gestures he meant them, or do he understands what he is doing or believe what he is doing? So he must be up to some antics. He did not reach me and the last time he reached me, I still regret that we met. I still regret that I spoke openly and frankly with him. That I engaged him as I would engage a normal human being, so I will be wary to engage with him or talk with him or relate with him ever again.
Going by some ugly developments recorded and results in the last Saturday election, are you not afraid that there may be violence in the March 11 polls?
Few unlawful things happened in some places but I don’t think they are substantial enough to cast a slur on the outcome, on the process. You expect that if an order that have been placed for several years is being removed, you expect them to react, you expect some responses, so it is what you can call the kicks of a dying order. I would have been surprised if nothing happened, but they are not substantial enough to cast a slur because at each point in time, the security forces acted timeously to restore order and at the end, votes were cast; they were numbered and results known. So, those things are normal, I think with time, everything will be alright.
That does not mean that the officers who are human beings anyway, should not act in a way that is gentlemanly, integrity driven or according to the norms that INEC prescribed. What happened in some places is that, though some of those officers were not properly trained, some of them allowed themselves to be confused or compromised, a few persons, some of them were afraid and find reasons to not show up on time. Some were logistic issues, no vehicles and so on. So several of them happening in different places could affect the process but substantially, everything went well and I am happy with the outcome and I know with time, the next one will be better.
I am not afraid of the next one, I hear stories of threats of violence and all those things, there won’t be any violence at all, the head has been cut off. There won’t be any violence, people are trying to boast and make threats but nothing is going to happen. The process will be smoother than the one that has passed. Nothing will happen, they are just about to be removed; all of them so that Enugu state will have better; we deserve better than we have now in all aspects. Some sort of seriousness, even the Odengene thing is part of the comic dimension that has become the norm. Ordinarily, comedy is part of life but when comedy takes centre stage, it becomes a matter of state policy; the comic then is a matter for concern.
