Agatha Emeadi
Former Minister of Aviation and PDP stalwart Mrs Kema Chikwe is not in a hurry to leave the party. Instead she would want to remain in the PDP, re-strategize and move on.
In this interview, she also took a swipe on APC over its claim of fighting corruption, saying that it is mere propaganda as only a segment is being tried when corruption is a general malaise. Except:
How did you develop interest in politics because it is a terrain that women find difficult to sail?
I started early. I belong to various women groups, and my sponsoring organization was business and professional women.Everything we discussed in those meetings was about development. After the Mexican declaration proposing Beijing, it was clear to me that to achieve anything in development, I have to get involved and be part of government even with all my step by step experiences while studying in America. When I came back, we had this group of friends who were university lecturers and every time we met, the topic would be about government and I said to myself, I cannot be an armchair critic, especially when the opportunity was near us and the late Dr.Chuba Okadigbo was close to us. That was how we got interested in politics. Again, I come from a family that had political interest. My brother-in-law, Ukpabi Asika was the Governor of East Central State, who was removed through a coup d’etat and my father died as the Chairman, Public Service Commission. My senior sister who was Asika’s wife started a programme called Otu Olu Obodo (One community voice). Even though my family was not involved in partisan politics then; but they had political inclination.When parties like NPN, UPN, GNPP were trending, I thought it would be very important to mainstream and become part of the decision making body in the country. Most of us who were professionals registered with NPN.Then our scope of friends expanded and we had other professional friends coming from Lagos every weekend. My husband sponsored Emeka Enejere, who was contesting for the governorship against the late Chief C.C Onoh of the old Anambra State. Though we were not experienced, but we just jumped into the political stream. We took the gamble and did very well with my husband who is always sponsoring. I discovered then that politics has a structure and I tell people that if you want to do politics without a structure, you are wasting your time. That was how I decided to look for my ward, because I was told to do so. I found my ward chairman in Asata, and my ward woman leader the late Mrs.Ezeukwu who was excited to have me. I told my friends the late Chinyere Okoye who was a Librarian at the UNN then, Professor Uche Modum, and Justice Pearl Enejere whose husband was contesting. Somehow, we just decided we must be part of the politics and election. That was our take off point and we worked with the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme very closely. We wanted something to ginger up our campaign both for NPN and our candidate Enejere. So after one meeting, we decided to invite the late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu (Ikemba Nnewi) who had just come back and Dr.Chuba Okadigbo of blessed memory, we had a big reception at Enugu Airport to welcome him. We took advantage of that and welcomed him. One early morning, we stormed Ojukwu’s house. It was a delegation of 10 men and two women and I was pregnant then. We looked like radicals; we were talking as if we would bring Nigeria down and build it overnight. So Ikemba got enchanted with our presentation and said that many people had come to talk to him about politics, but that our group, he would work with us and we were very happy.
Experience as a female young politician
The day of the primaries between Onoh and Enejere, we had done everything and were like the winners before the result was announced. My husband had put money in our Station Wagon, feeling triumphant already, while we were there, the people that were delegates were given money until we became exhausted. When the result was announced, our candidate was not rejoicing because Onoh won. All the people we gave money took advantage of us because we did not know that votes and delegates were to be protected. We didn’t understand politics then, it was a learning process for us, but we were not demoralised. He invited us and said that we were young and didn’t understand how to do this business. We gave money and went away, but Onoh secured his money and delegates and won the election as well.We weren’t demoralized and that is the good thing about being sincere and genuine because we came back from America thinking we could transform Nigeria, yet, we still wanted to transform Nigeria. Onoh invited us to work with him. He liked our vigour and diversity. What we did about the women was to go to my sister, Mrs.Asika, Flora Nwakuche, and Mrs. Ekwueme, got together and started working with them and formed Eziokwu bu Ndu (Truth is life) as the Women wing of NPN. How did we mobilize? My sister who was a political scientist introduced this turquoise blue blouse which was the trend then. She already had a political base when she was the First Lady; with that we penetrated everywhere in old Anambra State, the women called it ‘blue revolution’. If you didn’t have blue, you don’t seem to belong, so we used uniform syndrome to penetrate the grassroots. I also realized that I needed to come home to Emekuku and establish my base. Anything I got from my party, I came down to my ward and shared it. With that, I started having satellite structure for NPN. I have already established my political interest and activities in Enugu because my friends and I thought we could change Nigeria. What we achieved was to inspire professionals to participate in politics. That was our campaign mantra.
From your experience as an old politician, what do you think about modern day politics?
Modern day politics is very demoralizing. Since APC came into power, it has been very demoralizing. I wouldn’t say things were 100 per cent perfect before, but the idea of clamping down on the opposition, killing,and fluidity in politics bother me so much and I ask myself why people are in politics.If I belong to a party and it is going down, I will re-strategize and bring up the party back. I will not abandon it. It is like having your own sick biological child, will you abandon your sick child or become ashamed of your sick child instead of treating the child to get well. There is no more principle, philosophy and passion in politics. What has taken over Nigerian politics is money; and I ask, all the politicians that stock trillions of naira with impoverished persons around them are creating tension in the Nigerian society. It is no longer the same because we have lost all values in this country. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting astronomically wider.There is so much greed in the country now. My father was a professional, I remember that when he was Chief Inspector of Education, it mattered how many cars he had as a civil servant in his days. Any accusation of bribery leads to job loss.That is my background. The corruption in this country is amazing and pains me when some people are being tried for corruption and we all know that it is a general malaise. Why single out some people? If you really want to trash out the issue of corruption in this country, put up a framework to insulate the system from corrupt practices. But if you want to try previous corrupt cases, most people will be there. Even up till now, nobody can convince Nigerians that anybody is fighting corruption.
But the present government claims to be fighting corruption?
No, you cannot claim so because you are with somebody and you know the person is corrupt, and then another who might not even be corrupt, our system has loophole for people to amass wealth, it may not be corruption per se, but because you know somebody in NNPC,therefore, you could make money. If you want licence, knowing you are not qualified, but because you have somebody there, you will get the license and it is happening till date. You cannot convince me that you are fighting corruption because there is no standard, no basis for doing that. It is frustrating because as long as the system is not being insulated from corruption and we are talking about political enemies or how to frustrate PDP from winning elections, as long as we do it in a way that is not convincing, it is mere propaganda, it does not work. This corruption is eating deeper and deeper and not fair. The party in government are the people who have money and rice to share now.How do you classify corruption?The same things the alleged PDP did are exactly what they are doing now. I feel bad about the situation in the country. It is not my dream about getting into politics. Take my state Imo for example, somebody will leave his party and jump into another party, within four weeks and get the ticket to be the governorship candidate, including the ruling party. Parties take someone from another party and make them governorship candidates, while the party faithful who have been fighting to become governorship candidates are dumped and replaced; it means there is something these politicians are looking for other than development. Look at APGA, when these things started, APGA was the in-thing then because they felt it was Igbo party, it is not Igbo party, rather a party of convenience for a few people and it proved itself right. All of them went to camp out in Awka, after that camp, they came back home bruised. Old sincere members of APGA came back home crying. They took to social media to express their pains. There is no short-cut to justice if we really want to develop, we must be principled. Politics of hatred are being played in my state. Can you believe that over 60 parties that are registered, Imo State has governorship and deputies in like manner in just one state?Politics has become very commercial. Another painful thing is the issue of killing. Look at what happened in Zamfara a few days ago.When my husband and I lived in London, people we saw around his office with his partners were Hausa and Yoruba and we address ourselves as brothers and sisters. When I was studying in New York, any Nigerian you meet was a family member. But come to most villages now, half of them are enemies because of politics. Everywhere is badly polarised, divided and you are telling me that this is developmental politics. Political rich bigwigs cannot take a walk, cannot go to the beach with their families, and cannot go to night clubs to socialise with others.
What is that footprint you left as an Aviation Minister?
I am proud of too many things, especially the MM2 terminal. I am proud of the policies; I made sure that the NCCA inspected every flight before it takes off because they take responsibility. I am proud of the review of the airline policy because it is still there. Everything in that policy was derived from Aikel, IATA and international bodies that deal with Aviation. We stopped all the notion of having an aircraft and consider it an airline. I audited hangers, airline maintenance facilities that passed the test of time. They were world class because we are people who cared about their reputation.The hangers were all over the world. I established NIMET; which was tried for 22-23 years and it did not work, I established it on the basis of commercialization with the main body in Geneva. There was complete reform. I never allowed anybody to parade around the airside. I introduced the reflecting jacket and made sure staff wore their name tag on them, so if anything happened around the air side, we know who to hold responsible. In the Ministry of Transport, my heart bleeds with what is happening in Apapa which shouldn’t happen. It is because the rules and regulations are not being followed. I used to go into ships to interview the captains and know their challenges. There are some agencies that have no business with the ships, yet they go and operate and cause problems there. We introduced the 24hr turnaround system where operators bring document, process it immediately with the clearing agencies. You don’t allow cargo to be there and block the way. Both Immigrations, customs have their roles at the ports, if they keep to these rules and introduce a system where goods land and move, there will be a way out. Let the rail system be revived and all we do is to make a way for quick evacuation of these goods. Again, fine people who are being where they shouldn’t be. In other parts of the world, if a vessel should stay in a port longer than expected, they are fined. If they pay for accelerated clearing that is a different matter.It is not the airport manager that is responsible, it is the transport policy. The Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)and the Port Manager are doing so much, 8but they cannot do the evacuation, it is a policy system where the containers are picked up from and these things matter so much. That ministry should be micro-waved. Give full personal attention in what is happening at the operation side, not the ministry because the transport sector is commercialized and anything that people pay money for must get attention. It is the policy and regulation that matters, if everywhere is congested, the concessionaires will be frustrated.
You have seen it all as a strong PDP stalwart, what will you tell other women politicians?
Honesty, purpose and principle should be the focus of women in politics. We shouldn’t play politics without target. I want women to realise that nobody puts anybody in politics, you work it out. PDP gave women forms for free,what else can a party do for women? Again look at the dynamics of the constituency, who are at the front liners? The people you are contesting against, how popular or unpopular are they? You have to look at different variables and take a decision.Every contestant should have two mentors, a man and a woman. Weigh your options; don’t defeat yourself before the election. Don’t hope on 30 per cent affirmative action, election comes from you. Challenges and chauvinism are real, so you start ahead to prepare yourself, if you come in suddenly, you crash out suddenly. Start early enough, not with money per se, you can be doing errand for the meantime and make yourself very relevant. In political experience, women are not equal. I contested quite a few elections and I know I won, but was deprived of victory, but it did disturb me and will not stop me.