By Chukwudi Nweje
As the South East geopolitical zone agitates for a position in the government of President Bola Tinubu, Mr Osita Okechukwu the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON) argues that the South East needs infrastructure development more than political appointments from the President Tinubu-led administration. He also speaks on other national issues.
The 2023 general elections are over and the government fully constituted with a President from the South West, Vice President from the North East, in the National Assembly, we have the Senate President from the South South, the Deputy Senate President from the North West, in the House of Representatives it is Speaker from the North Central and Deputy Speaker from the South East. Some people are worried that the South East, a major tripod of Nigeria does not have any real leadership position in the 10th National Assembly, what do you think?
Your question on the South East not getting a juicy position is germane. As a foundation member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), I am confronted on daily basis with same question.
Permit me to state clearly that am not opposed to the South East getting juicy appointments in this administration; I am cleaning this fog so that those food is ready politicians will not smoke me.
What do you mean, in the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari the South East was relegated and during our last encounter you sounded very confident that the South East will have a prominent place in the National Assembly, what happened, are we steering the same sordid scenario in the face?
I repeat that I am not opposed to anyone from the South East getting juicy appointments, what I know as a historical fact is that if it is good in any geopolitical zone of our dear country, it will be good to Ndigbo. Nobody can kill the beetle; we live in all the nooks and crannies of our dear country and invest therein. This is the position one of my mentors, Senator Chuba Okadigbo of blessed memory kept reminding Ndigbo when he was alive.
However, as one posited earlier, democracy is a big elephant with many parts and its growth throughout history has been incremental. Democracy is not revolutionary but evolutionary; therefore the South East maybe turn out as the greatest beneficiary of President Tinubu’s administration in the fullness of time. An Igbo adage admonishes that you don’t count your gain until the market is over.
You are dotting your answers with proverbs, please come clear for the interest of our audience.
Proverbs are words we use to blemish stories and anyone with his father’s knowledge comprehends very well.
To be exact my calculation is that the South West benefitted more from ex-president Buhari’s administration than the North West where Buhari comes from; when you count tangible physical infrastructural assets like standard rail line, Dangote Refinery, Sabler Brewery, NIMASA’s Ocean Security among others. How I wish President Tinubu will construct standard gauge rail line in the Eastern Corridor.
The economic gains of the standard rail line with thousands of people commuting from Ibadan to Lagos in less two hours is huge. What it means is that many workers may decide to reside at Ibadan and work in Lagos. If we can get such between Enugu and Port Harcourt, it will be more enduring than for instance Osita Okechukwu or any other Igbo man becoming Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) as was the case of Ndigbo sometimes ago?
It seems you don’t feel the pains of those who share this view?
We have to do a comparison and note that when the South East produced the Senate President, Ministers of Power, Transport, Finance, Chief of Army Staff and several other key positions in government, neither the 2nd Niger Bridge nor the Enugu-Onitsha, Enugu-Port Harcourt highway was constructed or rehabilitated.
Therefore, my position is that appointments to high political offices are considered here as very important because we run prebendal or food is ready politics. Otherwise, they are not as substantial dividends of democracy as critical physical and social infrastructures.
Don’t you think there is need to heal the sense of marginalisation by these appointments which may create a sense of belonging?
I am not opposed to that but do you remember that the South South was not the greatest beneficiary of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, I stand to be corrected.
The demand I think the South East should make from President Tinubu is urgent construction of physical and social infrastructure in the region and by extension in Nigeria. For example, provision of electricity, standardisation of Eastern Corridor Standard Gauge Rail line, rehabilitation of roads, and implementation of agricultural Green Imperative Project as well as the amendment of the constitution to reduce the extra meat items in the Exclusive Legislative List; we have the Nasir El-Rufai Committee’s Report as a model to begin with. These are the pragmatic key indices for lifting millions out of poverty.
What’s then is your problem?
My greatest headache is that no geopolitical zone is modernising in the same wave length with our contemporaries in other parts of the world.
President Abdel-Fatti al-Sisi of Egypt built a new capital, dug the Suez Canal through the Sinai desert and spanned his kingdom with railways and bridges in just 10 years. We can do same if Tinubu follows the foundation laid by Buhari.
Nigeria just marked Democracy Day on June 12, 30 years after the annulment of the June 22, 1993, presidential election, incidentally the celebration comes with President Bola Tinubu, an apostle of MKO Abiola, the winner of the annulled election as President, what are your thoughts?
June 12 remains a watershed and the most credible, transparent, free and fair election ever conducted in Nigeria. it was the first Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, but there was no rancour. It demonstrated that Nigeria was not a mistake or mere geographical expression; it is for us to make Nigeria great.
What is your take on the position expressed by the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa regarding a proposed law that will regulate property ownership by the Igbo in Lagos, is it a fallout of the perceived vote pattern of the Igbo during the February 25 presidential election?
I will not want to comment on just statement made by the Speaker, until it becomes law. The validity of the law will be interrogated vis-a-vis its compliance with relevant sections of 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Any law that is at variance or contradicts the constitution is null, void and of no consequence, since the constitution is the ground norm.
Is it then fallout of the perceived vote pattern of Ndigbo during the presidential election?
It will be hypothetical to deal with a mere statement; it is not a bill as far as I am concerned. Therefore, we shouldn’t bother ourselves; all I know is that even if we have 36 independent countries out of present Nigeria, the Yoruba will still be in Aba and the Igbo in Lagos. There must be other ethnic groups residing in all towns in Nigeria forever no matter our individual complexes and sentiments. This truism is a note of caution for all ethnic jingoists to bear this in mind.
President Tinubu has sacked Godwin Emefiele as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), then Abdulrasheed Bawa as chairman of the EFCC, critics say these terminations did not follow due process and that it could indicate an early warning that the President despite his inaugural speech that his administration will consult may be leaning towards a dictatorial administration?
The sack spree sounds as the old normal, whereby every new Sheriff will announce his arrival on the scene. Remember that when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo arrived as the new Sheriff, he sacked all the military officers who in one way or the other supported his victory. Similarly, Umaru Shehu Yar’Adua of blessed memory repeated same, so did Jonathan. It was Buhari who insisted that those whose tenure had not expired should remain on their seat despite the fact that he inherited them from the PDP.
So, critics saying that Emefiele and Bawa’s treatment did not follow due process and that it could be an early warning that the President may be leaning towards a dictatorship are mistaking because Nigeria has gone very far into the democratic route, that no one no matter how powerful will easily rail road Nigeria into dictatorship. The factors which encourage dictatorship are very scanty in our dear country. Ironically one of those factors which impedes the growth of dictatorship in countries like Nigeria is the same ethno-religious conundrum which also impedes our development. It is a centrifugal force which unlike centripetal force that facilitates dictatorship repulses dictatorship.