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By Dickson Okafor
Abumchukwu N. Okoye, Coordinator, Take Back Nigeria Initiative (TBNI) has once again called on the President-elect, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu to accelerate national healing and unite Nigeria by ensuring that the Chief Whip of the Senate and former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu emerged the President of the 10th Senate for equity and balance of power. In this interview, he spoke on a wide range of issues.
The President-elect has shown signs that he may repeat what President Muhammadu Buhari did to the South-East by ignoring the zone in sensitive positions if sworn in on May 29, isn’t that an indication that the incoming government may continue from where Buhari stopped?
So far, the President-elect, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu may have shown signs that after he is sworn in, he will sideline the Igbo in federal appointments. He has shown the sign by the exclusion of the South-East in the list of members of the Transition Inauguration Committee of the incoming government. I’m not happy about that in the sense that the Igbo nation is going to be excluded in the incoming government with the way things are going. We have many Igbo in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that are supposed to be members of the committee. Or does it mean that there is no Igbo man or woman in the party that is qualify to be in the committee? Or is it intentionally done to annoy the people from the South-East? I thought we all are working towards national unity after the just concluded election? I thought we are working towards healing the wounds of the past? But what we are seeing is total alienation of the totality of the Igbo nation. It is a slap on the face of national unity. With this development, the President-elect does not mean well for Ndigbo or his advisers did not advise him well. It’s clear that if the Igbo must play a vital role in the incoming government, they should not be sidelined. However, if the court decides otherwise about who finally becomes the President, the Igbo and other regions must play vital roles. Remember we are brought together under a constitution and it says whatever we do at that level should reflect national character because those who drafted the constitution knew that, hence they made it imperative. Therefore, exclusion of Igbo from the committee is a psychological torture.
But the NWC has jettisoned zoning of NASS leadership following the rejection of its earlier arrangement which favoured the South South and the endorsement of Sen. Godswill Akpabio as the next Senate President by some Senators-elect led by the Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, don’t you think the South-East has sold out already?
First, I commend the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC for reversing its earlier decision to zone the President of the 10th Senate to South South. On the recent endorsement of Sen. Godswill Akpabio by some overzealous Senators-elect led by the Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, it is unfortunate. However, being a governor does not make someone a wise man. Also, being a governor does not change someone’s interest, hatred, jealousy and most importantly greed. The position of Senate President should be zoned to the South-East as the only way the incoming government can balance power. Umahi should know that we are concerned with Igbo interests in the incoming government, not individual interest in which the entire people of South-East are keenly behind the Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu to be the President of the 10th Senate. The implication of denying Igbo any of the leadership positions of the three arms of government will lead to further division of the country which may also lead to national crisis. As it stands, they may decide to appoint someone from the South-East as the next Inspector General of Police (IGP); possibly he will be given instruction to go and kill his brothers having declared that there are terrorists in Igbo land. So, where are we going from here? It is total exclusion of Igbo from the management of the nation’s resources. The President-elect, should do all he can to unite the country by ensuring Kalu emerged the President of the 10th Senate and failure to do that means we are totally excluded from strategic positions in the country. Just as President Buhari marginalized the Igbo. This is not about activism, but administration. What they are saying is simple, if it’s not me, it shouldn’t be anybody. What we are saying is that for equity and balance of power, the incoming President-elect must unite Nigeria through making Kalu the next President because he is competent, credible and capable to the legislative arm.
But most people who are against Kalu are from the South-East. They claimed that he didn’t perform well in the positions he held in the past even as governor of Abia State for 8 years?
The Bible says “a prophet is without honour only among his people”. Why should you expect all of Kalu’s people to like him? What you have in politics is permanent interest and not permanent friend. I’m not surprised that some people from the South-East are against Kalu’s political ambition, but they can’t stop him from making political progress. That was what happened in the just concluded election when he was reelected to represent Abia North in the 10th Senate. Go to Abia North and see the massive roads constructions which Kalu did within 4 years in the Senate. Most of the infrastructure in Abia State today are the ones constructed by Kalu when he was governor. What did those who were there before and after him do? Nothing. Don’t forget that most Yoruba people don’t like Tinubu and they did not vote for him in the last election especially in Lagos State, yet he won. You can be my brother, but you may be in a different political party and that does not matter in the game of politics. Kalu has suffered personally because he supported Tinubu. He may have been killed for throwing his weight behind Tinubu presidency, yet because he backed the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan during the APC Presidential primary does not mean he is not Tinubu’s supporter. All the Senators-elect can support Akpabio, it doesn’t matter because the problem in the hands of the incoming government is, how do you unite Nigeria. If the court declares Peter Obi winner of the Presidential election tomorrow, we will accord the Southwest its proper place in the power sharing. Unfortunately, what is going to happen now is that South South is toeing the line of division. What it means is that the masters at the top have divided Southern Nigeria into three. They want to ensure that Igbo, Yoruba and Niger Delta are divided and if we allow them, the three regions will be useless as time goes on.
With the ongoing political alignment and realignment, what will be the fate of South-East if the zone did not produce the next Senate President in the incoming government?
I have been able to check the United Nations Convention and it said “exclusion of a tribe amount to pogrom”. So, if that happens, politically and mathematically, the Igbo is ruled out of governance in Nigeria for another 8 years. It means we have been sidelined into political irrelevance. And when you are irrelevant, anything can happen in your kingdom. That is why in history we are told that Mongo Park discovered River Niger. So, nobody was there when Mongo Park came? The Igbo have political common sense of history even though we have business sense to make money as well, hence we know that if anything happens to one Igbo man, it has happened to everybody. I find it hard to understand why Dave Umahi and other southerners should come out openly to endorse Akpabio who is from a region that produced the immediate past President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan. They have their choice anyway and what happens later does not bother them, but we will all suffer it. However, the incoming government can only unite Nigeria by making Kalu President of 10th Senate.
Don’t you think that because the people of South-East did not vote for the President-elect may have informed his decision to sideline the zone and reward people from the zones where he won?
Igbo supported and voted for the President-elect. For example, I was and still a strong member of PDP both in theory and practice, but I supported and voted for Tinubu because I have an interest. How can you say the people of South-East did not support or vote for Tinubu? How do you expect Tinubu to win in South-East considering the fact that Peter Obi came with a new movement that Igbo bought into. We thought Obi wouldn’t do anything, but he shocked everybody. At a point, I was sold to Peter Obi. It is not about winning election, but about national security, national unity and national interest. Don’t forget that some key members of APC in the South-East were almost killed for supporting the party in the zone. What else would a man sacrifice? In fact, the wave and acceptance of Peter Obi not only in the South-East, but in North, Southwest, South South and in the other parts of the country was overwhelming. I was the one who demanded from Peter Obi to give us account when he was governor of Anambra State and he gave us the state account. Fortunately, he left huge amount in the state purse which former Governor Willie Obiano used to run the state government when he took over from Obi. One of his aides met me at the Nnamidi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and begged me not to make such demand on the pages of newspaper again. I told him that I did so because Peter Obi conducted local government election when he was about to leave office, hence the need for him to tell us where our money was. And he gave us the account and we discovered he left so much in the state purse. I love Peter Obi on the ground of principle and credibility. I saw his interest in the wellbeing of the common man and that was why the Igbo bought into his Presidential ambition. Meanwhile, I have said it severally that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is my man and I predicted that he would win. But it came to a point when I could not understand the discordant tunes of those who are managing Tinubu, who are noise makers that are not interested in the unity of Nigeria. Well, it is left for the President-elect to decide if you want to run his government without the involvement of the Igbo. Whether Igbo voted for him or not should not be the reason to sideline us. What we are saying is that the proper thing for Tinubu to do is to balance power by ensuring that the next President of the Senate is from the South-East and that proper person is Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu. I don’t care whether some Igbo like him or not, but all I’m saying is that Kalu should head the 3rd apparatus of governance and that will unite Nigeria. The present day Nigeria requires inclusion not exclusion. But it is unfortunate the way some APC members are going about it as if they are hardliners by causing national anger. It is worthy to note that Nigerians voted for Atiku Abubakar, they voted for the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, they voted for Peter Obi and also voted for Rabiu Kwankwaso. So, the President-elect ought to know that Yoruba have produced the President in the present political dispensation in the person of Olusegun Obasanjo. The South-South took their share through Goodluck Jonathan and after President Buhari, it should be the turn of South-East and that was why Igbo supported and voted massively for Peter Obi.
