Why South-East should embrace ADC –Akuma, ADC Chieftain

Chief Nelson Ahamuefula Akuma, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has appealed to Ndigbo to embrace the party for political survival, since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have not been fair to the people of the South -East in particular and Nigerians in general.

He spoke on these and other issues of interest.

Excerpts: 

You were among the earliest people that joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC) when it was adopted as the party for the coalition. Why did you join?

The reason I joined African Democratic Congress, immediately it was adopted as the political platform for the coalition was because of the love that I have for the good people of Ebonyi State in particular and Nigerians in general. There is a saying that you can not continue to do the same thing and expect to get a different result. Everyday, I watch with pain millions of Nigerians going to bed without food. The number of out of school children is increasing on a daily basis because parents can no longer eat, let alone have money to pay school fees. Even nobody is sleeping with his or her two eyes closed again because of insecurity. In fact, life has become brutish and short in Nigeria. In Ebonyi State, where I come from, everybody is living in fear because of herdsmen, bandits, and unknown gunmen. Ebonyi State, which used to be the food basket of Igbo land because of our God-given fertile land, has become a land of hunger because people are now afraid of going to their farms. Even travelling from one state to the other has become a nightmare. So, there is no way we can continue like this. I, therefore, see ADC as a party on a rescue mission. Nigeria is now like a sinking ship, so ADC is here to rescue it.

There is this view that it is still the same people in PDP and APC that are going into APC, so what difference do you think they will make?

There is no way you can judge somebody when you have not tried him or her. It is only when you give somebody power and he or she fail in using it very well that you can begin to accuse him of being clueless, incompetent, or not having empathy. No member of the coalition as I speak has held the position of the president and commander in chief of the armed forces of Nigeria. So, the question is not how many years you have been running for one political office or the other but what position have you held. Atiku Abubakar was former vice president under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and we know the state of Nigeria’s economy in their administration. It was an inclusive administration with technocrats like Ngozi Okonjo Iweala as the Minister of Finance and Chukwuma Soludo as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. In fact, the Obasanjo/Atiku administration was not just a government of national unity, it was also a government of national competence. That is the reason the United States is the biggest economy in the world. They don’t care where you come from as long as you can deliver what is expected of you.

Can the coalition defeat President Tinubu, APC?

I want to tell you that defeating President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not in the hands of Tinubu but rather that defeating him is in the hands of the opposition. Once ADC is able to pick the right presidential candidate, we will have a different face in Aso Rock in 2027. The reason is that hunger has done over 70 per cent of the jobs for the party. Hunger has already mobilised greater number of Nigerians to vote against Tinubu, so ADC is expected to do the remaining 30 percent which I know will not be a problem if we pick the right presidential candidate and the other heavy weights give the candidate their full support. For instance, if Atiku Abubakar galvanised the north and Peter Obi galvanised the south, where would Tinubu votes come from? As we say in our parlance, hunger does not have tribe or religion. Nobody is buying fuel cheaper than the other because he is Yoruba, Hausa, or Igbo. So, there is hardly anybody who will be willing to vote Tinubu in 2027 with what Nigerians are going through at the moment. That is the reason I said that defeating Tinubu is not in his hand. He has lost it. It is the coalition that would decide whether he would be there beyond 2027 or not. 

What do you think is there for Ndigbo in ADC?

Let me answer your question without beating about the bush. ADC will bring the Igbo close to power. Dr. Alex Ekwueme was the chairman of G 34, which metamorphosed into PDP, and by right, he was supposed to be the presidential candidate of the party in 1999. In politics, there is what is known as right of first refusal. This is a privilege that is given to the highest political office holder in a political party. At the time of formation of PDP in 1988, he was the highest political office holder, having served as Vice President to Alhaji Shehu Shagari, but Ibrahim Babangida and co, denied him the ticket. The topmost political position that Igbo got under PDP was the senate president. Under the current APC, Igbo were pushed further downwards to the position of Deputy Speaker. But I have every confidence that ADC will bring Igbo up. We will have a far better deal in the hands of ADC than we had under PDP and APC.

Another thing is that the economy of Nigeria will be far better managed under ADC than PDP, and APC and Igbo are more in commerce. Since 2015, Igbo businessmen who were importing 10 containers of goods can hardly afford one because of the high interest rate and devaluation of the naira. Even a lot of Igbo businessmen have gone out of business, but that will not be so under ADC government. It is because of this that I am urging South-Easterners to join ADC. Let us salvage this country together.