Ngige qualifies to be SGF –Onunkwo, APC chieftain

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Anambra State who is passionate about good gover­nance, Chief John Onunkwo in this in­terview examines the last elections and how the South-east was deprived of producing the Senate President.

My expectations are quite high. Look at it from this angle. Nigeria is largely the richest country in Africa, endowed with human resources, and a great people who have shown that they can hold their own in any enterprise or field. Yet we are ranked with the poorest nations on earth. Why on earth should this be so? The rea­sons aren’t farfetched – it’s because of our poor leadership and poor manage­ment of resources. Things have gotten so bad that Nigerians themselves demanded change and this is the change we sought and found in the new President, Muham­madu Buhari. So our expectations are quite high and we know that the President will not disappoint Nigerians.

Nigerians should not listen to such persons, there are mere detractors want­ing to rush the President into taking sev­eral decisions that may not fix Nigeria’s problems totally. Now, this is a nation that was bled for 16 years. If you know what Nigerians lost as a result of PDP’s leadership, if you wish this country well, you would understand that it will require strategic thinking and planning to get this country at full throttle. President Buhari understands these things and he is trying to set things right by understanding the real situation. In due course Nigerians will appreciate this measure. It is not a go slow or snail speed measure but what we call active inertia in management. President Buhari is like a plane trying to take off. He first moves at a snail speed to check/set every parameter right before taking off and once he takes off, Nigeri­ans will see that he will accelerate with a tremendous speed in terms of positive change that we are yearning for.

Well, six months are short. But if that is the case, I will tell you that I will like to see President Buhari first of all assemble a star-studded team of technocrats, min­isters, advisers, etc. This will first send a message to Nigerians that he means well. I want to see the technocrats; persons who will help the President develop ro­bust policy frameworks and benchmarks that will guide our road to progress. That done, I want to see renewed vigour from this administration in the war against cor­ruption, insecurity and sectors like works (roads rehabilitation), agriculture, oil and gas, education, and other infrastructural development. If these things are done then I am sure that Nigerians will brace up for change and it will be a pointer for the good things to come.

Well, what happened was what we call daylight rigging the elections in the South-east I can tell you were not a true reflection of the will of the people. Yes they might have had sentiments for the former President, Goodluck Ebele Jona­than, but that still could not have justified the zone not producing at least five sena­tors from the party. Take for example in my home state, Anambra, the PDP used the military and other security agencies to rig the polls; they deployed thugs armed to the teeth to snatch ballot boxes and beat those who challenged them. When this appeared not to be enough, they then ma­nipulated the election figures, paid huge bribes to officials who shamelessly com­promised their offices and then went on to announce results that were false. There were lots of subterranean, subterfuges in that Anambra election, intrigues and intri­cacies transpired.

So it wasn’t a matter of the APC do­ing poorly in the South-east, it was rather the unfair manipulation of the electoral process which was shamelessly skewed to favour the PDP. Even at that, I think the party at the zone deserves commen­dation. If you remember that in 2011, the South-east through fraudulent votes gave President Jonathan nearly seven million votes. This time around despite their rig­ging could not muster up to three million votes, it shows that the party was quite in­strumental to such an act, you cannot take that away.

Yes you can say that, and it is quite painful because we had persons like Sen­ator Chris Nwabueze Ngige and Senator Osita Izunaso. These are quality admin­istrators, skilled legislators, who have brought pride to the South-east. Imag­ine what Ngige would have done if he had been reelected to the Senate and had emerged as Senate President? I believe that if these rigging hadn’t taken place, the crisis bedeviling the party would not have occurred. It wouldn’t have been the free for all that we are seeing now. Ndig­bo and the South-east did lose out.

It is morally wrong for Ekweremadu to be the beneficiary of APC’s victory. Now let me ask these questions, Is Ekwer­emadu a member of the APC? If a caucus meeting of the APC is called, can he at­tend? So why should he now benefit from the APC’s victory? Why should Ekwer­emadu’s party rig the elections and still come to benefit from a party they rigged out? Ekweremadu’s emergence is not for the South-east APC, it is for himself and PDP. Tell me, what has Ekweremadu brought to the South-east in terms of in­frastructural development since his emer­gence as Deputy Senate President for the past eight years? The roads in the South-east are the poorest- death traps here and there. The allocation to universities in the South-east is the lowest, same for federal allocation.

South-east still has five states as against six states of other geo-political zones and so many other negative things befalling the South-east. What of the second Niger Bridge? So I get worried when people say that Ekweremadu has gotten the slot of the South-east, it cannot be possible since he is not an APC member and he has not been delivering democratic divi­dends in terms of infrastructure to the South-east for the past eight years. If he has not delivered in the past eight years under PDP years of leadership, is it now he is an opposition senator that he can do the magic?

Please ignore the backlash, let me tell you, Senator Ngige was justified in say­ing what he said about Ekweremadu’s emergence. He speaks for common sense, since he Ekweremadu cannot attend any of the APC’s caucus meetings as a PDP senator. This is someone whose party shamelessly rigged out persons like Sena­tors Ngige and Izunaso who would have been ranking members and most qualified to lead the National Assembly. Without Ekweremadu and his cohorts who con­spired to keep progressives like Ngige out, usurping the mandate of the people, the South-east would have at this point claimed its rightful slot as number three citizen of this country whereas the likes of Ekweremadu want us to believe that we are satisfied with being number five, which we have always being for the past eight years. Ekweremadu did say that the South-east has been accommodated on the scheme of things in Buhari’s admin­istration, and the APC of South-east has been accommodated, this is unacceptable and unfair. Even the media backlash you are talking about is being sponsored by these conspirators themselves. They are rattled by the truth; they feel threatened because the likes of Ngige have refused to call black, white or white, black. Forget them, they are inconsequential.

Well, one thing I know is that a man like Senator Ngige cannot be frustrated. Frustrated at what? This is a man that loves speaking the truth no matter whose ox is gored, even if it is his relative’s ox. Ngige is a man that believes in fair play and justice so what is frustrating him? A technocrat per excellence, an all-rounder, a former governor, a senator, a former director in civil service, what could ever frustrate him? He is so intelligent that his linguist prowess always calm frayed nerves whenever tensions are high. A man who stood in opposition despite the carrots that were jangled at him, despite the numerous offers made to him by PDP cannot be said to be frustrated. You see, sometimes when one appears to be prin­cipled and is refusing to budge, then they make all kinds of claims that he is frus­trated, that is nonsensical.

This is a man who refused to play ball with the so called godfathers in Anam­bra, who staked his life for the good of the Anambra people. So those saying he is doing this just to get the slot of SGF or a ministerial position are clowns and should be treated as such and I can assure you that these are the antics of a drowning men. I know you are referring to the com­ment of one Paul Anikwe.

Well, that is true and in the light of the politics we tend to play here there is every tendency that alliances will shift and new allegiances will be pledged. More so, I be­lieve that President Buhari’s performance in the coming years will earn the APC a place in the heart of every Nigerian and so this will make the APC’s entry easier.

However as they say, a day is a long time in politics, I believe that two years is quite enough time for the APC to get its acts together in Anambra and God willing, we shall move into government house come 2018.