Nigerians are unhappy with PDP —Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, APC Chief Dr Ogbonnaya Onu was a former governor of old Abia State, a former presidential aspirant and former National Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party. In this interview with OLAWALE RASHEED, he speaks on the new political party, All Progressive Congress (APC), its agenda and the place of Igbo in the politics of Nigeria. Excerpts: YOU led the old All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) into the merger and it is now defunct; you did a lot during your tenure. What were the things that made you happy? So many things, really. The most important thing is that we were able to bring the parties together; we united the parties and maintained peace. We gave the party an identity because when we came in, we had factions just as we had in so many parties in the country. By the time we left, there was no state left that had factions. Then, all other organs of the party were functioning and the party was united. Prior to my coming in, many Nigerians were not sure of our identity because of the Government of National Unity then, but we had to create our own identity. Many people who left the party had to come back. People who were leaving the party no longer did so. People that left had to come back, including former governors. So, we started having members who were not originally our own joining the party. If you had done so much as you said, why did you go into the merger? We took that decision because we were looking at our country. We have been dissatisfied with the way things have been in the last 14 years and we felt that Nigeria can do far better than we are doing now as a nation. You will recall that the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) started as All Peoples Party (APP) and we had nine governors. But the number kept decreasing and just before the merger, we had three governors. With three governors, it would be difficult to effect change at the federal level. So, we felt that it would be nice for opposition political parties, particularly those that control governments at the state level, to pull resources together, because politics is about human beings. As of now, All Progressives Congress (APC) has 11 governors, controlling 11 states and with that, we have a better chance. The essence is to give Nigeria a viable platform that can give competition and then, be in government so that we can solve the problems that have remained unsolved for a while. We want to do things differently for the sake of our country, for the happiness of Nigerians. Some said the ANPP has not been treated well in the merger, that though you led the party well, you did not push enough for better bargaining for the ANPP in the new alliance. How will you react to that? No when this whole idea came up, the principal aim really was to make sure that we look at the problem of the country and put our country where it ought to be. ANPP played a vital role and we got a lot from the merger. You know it is a historic event, because it has never happened anywhere in Africa and people believe that, for a long time, it has not happened anywhere in the world. But the key thing is that we in the ANPP cannot say we are shortchanged in the sharing of positions. For example, the interim executive committee has 35 members and there are three parties that applied for registration of the APC. Each of the party got nine members. We got nine just like the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress of Progressive for Change (CPC). Then the remaining eight was shared between the group from the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP). So, who should be the national chairman? Obviously, the ACN has six governors and we have three governors and we say take it, because our aim is to make this merger to succeed for the good of the nation. There must be the spirit of give and take. So, I don’t believe anybody is saying that. We got the office of the national secretary and CPC that has one state got the next position which is the treasurer. The other positions were shared evenly. But sir, the opposition has had this tendency of moving from one platform to another, judging from 1999 till date. Why should Nigerians trust the opposition group that is not stable, that appears to be shifty? No, look at me, I started with the APP. There were a number of problems I had within the party, but I never left the party. I have not gone to any other party from 1988 till now. So, would you say there is no stability? Definitely, there will be some people who left one party for another, but there are some that stayed and I am a very good example. Let me make it very clear that some of us are not in politics so that we can be in power. That is not the essence of our being in politics. We are in politics because we think we can bring happiness to our people. To make our nation, Nigeria, to be respected. Don’t forget that you can never ask someone to respect you and you think that person will do so. It is your achievement that can make people respect you. So, there are people in Nigerian politics that are still good. There are still people who would do anything to put the interest of our country first. So, if I can stay in the opposition, and it is very extremely difficult to stay in the opposition, particularly in a developing country, it means I am stable. But why is that? Because, if you are in the opposition, you are denied so many things that should come to you; because every effort will be made to ensure that everyone comes to the ruling party. So, it takes a lot of courage, perseverance and being principled. You must have a lot of integrity to be in the opposition. Actually, if you are looking for those who want democracy to be stable, it is in the opposition that you can find them and you cannot have democracy without the opposition. You said you are not in politics for electoral office; are you saying you have no ambition in 2015? No, far from it. Every human being must have ambition, but I am saying that if my interest is just to hold political office, definitely, I would have gone to the ruling party, because at some time, we did not have election in the country. It became once you are nominated, results would be written, even before the election day. So, some of us said no, there must be people who could make sacrifice to build our nation. So, Nigeria would be what we want it to be. A nation that our own children and their own too will be proud of. So, that is why you find some of us in the opposition; it is not because we want to be there, but we know that one day, we will also be in government. Take Ghana for example, a party can be in government today and tomorrow, that party will be in the opposition. That is how it is in Europe, North America and other parts of the world. We believe that very soon, it will happen. We were not formed (APC) to be in opposition. No. We were formed to be in government, but we will be in opposition as an alternative platform and then, be in government, because if we have two things, my dear, there is no way to know which is better until you taste the two. People talk of the APC as a merger of strange bedfellows. How will you react to this? In the APC, you will find out that there are characters who really want change in the country. They are dissatisfied with the way things have been and they want Nigeria to remain united and continue to be democratic and prosperous so that Nigerians will be very happy and proud to be Nigerians. So, will you endorse General Muhammadu Buhari to run for the office of president? The issue of who will carry the flag of the party will be determined at the right time and when that time comes, you should ask for my opinion and I will give it to you. If I may put it this way, will you support a Buhari-Onu ticket in 2015? The point I have made is that we are in the process right now of registering new members and encouraging people to come into the party. That is the work of the interim committee. Then, it will organise congresses and elect new officers. This is a brand new party. So, the issue of who will run for president will come later and by that time, I will give you my opinion. The Igbo want to be president in 2015. Are you going to let your people down by not running? I still want you to remember that life itself comes in stages. A child is born, an infant, helpless; then, he will start crawling, walking, running, going to school and getting married. They are stages. The same with politics. In the APC as of now, our major pre-occupation is that we want to bring in new members into our party. We want to make sure Nigerians understand what our party stands for so as to encourage them to come into the party and the issue of running for office will come and when that time comes, I will answer your questions. Let us look at the strategy the APC will use to tacle the PDP. President Goodluck Jonathan recently said the opposition will continue to be confused about how to tacle PDP. How do you react to this? The APC came into existence because members are dissastified with the way things are being run for the past 14 years plus. Nigerians welcome the APC because many of them are not happy. And both Nigerians inside and outside want change. So, what we are saying to the ruling party is that you had the opportunity to rule the nation, to bring security to the nation, to give our youths job, to give infrastructure and prosperity to Nigerians, for 14 years. So, it should not be talking that the opposition will have problems. Nigerians will assess their performance in 2015. They have been given reports. They talked about mid-term report; about railway. Are you saying they are not doing anything? I cannot say that. But what I am saying is that there is so much insecurity in the nation. If you go to our constitution, you will see that the primary function of any government is to secure the lives of the citizens. There is so much unemployment that so many of our youths don’t have jobs. We are not saying government should provide jobs, but they should create the environment. There is so much poverty. A government agency is telling us that two-third of our people are poor and it is sad that so many Nigerians are getting poorer at a time that the price of crude oil is getting high. This is the highest we have ever had in the history of the nation. So, whether there is mid-term report or full-term report, the key thing is that this are indexes to be used to measure a government. Then, they must answer to Nigerians whether they have done well or not. If they have done well, then, Nigerians should try another political party. They can now go into the opposition, just like in Ghana, and another party will come. I want to assure you that the APC will do better than what we have now. Let me go back to the merger and the APC. We heard of disquiet among the old ANPP and old CPC and accused fingers were being pointed at old ANPP governors. What happened? The true picture is that General Buhari was twice candidate of the ANPP in 2003 and 2007 and he joined the party in 2002. So, he is a very important Nigerian as a former head of state. For the party to give him its flag twice, that should have shown you the high regard we have for him. Are you ready to take PDP defectors? I don’t belong to the category of people who try to put everybody in one room. There are a lot of good people in the PDP. There are also bad people, just as you have in the APC. We also have people in PDP who are happy with the direction of the country. If those people will join us, we welcome all. We will be very happy. As I said earlier, politics is about human beings. It is also a game of numbers. The bigger, the merrier. We will be very happy as we are very interested in effecting change at the federal level so that we can help solve most of the problems. Don’t forget that the emergence of the APC is now changing the character of the PDP. PDP is now working very hard. They are feeling the heat. They now know there ought to be competition. Let me tell you this, look at the telecoms industry, when we had only NITEL controlling everything, it was so inefficient, but today, school children, market women, farmers etc have telephones now. It means competition is good. Are you not worried about having moles streaming in as defectors? There is nothing anybody can do about that. I would advise the ruling party not to worry itself about recruiting people to destabilise us because it is going to be very difficult to do so. The reason is that the general public, the average Nigerian, wants change. That itself is a very big force. So, it is going to be very difficult to derail the APC. It is not the 11 states that we are controlling that is our force, it is the average Nigerian that wants change and they will do everything possible to encourage the APC. On the issue of national security, your party, through Alhaji Lai Mohammed, opposed the emergency rule in three states. What is your review of the situation? I want you to know that Borno and Yobe states have been controlled by the ANPP since 1999 and they have remained ANPP because the people there have confidence in us and our governors have performed there. We, as a party, supported emergency rule because we support whatever can be done to secure the people in Yobe and Borno states. What we were against was anything that would affect democratic situation. So far the state of emergency does not, in any way, affect democratic institution, we are fully in support and you can see that the situation is gradually improving and we are very prayerful. By now, we should be talking about how to solve many of our infrastructural problems, create jobs and reduce poverty level as against killing ourselves. Generally, about Boko Haram, what strategy will you advise the government to adopt? Actually, we have always made our views known; we believe if the economy is working; if you can get the economy to work so as to reduce poverty, this insecurity will also reduce, because the people that would be lured into this offenses would be difficult to get. So, that is one thing that will be done. We are of the belief that our education system should be able to help us solve our insecurity problem, because when you educate the people, they will know their rights, because you can only defend what you know. Don’t forget that even security agencies, no matter how well equipped they are, if they don’t get the right information, if the intelligence is weak, it will be very difficult for them to be efficient. We need to be as effective as we ought to be and this are areas where education is necessary so that everybody will be conscious of their roles in securing our country. Why do you think it has become difficult for the Igbo to be in charge of the number one position in the country? The Igbo want her Presidency to be accepted by all Nigerians. We believe it will happen. We find that in the South-East where they are essentially Igbo, if you go to other five zones, there is hardly any state where Igbo don’t make the second largest population. Also, you go outside Nigeria and see. We have the number and we are very enterprising. We know it will happen and we are offering the platform of the APC by telling the people of South-East that ‘don’t put your eggs in one basket.’ Don’t just say we are in the PDP. In the PDP, they have the president, vice-president, senate president, speaker and chief justice. Even now, the chairman of the party is number six; not one Igbo is there. But the APC will offer the Igbo a better platform for the ambition we have and the ambition is legitimate. Are the Igbo not well represented in the present administration? I just mentioned to you the top six positions; that someone is the SGF, CME, fine. But you know the president can wake up one morning, if he does not want you around, that is all. May be the president wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, he may just decide that you should go. But it is hard to remove a president, vice-president, senate president, speaker and even the CJN. All these positions are good; but don’t forget that with just a bad dream, that may be the end and don’t think the Igbo don’t know the difference. What about the question of unity among the Igbo leadership? The people tend to think the Igbo are not united. I don’t think so. Yes, we are very republican in nature; we like to celebrate individual achievements, but the community spirit is still there. That is why you see great events in many part of Igboland. That is why you see many self-help projects; we build roads, hospitals, markets, bridges in our communitues. So, we keep our roads and environment clean. Leadership or unity is not just at the level everybody is looking at it. Even at the lower level, we are united. When the Igbo are challenged, they always come together. I think what the Igbo shouldn’t do is to abandon the strength they have and what the people think is weakness. If it is their strength, they should protect it because in the end, you will find that it will be better if you are republican or democratic; you find that it is the way the world is going. So, why should you think it is not right? Instead of being apologetic, they should build on it for the good of the nation. One good thing is that an Igbo man or woman is very interested in the unity of Nigeria because we live everywhere. For instance, an Igbo president will not say I want to develop only the South-East, but every part of the country because we are everywhere. As an elder statesman, there is this constant friction between the Igbo and Yoruba. What can be done to make these two tribes understand each other and forget the bickering that always pops out? I am not even sure there is much problem between Igbo and Yoruba. I think, for example, if you had two brothers doing well, you see, they would always relish themselves and their wives; hold parties together and once in a while, some misunderstandings happen. That does not mean they are not together. We need to bring all together, not just the Igbo, people should interact well. As we are talking now, I know little about you, you know about me. If somebody come to me to say something bad about you, I say no. Take for instance, the Unity School concept, it was a very good concept, but it is not working again because of the level of corruption in the country.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 12:41:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015