Political Iffice Requires Character, Competence, Integrity’ Written by Ehichioya Ezomon Enyinnaya Abaribe, a former Deputy Governor, who represents Abia South in the National Assembly, is having a shot at the governorship of the state in 2015. He fielded questions from journalists in Lagos on his ambition, reports Ehichioya Ezomon. HAVE you done well in the Senate to deserve being trusted with the governorship of Abia State? OF all the people who have been in the Senate from Abia, I think I have done more than anybody. If what you have done for your people is the criteria, then I deserve to be governor based on that, and the evidence is clear. This is not evidence that is coming just out of my mouth but the evidence is pictorial and otherwise, for which we will expect that people can verify. Aren’t you taking advantage of the fact that the governorship has been zoned to your area; that’s why you decided to contest? I started my consultations in April; so, between April and May, we went all over the states and concluded it with the party in the state. Ultimately, by the time we completed the consultations in May, June had passed and it was in July that the state party took the decision to zone the governorship fortuitously to my zone — Abia South. So, I could not have come because of the zoning. Actually, I would want to think it was because we had sufficiently told the party the reasons they needed to take the best decision; that also may be part of what made the party to zone it to Abia South. What are you bringing to this race that will distinguish you from your competitors? Three things: Character, competence and integrity. All the political actors in Abia know, for one thing, that it’s not just enough to talk the talk; you should also be able to demonstrate by your actions the type of person that you are. I can say this without any fear of contradiction that anybody in Abia knows that if it is in terms of character, uptightness and being able to be your own person and actually work for the people of Abia, they will not find me wanting. If it is in terms of being competent enough to do the job of governor, they will also not find me wanting because I have been at various levels and demonstrated at various times that I have the ability to run a state. For everybody, who is a governor, your word is your bond. We have also had the unfortunate situation of having had a governor in Abia, who would say one thing today and tomorrow would do exactly the opposite. That will never be me and that is why when I meet with Abians, they agree that this is the sort of person that is needed at this time of our national development. THE issue of the governor installing his successor keeps changing. What is the kind of relationship you have with the Governor Orji because people see you as an independent-minded person? Do you see the governor trusting you? Let me say this very unequivocally that at the time, which we heard some people making claims of being anointed or so by the governor, I contacted the governor. I called a meeting of Abia South senatorial zone, being a political leader of the area and we needed to deal with that matter. The governor told me that I should, please, tell the people when I meet with them that he had never anointed anybody and that he didn’t have any intention of anointing anybody. Subsequently, the government of Abia also went on air, on radio and disowned any such statements. I’m sure those statements died down but people who do not have anything to sell themselves with usually try to do reflected glory of saying this man is bringing me. I call it reflected glory because that means you got nothing yourself to offer when you have to wait for somebody else to do so. Also recently, when the governor swore-in the transition Chairmen, he made the same statement and said he was not going to influence anybody; that what he’s going to do is to ensure that the field is made in such a way that everybody will have an equal chance of being able to emerge as governor. And he said it very clearly that the person, who would become governor would be made by three persons — the first person will be God because everything that we do as human beings, it’s only when God wills it; secondly, that he himself, as the incumbent, will also have a say on how the process is done; thirdly is the party apparatus, that is those within the party who will eventually be the delegates to the congresses that will bring out the nominee. After making that point, he had also subsequently made several points along this line. When the party made the decision for zoning to Abia South, there was a meeting called of all the stakeholders of the state to come and look at what the party had said and decided. When the stakeholders met, I couldn’t go. I had to send the governor a text and he responded and told me that we should continue to sing the song of equity and fairness in Abia and that it’s only fair that somebody from the senatorial zone that had not produced the governor before should have the opportunity to be governor. The governor has been singing the song of equity and fairness. As I said, he is a man that we trust in the sense that when he says this is what I believe or this is what I want to do, he doesn’t go doing something else. Having said he believes in equity and fairness, we believe also that he will not turn around to be unfair in trying to pick anybody. So, I believe him when he says I will not interfere in the process in any way. All I want is that let the process be sure to bring out somebody who will work in the interest of Abia State. IN the event you become the candidate of the PDP for the main election, how would you deal the other parties, or are they non-existent in Abia? I can make a prediction today and I want you to take the prediction to the bank: If I am given the ticket of PDP in Abia, there will be an exodus from every other party to PDP because most of the people, who are in the other parties, are just waiting for the PDP to make its decision. I know that they will not have anything to challenge PDP for once we have the ticket. We have not been talking about other parties because we know those other parties are actually PDP people who, for one reason or the other, found themselves in those places. I know that a consensus builder, coming into the race, will bring each and everyone of them back to PDP. Party big wigs in Abia find it difficult to work together when the chips are down. It happened in 2003 and 2007. How are the leaders of the PDP addressing this bane towards 2015? I think that that matter had been settled and dealt with by the incumbent governor, T.A Orji. Since 2010 when he came back into the PDP, he has been able to wield everybody together; he has been able to bring the different factions of PDP together. So, what we have seen is that that syndrome of disunity has actually been permanently buried by the way that Governor T.A. Orji has handled everybody. Let me tell you that between 2003 and 2010, for example, several of us never went to Umuahia, not to talk of going to the Government House in Umuahia, even though we were senior members of the party. Even though somebody like me was a senator in 2007, we never went there because of the way that the previous incumbent scattered everybody. But today, you can see that any time there is anything that brings us together, everybody goes to show that disunity has been permanently buried. What is your relationship with the Presidency and the party in Abuja? I am a very strong member of the Peoples Democratic Party. I have been in the Senate twice. I have very good relationship with the party at the national and I have also related with each and every member of the national party on a personal basis. So, I’m not somebody that is unknown to anybody within the national party. I am also not somebody who is unknown to the Presidency because I have also played a role. My role today, as the spokesman of the Senate, also shows everybody that I have a very good relationship with them. FOR your ambition, what are the challenges you see on the way? For every politician, whenever you put yourself forward to the people, you will always have challenges. The challenges are two-fold. First of all, you have challenges from those who also are having the same ambitions like you. Secondly, you have the challenge of fitting within the dictates of your party, since we are running a democracy that does not allow any independent candidate. First of all, you have to look at yourself and be sure that you meet the criteria set up by your party. Once you meet those, the second one will be that you are trying to put forward your credentials and your criteria for running. Other people are also putting up their own and what you want is a level playing ground so that the party people, who have to make the choice of who becomes their candidate, would be able to do so. Therefore, I do not see any challenge. I have been in the field; I have done consultations at all levels; I’ve done consultations with stakeholders in the state — individually and collectively. I’ve done consultations with the party people in Abia North, Abia Central and Abia South. I come from Abia South and I have also done consultations with people at the state party level. I can tell you that I had a lot of enthusiasm from people wherever I went. No other aspirant in Abia has been able to traverse the state in the way that I am doing. Are you done with the consultations? No, I’m going into the second level of consultations now, which will start sometime next (this) week of doing one-on-one consultation at every local government level in the state. In terms of consultations, there are three things. First, it continues to expose you to the party members; secondly, it’s to make sure that party members also understand what you have been doing all along and how you intend to continue for their benefit and the benefit of Abia State. Thirdly, it gives you an idea of what goes on in every local government and you know their real problems because you are coming to them, you are talking with them, you are going through the roads there, and you know what is dear to their heart and what they want government to do for them. You can discuss it at this interactive level and it’s been very instructive. Sometimes, the things that you think they need is not actually what they want; it’s only by this type of interaction that you do with them that they tell you this is actually what they want. For example, I’ve done some water projects for some people — three or four water projects and when I got there, we found out actually that we didn’t need to continue to do boreholes. In the 60s, we had major waterworks that really would serve an area with everything reticulated and this is potable water that is treated. But today, we just continue to do small bits. So, the question we now have to ask ourselves is which one is better to do; to do it in small bits or to do regional schemes? Those are the questions we have to answer when we do debates for the governorship. THE GUARDIAN Tuesday, 19 August 2014
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:03:51 +0000
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