Ikpeazu: why we are Insisting on Ayu’s Resignation

Ikonne is not about me, it is about the PDP and Abia. I have been the governor for seven years now, so nobody can deny the fact that I understand that Abia needs a unifier, a man with competence and pedigree. When I saw all the people that were striving for this job, some of them do not even have the patience to control 2000 people. They have not been local government chairmen, they have not superintended over an organisation with a staff strength of more than 100 people. Some of them have not worked for anybody before, so they don’t even know what it means to be subordinate to someone and to know how to treat somebody else. In a nutshell, they don’t have the requisite experience to tolerate the legislature and the judiciary. In terms of requisite experience, I am challenging you to tell me who else has got that experience in that regard. Some people also feel that where they are coming from gives them that sense of entitlement, but what Abia needs going forward is somebody that understands the diversity within the Abia polity.

the office of the governor, and understanding of the diversity of ‘ndi’ Abia; Ikonne is the best man for the job.

Why are you aspiring to go to the Senate after your tenure as governor?

The primary job of a senator is to make laws and to support good laws from the perspective of the interest of his people. Again, a good senator must be able to be a strong link between Federal Government policy, his people and the aspirations of his people. He also speaks for his people and exposes them to policies and whatever the government wants to do. Therefore, he is involved in everything; from lawmaking through advocacy to all kinds of things. I have expressed a very strong passion for my people and strategically drive development, leveraging what we can do better than other people. Over the years, I have struggled with some of my initiatives and some of my thinking and I have recorded some successes in some, but one thing that has happened in all of these is that I have had a robust engagement with my people and I think it will be good if I am given the opportunity to sit among those who are thinking about the laws and Nigerians to see how we can reflect in the laws that we made going forward, issues that will catalyze rapid development and mainstreaming small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and light manufacturing.

I also think that I have some ideas about what we need to do to support vulnerable people in terms of healthcare. For me, it is an opportunity to make sure that in a few years, we will begin to see laws that can support and enable the development of SMEs and manufacturing. Our people are suffering through trade and commerce; I don’t know how we make profits the way things are in the country. Nigerian Customs, NAFDAC and among others have become stumbling blocks to business, instead of enablers. That is why our people are still stamping made in China because they don’t feel protected; there is no ownership. I want us to come to a point where Nigeria will begin to own goods made in Nigeria because if Nigeria has 36 children; they are like the fingers; they can’t be equal. But, this particular child called Abia is very dexterous in what it does with its hand. I think that there is a huge gap and we can only fill that gap by finding a way to integrate our people into the national discourse for purposes of development for the benefit of the people of Abia and Nigeria, by being the primary producers of the things that can take us to the continental free trade in Africa. We have also made wide contacts across Nigeria on what we think we can leverage to lobby and make sure that we get the best. There are opportunities, and doors which I think I should be able to open for the teeming youths of my constituency going forward.

Are you in any way threatened by Sen. Abaribe’s candidacy for Abia South senatorial race?

I am not threatened because I am running on my record. So, let the people of Abia South look at my stewardship and also look at my promises and see how far I have gone. If I have promised 10 things and they notice that I have achieved seven of them, based on that, I want them to take a decision. Let everybody come to the table with his track record and pedigree. This is no time for vain talk. For me, this is also a time for positive advocacy.

What are your chances in the Abia South race?

Okezie Ikpeazu is better than any other candidate for Abia South’s senatorial race because as the chief executive of the state he is more experienced than the other candidates. Okezie Ikpeazu has also worked on people-centric development issues in areas like supporting SMEs in the state in a very profound way, ranging from support for power infrastructure through urban renewal, capacity building, and establishment of industries. So, he feels that in his time at the Senate, he will be able to do more in terms of the industrialisation of Aba and saying the right words. Okezie Ikpeazu is also somebody who has managed to run a government that has remained largely peaceful and stable for the past seven years. What it means is that he can create the necessary engagement between the Federal Government and the people of Abia State, especially Abia South that will rob positively on their everyday life. The most important thing is how I will provide the ambience that will enable my people to put food on the table. As somebody who has superintended the affairs of the state for those numbers of years without necessary skirmish with the Federal Government, the judiciary and others, I think that our people should trust me.

What is the grouse of your group against Atiku?

Three critical issues face us as a country; inclusivity or management of our diversity, economy and insecurity. Of all these three, the challenge that I want every candidate to focus on seriously is the problem of management of our diversity, youth inclusiveness, women inclusiveness, tribal and ethnic inclusiveness, and religious sensitivity and among others. They are important now because we are far more divided as a country than we have ever been in life. We can’t battle insecurity as it is now unless we come together as a united front in which case I will be bold and courageous enough to call a bad Igbo man a bad Nigerian. The man from Adamawa and Yobe State should be in the position to call a criminal from Yobe a bad Nigerian. A situation where if you come from a certain part of the country, your crime will have another name; bandit, but if you do the same thing in another part of Nigeria, you are tagged a terrorist, that situation cannot drive growth, inclusion and patriotism. We need to speak to that; we need men of integrity and men with courage and a new orientation as we present ourselves to the electorate.

The electorate of today is not the same thing as the electorate of 2015 and so, we can come up with the same rhetoric; we just have to step up our game a little bit. I know that most Nigerians are good people, but we are amoebic; we can change like the weather changes. The better part of us is what the new paradigm calls, for now, that is why we are saying that we are presenting our candidate and nobody is questioning the candidate and his vice. We are saying that to market the party, can we tweak what we have already so that we can give our party the national outlook that it brags about? It will give comfort to all parts of the country because the PDP is the party that has the farthest reach and so, we need to ensure inclusiveness.

I am a party man, I am not going anywhere, I will remain in the PDP, but it is good that I am in a place where I can ask those questions about what my people will naturally confront me with. That is why I also have some problems with some members of our party who do not see our point of view. I am not going to support Wike to battle Atiku or Okowa. But, I will support Wike on principle to demand the inclusiveness of the Southeast, the Southsouth and the Southwest in the party. If what we have are mere promises that nobody is willing to compromise, it means that we have all decided to go to war with a limping rickety vehicle; that is our choice. But, if you put me in the position of the dramatis personnel, I will think differently. I thank God for a man like Wike and I wish people knew that Wike is a man of tomorrow; he is the kind of person that people should crave and look for. But, unfortunately, people love cunning individuals that won’t say anything but finally undermine you. Nobody wants to co-habitat with somebody that will give you an excuse of mind up front. Wike is much like the soldier ant that draws a straight line and walks along that straight line and in doing that with a gesture to say, just take the rest of the world and leave this straight line. If you step on this straight line, you will be forced to remove your trousers from the market. Maybe, other people will just keep quiet and the consequences will stare us in the face. So, if my party said that they owe any explanation to anybody and that this is what our party has become, these same questions that we are asking ourselves now, the ordinary Nigerians will ask us with their votes. But, I want to be in a position now that I have made my point and mark until this point where I can say to our people, the same question you ask, I have always asked.

There is an allegation that you are using your security vote to pay IPOB.

In the first place, I don’t pay IPOB. Where will you see IPOB to pay them? It is not possible to pay IPOB. If that were the case, there won’t be insecurity anywhere, because how much money do I have that other states don’t have? Let me categorically say that I am not in contact with the IPOB. But I have said over time that I may not like his style, but if Nnamdi Kanu is saying that there is marginalisation and people are not allowed to speak their minds, is he telling lies? Do we need Nnamdi Kanu to tell us that there is no southeasterner in the military and paramilitary hierarchy in Nigeria? But, how have we managed to find peace in the state? This is a very critical input as far as security issues are concerned; it is about a proper diagnosis. For instance, one cannot link the security issues that we have around the Umunneochi to the IPOB. If you see an IPOB person and you arrest the person on account that IPOB is behind the Umunneochi security challenge that will be a wrong diagnosis. I am not saying that the IPOB is completely free from anything, but I am saying that it is not true that the IPOB is behind what is happening at Umunneochi.

Ukwa people are alleging that they are being marginalised even though they are the ones laying the golden egg for the state. How true is it?

Ukwa East and West have in the last seven years remained in charge of the Abia State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (ASOPADEC), the interventionist agency charged with the responsibility of developing oil communities. If I have been here for 70 months, ASOPADEC has managed at least N14bn in the 70 months. I am sure that they get up to N300m in some months and they made sure that in the law, it is exclusive to the two local governments. It is exclusive to Ukwa West in particular. So, do you need to tell a man that it is normal to move away from a scorching sun, especially, if you know that you are protected by the constitution and you have a mandate to lift your people from where they are? But again, at the state level, I have some projects that I earmarked for Ukwa East and West. I have paid twice to connect Ukwa East to the national grid. The first time I released the money to them in the community, the money wasn’t used for the purpose it was meant for. It is only now that I released the same amount of money that they are looking at how to connect them back to the national grid.

Why have you not completed most of the projects that were started by your predecessor?

I don’t know which government in Nigeria, apart from the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has a better record than ours in terms of completing inherited projects. I completed the International Conference Centre in Umuahia, the Abia State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB) building and the JAC building is almost completed. I vowed to sleep in the new Government House before the end of my tenure. As far as I am concerned, I don’t have any reason not to complete any project that I inherited from my predecessor because it is Abia’s money. If I don’t complete those projects, it is the Abia people that will suffer.

In some states around us here, you will see bushes overtaking projects that they (governors) inherited, but you won’t see that in Abia State; that is the beauty of continuity. If you move away from what your predecessor did, then, it is either you are a weak leader or you are not cerebrally strong because there must be something good about what he (predecessor) is doing.

Ondomind