Abia State Governor Theodore Orji spoke with Associate Editor TAIWO OGUNDIPE in Umuahia, the state capital, on the activities of his administration, the National Conference, national security and President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid.
You are the Chairman of the Southeast Governors’ Forum. What is your agenda for the zone?
I have my own agenda, which will be an input into the existing agenda that was there before I came on board. Our major priority is to make sure that the Southeast is united; united in purpose, united in action. I know it is not an easy thing to achieve. But, if I have been able to make it in Abia that was highly polarised before now, the stakeholders are talking with one voice and Abia is one, united – I intend to replicate that in the Southeast zone. And I know that my colleagues will give me their unflinching support.
Second is the issue of security. We take it seriously because it is paramount in our agenda. When I talk about security, I’m essentially referring to kidnapping because it is what is rampant in the Southeast. There are also armed robberies and other forms of insecurity. We have started addressing them both collectively and individually. We emphasise this every time we hold our meetings. Lack of security hinders economic progress and other areas of progress.
Apart from security, we also discuss the economic development of the region. We ask ourselves; what can we do to uplift the economy of the zone as a whole? We consider if there are projects we can do jointly to benefit the region. We also look out for projects we can cue in with the federal government as partners to uplift the economic situation of the region. We also look at cooperating with the other zones in the country.
We are in partnership with the Southsouth Governors Forum. We’ll extend the same hand of cooperation to the Northern Governors Forum, with a view to surveying areas that we can economically, socially, educationally and otherwise partner in a way that will be in the mutual interest of the partners.
Also, our zone is known for its culture. We want to ginger the interest of the states in the Southeast in developing and investing in their culture. Here in Abia, we have many cultural attractions such as the long juju of Arochukwu, the war museum and many others. It is the same situation in Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Ebonyi states. We have caves and other monuments spread across the region. We want to make it a priority for the governments of the Southeast to look into reviving and enhancing them.
You are an advocate of a National Conference? Is the conference meeting your expectation?
I support the confab and I think it is moving on fine. You don’t expect them to go in there and sing Hallelujah and everybody will chorus that. The essence of the confab is for people to bare their minds on the issues that are critical to the development of Nigeria. They are to talk about those things they know should be addressed in Nigeria. Every member should talk about those things that are agitating the minds of the people in their states. I think that is what they are doing right now. People are voicing out their minds. So, the confab is going on well. It is just like in the National Assembly where you have different shades of opinion coming up but eventually when the opinions are gathered together, then you take the best for presentation, articulation or implementation. That is what is happening at the national confab. Each zone chose their best delegates. We chose our best in the Southeast. And all the states articulated their points.
What are the essential Igbo agenda?
There are many of them. First is that we need an extra state in the Southeast so as to bring us at par with the other regions. Our delegates are also talking about devolution of power and federating units of the state. They are also talking about revenue sharing, boundary adjustment and those things that have been sensitive to us such as marginalisation, integration of people who think they are not well taken care of in the polity as well as the zoning issue. All these things have been itemised and they are already being argued.
Talking about economic integration, there were some industrial or business concerns run by the defunct Eastern Region. As the chairman of the Southeast Governors’ Forum, are you thinking of reviving some of them jointly?
We have started talking about some of them in the forum. What the delegates are doing is an extension of that. We had joint projects that held the whole of the region together such as the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation (ENDC), which concentrated on industrial and agricultural developments. It was through that corporation that Premier M. I. Okpara was able to establish industries, the rubber plantation and the palm estate as well as built the hotels that you hear of, Presidential Hotel in Enugu and the one in Port Harcourt. At the forum we will discuss the areas of strength of each state and harness them accordingly.
How have you been able to manage the political differences in the forum? It seems Governor Obi was able to carry others along in spite of political differences…
We gave Governor Obi the needed cooperation. Obi is in the APGA. I’m in the PDP, Elechi of Ebonyi is in the PDP, Chime of Enugu is in the PDP, and Okorocha of Imo is in the APGA. We moved on together very well because we cooperated with one another. This is still happening. The governors’ forum is not a political forum. We belong to different political parties but we’ve come together to discuss issues that are of common interest to the zone and to all of us. When it comes to discussing political issues, we break into committees based on party lines to discuss. Our major interests are those things that are of paramount importance, such as economic, social and others along that line, to all the states in the zone irrespective of party affiliation.
What is the position of the Southeastern zone on the issue of Igbo presidency?
We as Ibos want to produce the president because we have not produced one in recent times. But we have to think about it and do it when the time is favourable for the Ibos without much hassles. We believe that President Jonathan should be allowed to complete his tenure. When we must have helped him to complete his tenure, then we’ll move into the issue of Igbo presidency.
Don’t you think that the President’s second term ambition will frustrate the agitation for power shift to the Southeast?
We (the Igbos) can’t make it now that Jonathan wants to go for second tenure. You need the support of others to get there. We as Ibos cannot make it now. And that is why we are saying let us support President Jonathan to complete his term. And when he completes his and we see the outcome of the confab and all, then, we go into the field and start struggling for the position.
Is the second term ambition of the President tearing apart the Southeast governor?
Not at all. That is not correct. I read about it on the pages of newspapers. And I said, well, people are bound to write what they feel in their minds. Like I told you earlier, we don’t discuss politics in the Southeast Governors Forum. If we discuss politics, it is not on political line; what we discuss is the politics that will favour the entire zone. We don’t have to discuss the president’s ambition in the forum. We don’t discuss such things in the forum. Even the last time the president visited the Southeast on sensitisation tour, we didn’t discuss the issue at the forum. After the meeting of the forum, we then went in as PDP governors and discussed it. We have not had any rancor in the Governors Forum since I became chairman.
If President Jonathan is doing weel, why are your people complaining of marginalisation?
We have said it severally that Jonathan has to a very large extent given us a sense of belonging in this present dispensation. Since he came into government, we have gotten an Inspector General of Police, Onovo, even though he came in when Yar’Adua was the President and Jonathan was the Vice-President. Within the period of Jonathan presidency, we have gotten a chief of army staff – and you know what that means. Within the period Jonathan has been president, we have gotten two chairmen of the ruling party – Vincent Ogbulafor who was there when Yar’Adua was President and Jonathan, and we also had Okwesilesi Nwodo. Within this period, we have also gotten secretary to the Federal Government and a minister of repute who is the coordinating minister of the economy. Jonathan has given us a sense of belonging and has shown us that the South Easterners can be reckoned with in the government. So under President Jonathan, we are not talking of marginalisation; we are talking of real integration. And that is what we want and are asking for, that we should be reintegrated into the mainstream of Nigeria because we have a lot to offer.
What is the solution to insecurity?
I believe that the president is doing everything possible to make sure that the issue of Boko Haram is brought under control. Those who are criticising the President are those who don’t know him. The president that we have is a compassionate one. He is not a military man in the first instance, he is a democrat. He goes his way via democracy and not by militarism. He feels for the nation regarding what is happening. You don’t expect him to go to the North and start killing every person. The way he is handling the crisis, I feel, is one of the best ways because it is a security issue. He is the chief security officer and there are arms of security under him – the police, the military, the SSS and others.
His role as the chief security officer is to galvanise them to make sure that this thing is brought under control, and he is doing that. People should not expect that it is going to automatically stop hundred percent. It is going to take some time before you reach a very high percentage in bringing the insurgency down. These insurgents are trained in using weapons that are also sophisticated. Through the intelligence unit, we suspect there are hands of outsiders in this business. Therefore, it has to be handled with caution bearing in mind the corporate existence of this country as well as the lives and properties of Nigerians.
One of your colleagues, Governor Nyako, made a controversial statement recently that the PDP government. What is your reaction to this?
I don’t have any reaction to that. There was a reaction on the floor of the security council meeting that was held. I don’t have any personal reaction. My reaction goes along with the ones expressed on the floor of the security council meeting.
What are your views on the raging issue of Fulani herdsmen in the North?
Well I think it is being handled fairly and cautiously because it is a very sensitive issue. But what has come out clearly is the fact that the Fulanis are not the people killing anybody. They are the herdsmen who are just tendering their cattle. However, the problem is to find a grazing area for them because they move from one area to the other, and as they are moving, their cattle ravage farmlands and the villagers would not like that. Even in the Southeast here, it is a problem. They move from one village to the other and one farmland to the other. And we are saying no.
Our people are mainly farmers and we don’t want them to ravage our farms. Even in some other areas where they are agitating for grazing land, the people there are against fit because it is their agricultural land that is being taken and they not getting anything in return. However, I believe the federal government is handling it cautiously with inputs from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. What is happening elsewhere outside Nigeria is what will happen here. Cattle has to be reared, people will have to eat meat, isn’t it? But we have to find a means of breeding them without offending the other people who are not cattle rearers.
The APC has been accusing your party and the presidency of playing religious politics. They say the president goes to churches to campaign during services and programmes. What is your reaction to this?
That is not correct. The president does not go to churches to campaign. He is a Christian and by the virtue of being a Christian, he has the right to go to any church to worship. Have you heard him going there and telling them I want to contest, vote for me? He has never done that. He goes there, worships and leaves. It is even rather the APC people who are playing religious politics. Haven’t you seen the composition of their national executive? All of them are Muslims in a country that is not an Islamic one.
The APC is accusing your party of playing this issue up and branding them an Islamic party and they accuse you of playing religious politics…
It is the obvious fact we are presenting. When you look at the composition of the major officials of the APC, all of them are Muslims. In the other parties there is balancing. You bring in a Christian; you bring in a Muslim to marry the whole thing so that the two religions will be carried along. In the APC, it is just one line. Even their executive member from the Southeast is also being alleged to be a Muslim. If such a thing is happening in the PDP, they should tell us. As I said, the president just goes to the church to worship. If it is possible for him to go into the mosque to do that, he would go.
Would he be admitted into the mosque?
I don’t know about their practice, whether a non-Muslim can be admitted to worship. But, I think if it is feasible and he is invited, he would go. If he knows how to worship like a Muslim, he would go and do it. After all, when official engagements take the vice president to churches and he is invited, he goes there. The same would apply to the President.
Some observers believe that if your party had seen that as a weakness of the APC, may be you should have kept quiet and allow the thing to affect the APC. They say you talking and campaigning about it might be counter productive and alienate your party from those who are Muslims.
It is not counterproductive. It is the truth that is being told. And as they say, the truth is bitter. It is the truth that is being told so that people would know about the opposition party that has come up and angle they are going; that they are one-sided in terms of religion. It has to be said. If it were the situation in the PDP, they would talk about it also, even more than the PDP would. That is the obvious fact. They are the ones who are saying the president is going about campaigning in churches while he is not doing that. While they are saying that, would we keep quiet? We’ll say you should also look at them, all their executives are all Muslims.
