African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate in Anambra State John Chuma Nwosu State, spoke with reporters shortly after receiving his certificate of return at the party’s headquarters in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Excerpts:
Anambra State, being a wholly entrepreneurial state, the popular notion is that the state needs a wealth creator as governor. How would you relate that notion to the issue of governance in the state?
I’m an entrepreneur, a good creator and manager of wealth and people. I have effectively operated in the organized private sector for over three decades. I understand the business culture and practices and what works; and what does not work. In both business and governance, we must strive for cost-effectiveness. While in business, the bottom line is the profit margin; in governance, frugality and effective management of resources will always be priority. Operating within available resources means not spending frivolously or borrowing carelessly.
What is your understanding of what Anambra State needs at this point of its historical evolution as a state?
Anambra as a state should be first amongst equals. We have the financial and human capital resources. We are an oil producing state. Historically, Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka, the so-called ONA-axis defaults naturally to commerce, industry and enterprise. We need to leverage on these core areas. We are mindful that there are problems which are peculiar to Anambra. Therefore, those governance needs peculiar to Anambra must be accorded the highest priority. There will be less window dressing. We will consult broadly; and listen to advice and superior logic. We shall also walk the talk!
In 2003, a governorship aspirant asked whether Anambra state is cursed or the people are the cause of its value disorientation, after 20 years of democracy. What do you think will be the probable answer to that poser?
It was His Excellency Peter Obi that asked that question. Anambra is not cursed. The value disorientation you refer to pervades the entire nation. In response, we will continue to rejig our mindset and our priorities. There are core values that must e respected and upheld at all times. Leadership is by example, and I’m sorry to say that some of our past leaders have not exactly been exemplary
Also in 2017 some other individual said Anambra is not broken and needs no mending. Is the state truly not broken and needs not be mended?
Those remarks are attributable to the incumbent, Governor Charles Soludo. Interestingly, he is either struggling or working hard now to fix a state he said was not broken. There are inherent contradictions or elements of deceit and mischief at play. Today, he is focusing on infrastructure at the expense of peace, security and quality of life in Anambra. He promised the people Dubai and Taiwan, and delivered zilch.
Anambra has 326 wards and 21 LGs, what could be the best strategy to pursue rural development?
Governor Peter Obi developed and bequeathed to his successors an optimal governance model, called ANIDS. The model was aligned to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That blueprint remains available as the best option and model for developing the 21 local government areas and 179 communities of Anambra State simultaneously.
Read Also: UNESCO co-chair seeks conflict management skills for Nigerians to reduce violence
In terms of prioritisation, from the word go, what will be the major attention of your administration?
Well, I have my seven-point pivotal development goals, SHEEEMS. This stands for Security, Health, Education, Economy, Environment, Market, and Social Welfare.
All these things are interwoven. None is more important. As long as we invest in security, then other things will come into place. People will find it easy to come.
But, as a matter of fact, we are going to, in fact, the closest to what we want to do is to improve on where His Excellency Peter Obi stopped with his ANIDS scheme, which is developing the entire environment simultaneously. So all these pivotal development goals, none is more important than the other. They are all interwoven.
On the topical issue of food production and transiting to agribusiness, not much has been heard about Anambra State in the area of food production and food processing. What would be the attitude of your government to food production and food processing?
I’m aware that today, African Development Bank (ADB) has a project they initiated some years ago with the blessing of the Federal Government of Nigeria in terms of SAP, that is Special Agricultural Processing Zone, for which Anambra State is among the 11 states that have been approved.
We are lucky as a state to have our own son, in the person of Dr Chuma Ezedimma, to be in charge of that project for the entire Nigeria. So, today, Anambra State is one of the beneficiaries. They are getting $40million from African Development Bank.
And, as a matter of fact, on top of that, AfroExim Bank has given an equity of $200million in what we call, Anambra State Mixed-Economic Development Zone, which is sited in Ogbodi, towards, around Orumba South.
So, all these thing are because of my knowledge of this, agriculture is a place that we put our major focus. The airport we have in Anambra State is called Cargo Airport. So, we must invest more money in the Anambra North, create roads in the zone, build up the silos, create the off-takers and whatever.
As a matter of fact, we can go back towards the M.I. Opara era, where as a start, my government will give the farm inputs to the farmers, give them the seed funds, get the tractors and whatever, and give them free services for the first one year.
So, based on that, in the second year from the money spent, they will now take it up and start paying for all these services. So that way that our airport will be a real Cargo Airport for exports. Apart from Anambra State, we must collaborate with Kogi State, so that we work together to generate enough revenue for the people.
Security is a key challenge in the state, because the current knee-jerk or kick-and-move approach seems ineffective. How do you think the trend can be reversed so that communities will have a hold of their space?
What is being done is not working and it can never work. It has never worked anywhere. Today, we are talking of technology. You must marry technology vis-à-vis the conventional security system. You must train the conventional security men, pay them well, equip them with the right modern paraphernalia.
Then we have to apply the use of technology in areas of command and control centre, putting Artificial Intelligence, power, CCTV, in the key locations of our state, especially Onitsha, Nnewi, Ikolobia, Awka, the state capital.
And then, our airport, it is unbelievable that our airport, the only airport we have in the state, has no CCTV. So we don’t know who comes in, who goes out. As a matter of fact, the people we are fighting may be coming in through that with ammunitions and going away.
So, talking about security, again light is a major factor. If you light up the state, then 50% of the security problem is solved.
I remember that His Excellency Peter Obi, during his term, was involved in a Public-Private Partnership to build a power plant in Onitsha, which is a major industrial centre for our state.
I don’t know what has become of that. We are going to revive that and make sure that there is electricity in the state. With that, we will light up the cities overnight, and I can bet you 50% of security will be solved.
Without security, you can’t talk of bringing in both foreign and local investors. The state must be secured before anybody can do any meaningful thing in the state.
States like Kogi and Kebbi have doing things about inland transportation. What do you think could be done to harness this area?
Anambra State is endowed with natural resources. We have the Niger River, we have the Orashi River, bordering around the Ihiala, those areas. In fact, apart from water transportation, we will look at light rail, linking Onitsha to Nnewi.
Onitsha as the commercial centre of the state, Nnewi is the industrial hub, and Awka is the administrative capital to link them round with these things in the first instance.
And then linking the state down to Port Harcourt, linking Imo, Abia State down to Port Harcourt so that in order to improve the commercial activities of our people, people who import goods can be cleared at an Onne Port in Rivers State, and then transport it through the waterways down to Onitsha.
So what can be done with the waterways is enormous so it is part of the, in fact, by the time we release our manifesto in the coming weeks, you will see that it is well captured in part of the things we have to do.
Among health, education, food production, infrastructural expansion and ease of doing business, which should occupy the priority attention for sustainable development?
Each sector is vital and constitutes an integral building block to effective governance and sustainable development. Each sector requires an enabling environment to thrive. Ease of doing business will facilitate investors confidence, be they foreign or domestic investors. Investors bring in capital and create employment opportunities. Each sector working optimally translates to sustainable development.
What is the place of integrity and pedigree in leadership recruitment?
Integrity is like pregnancy. You are either pregnant or not. You either have integrity or you don’t. If you lose your integrity, it’s like a miscarriage. There is hardly any recovery. Pedigree is a given. If you have it and protect it, there will always be benefits. Integrity and pedigree work in tandem in leadership recruitment. But, above all, we must restore faith and trust in our leaders. The distrust gap between our leaders and the led remain quite wide.
With the benefit of hindsight, would you say Nigeria’s Electoral Act or the electoral umpire is to blame for the less than excellent outcome of the 2023 general elections?
INEC manifested fully the weakness of our national institutions. Its handling of the 2023 general elections was suboptimal. As an umpire, the blame for the less than stellar performance and the resultant electoral outcome rests squarely with that institution.
In the last two years, from your understanding, would you say Nigeria is on the right course or merely moving round a circle in terms of governance and managing the economy?
The past two years have come with real challenges. While the president and his team have shown commitment through certain reforms, gaps in execution have held back the results Nigerians hoped for. With better coordination and a more aligned strategy, there’s still strong potential to move the country forward.
What is your take about the calls for political restructuring of Nigeria?
Yes, I am. We need to restructure to stabilize and develop fully. Our present structure has made the nation dysfunctional and our federalism very weak. Power ad resource sharing remains contentious. If need be, let us formalize the seven political zones structure. Each zone has some comparative advantage that they enjoy and can bring to the table. The present over-centralized power structure weakens the zones and states; clearly, most feel there is no equity.
Despite the Federal government and Supreme Court’s ruling on fiscal autonomy of Local Government councils, it is apparent that state governors are still fiddling with council funds. Is that a problem to you?
That is correct. By fiddling with Local Government funds, the concerned state governors disobey existing Court orders and provisions of the 1999 Constitution. The 1976 Local Government reform made the Local Governments the third tier of government and a federating unit.
I believe certain provisions of the 1999 Constitution also provides the LGs with legislative and statutory powers similar to those of the federal and state governments. Local Government autonomy gives them the discretion to regulate their affairs. The aim is to promote rapid grassroots development.
Nigerians blame state governors for the poor democratic culture in the country, as a governorship hopeful what would be your attitude towards grassroots governance at the LGs?
Governance is simply about expeditious and sustainable service delivery. I am bringing into governance a commitment to best practices and efficient service delivery with our Security, Health, Education, Economy, Environment, Markets and Social Welfare (SHEEEMS) governance platform. We will replicate and improve on Peter Obi’s ANIDS governance model. Most of our leaders no longer have the fear of God. So, they make promises they don’t intend to keep and siphon public resources that are not theirs. I offer, with all humility, a different approach to governance. Our governance performances will always be grassroots friendly, benchmarked and measurable.