Prof. Uche Ikonne is the immediate Vice Chancellor of the Abia State University, Uturu and the governorship candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in next year’s election in Abia State. In this interview with reporters in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, Prof Ikonne speaks about issues that will dominate the Abia governorship, including highlights of his manifesto. Correspondent SUNNY NWANKWO reports
What do you have to say about the controversy surrounding the payment of COVID-19 fees during your term as ABSU VC?
I decided to bear the responsibility for that unfortunate incident, but it was a consensus decision which involved even the students. They appeared before the Senate and made their presentation. The staff and non-teaching staff unions were invited and they made their presentations. It was taken to Council and the government and it was approved. Students held a parley with the government at the Exco Chamber and they all agreed. I know who escalated the matter; he has come to apologize to me. He said that he made 2.1. That he applied for a job and that he was never employed and that was why he got his men to escalate it. But I am not blaming anybody for that. I bear responsibility; that is the burden of leadership. Thank God it was not implemented, but it was with good intentions and it was not compulsory for every student. It was mere propaganda.
When was the last time you paid salary as the ABSU vice-chancellor?
I paid salary up to April 2020 before COVID-19 came. But, by October, I signed the salary for May because by then, the school was closed down; there was no internally generated revenue (IGR). ASUU had gone on strike before the closure of all institutions in the country. Some federal institutions even at the moment have not completed payment of salaries for that period. We depend on IGR. When the students are away and there are no academic activities, where will I get IGR to pay salary? But, before I left, I signed salary which was paid in October for May. Because of COVID-19, when I handed over, it was five months in arrears.
How are you going to accommodate the interest of the stakeholders within your party if you become governor?
You will have to work with people, no matter their idiosyncrasies. If you are educated and you know that people are created with different gifts and all that, you will know how to manage them. Effective leadership is the ability to harness all the potentials that people have to achieve the desired objective. Nobody went to the school of politics; nobody graduated as a grassroots politician. It is their behavioural pattern and our capacity as a leader is to galvanize and work with them. We work by committee system in the university. We have professors from different disciplines, who have different perceptions of the world. But, you need to work with them as chairman of the Senate because the Senate operates by committee. No one knows it all in the university; that is the background that I have come with. I can look at each person’s character. Each person must be useful but be focused on your objective. I know that there are people who don’t have any other job; they don’t have any second address. They are the people running about now. My administration will create avenues for them to benefit without changing focus on what we want to do for Abians. Abians are my priority; service to the people. Anybody who distracts me from serving Abians is playing with my integrity and I cannot play with my integrity at this point in my career development, I will not do that. I owe the office to Abians and with my moral integrity, I will satisfy everybody. But, I will not allow anybody to distract me from doing what I want to do.
There are fears that you will be Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s stooge. What is your comment on this?
Everybody came from somewhere. There is nobody that went and bought a form on his own; it is either a group of friends came together or corporate individuals decide to buy the form for you. Philosophers said that success without a successor is a failure. Nobody wakes up to choose someone that will be his or her successor. Anybody who is saying that an academic of international repute like me is coming to be a surrogate to somebody is only abusing intellectual capacity. People should be wondering why I had the support of the governor when he has other people around him. I think that Abians should give him credit. The governor has said to people around him that if he was interested in choosing someone that will come and serve him, he will not have chosen Ikonne.
I had a working relationship with him when I was both the Rector of the Abia State Polytechnic and ABSU VC and he knows how I carry out my duties respectfully while achieving the purpose. He is a man with great intellectual capacity and native wisdom, and none of us is more Abian than he is. The governor wants somebody who will do what perhaps circumstances within that period could not allow him; somebody that he knows and one that he will be proud of, somebody who when he (the governor) gets to Abuja and looks back at his state, he will thank God that he made a good choice. But, the idea of being a stooge to Governor Ikpeazu when I am elected into office come 2023 should not even be thought of. You know that before this time, I was the chairman of the health regulatory body in Nigeria appointed by an APC president. I have chaired international committees involving experts from all over the world. So, please, these things depend on the character. I am not saying that it is not possible to bring in a surrogate, but if you want to bring a surrogate, you get the character of somebody you know that will obey you and begin to allow you to lead him by the nose. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, having been an academic, will not choose a former vice chancellor that he will be remote-controlling. Abians should dismiss that from their minds. I am here to defend the integrity of the academics all over the world for which I have represented at the highest echelon. I am here to defend the moral justification of an informed mind all over the world. I am here to also defend the philosophy of the incumbent governor who encouraged my candidacy because he wants a better society and he has hoped for somebody who has the character, competence and courage to move Abia forward.
Your plan to create Aba Authority has been criticised because it will clash with the Enyimba Economic City. What’s your comment on that?
They are two different things. The Enyimba Economic City is a huge deal that will affect the economy of the nation because it has an international outlook; it is being financed by international investors. About 99 hectares of land has been mapped out for it and it stands on its own. It has nothing to do with the Aba main town. The Enyimba Economic City will not encompass all that Aba is known for; it will not drive away entrepreneurs and other businesses in the city. We are going to develop our town and when Enyimba Economic City takes off, it will have its section. It will be a complimentary effort if we develop Aba through the Aba Development Authority.
Read Also: Ikonne: ‘I will not be Ikpeazu’s stooge’
How are you going to deal with the issue of pension arrears and gratuities?
There is a government in power that has almost six months to complete its tenure. I don’t know what will happen between now and then. Until I assume office, I don’t know if they will hand over the arrears to me. But if I inherit salary and pension arrears, I will clear them within six months of my administration because we will prioritize clearing them. More importantly, we will do some diagnosis; we need to find out the challenges that lead to the accumulation of debts. Of course, you know that our system is bedevilled with corruption and you can’t rule out that as a factor for the accumulation of debts. We will make efforts to clear the genuine indebtedness.
You talked about unifying Abia. Is Abia divided?
Abia is not divided. What I meant is that, this dichotomy of Old Aba and Old Bende which influences the choice of what we do. Some people are seeing me as an Ngwa man. They are not seeing my capacity to develop the state. There is no physical dividing line, but psychologically we see ourselves as different people, and it is the elites that do this. There is an age-long prejudice that we have harboured. I will unify Abia by making sure that things including appointments are evenly distributed across the state. There will be no preferential treatment, that way everybody will see one another as one.
There is controversy over the new Government House. What is your view?
Already, a Government House is being built and the governor said that he will move in there before he leaves office, even if it is for one day. I will start with whatever I meet on the ground. There is an existing Government House that has been used by successive administrations. When we come in, we will see what can be done; whether we can build the Abia City, the Government House, the Legislative House or Judiciary Quarters. In the meantime, whatever I inherit, I will use; we are inheriting both liabilities and assets.
What is your plan for the health sector?
The other day, I addressed the Nigerian Medical Council. They were talking about tertiary health institutions; Teaching Hospitals… I told them, that is not what I am doing. We have to change the health practices of our people; public health. That is where participatory governance comes in. By the last record that I checked, they said that they have over 1,337 health centres scattered over the state. The question is what happens in each of those health centres, especially those that are in rural areas. What is the professional certification of the people who work in those areas? What basic equipment can be found in those health centres? What baseline services can they afford in those places; can they perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on those who faint in those villages?
I built a health centre in my village. Any day that I drive to that place, it is like a ghost town. I know the equipment that I put in that place. The community doesn’t care; they don’t ask questions. Nobody comes to find out whether the nurses posted there come to work or not. That is why I said that I will get communities involved in whatever government project that is their place and that is how we promote primary health care. Primary health care is not about building structure, but educating people on health practices that are good for their health. In the civilized world, you have public conveniences; it creates employment and also generates revenue that is primary health care. We will emphasize preventive, rather than curative measures.
What plans do you have for education?
I intend to build a standard model secondary school in each senatorial zone with staff quarters and student hostels. Private schools are doing well, but I am not running a purely capitalist system; I am running a social capitalist system because I need to protect the other members of society by mitigating elements of extreme profiteering in the system. I also know from my research that what is lacking in most public schools is effective supervision. You can’t compare the certification of trained teachers in public schools with teachers in private schools. The problem is management which includes close supervision. Many families cannot afford the fees of private schools; we will find a way of bridging the gap to give our people quality education.